Back to the pack

Glossary

Kinetic typography

Text that moves on purpose, so the motion adds emphasis, rhythm or meaning to the words.

Updated

Kinetic typography is text that moves on purpose: words that slam in, stack, rise through a mask, stretch, or appear on the beat, so the motion adds emphasis, rhythm or meaning to what the words say. It is one of the most common styles in short-form video, because a strong line of text can carry a whole Reel without footage.

In video made with code, kinetic typography is built from a GSAP timeline: each word or line gets a start time, a movement and an ease.

Common techniques

  • Slam: a word arrives fast and big, with a short scale overshoot, often with an impact sound.
  • Word stack: words push in one per beat and stack into a full statement.
  • Mask rise: a line rises into view from behind an invisible edge.
  • Typewriter: letters appear one by one, for tips, code and prompts.
  • Highlighter and strike-through: a marker swipes behind the key word, or a line strikes out the old idea.
  • Beat words: each word lands on a beat of the music.

Rules that keep it readable

  • About 0.3 s of reading time per word, at least 1.2 s per screen.
  • Entrances of 0.25 to 0.6 s, exits faster, 0.15 to 0.3 s.
  • No more than three things starting at the same moment.
  • Headlines at 72 px or more on a 1080-wide canvas, inside the safe zone.
  • One idea per screen. Motion should point at the important word, not decorate every word.

Sound

Kinetic type feels stronger with sound on the arrivals: a short hit on a slam, a soft whoosh on a slide, a pop on a sticker. Put the sound on the frame where the word lands. See adding sound effects on the beat.

Examples in Motion Cheat Code

t01 Kinetic Hook slams three words in and punches in on the last one; t08 Word Stack pushes five words in one per beat into a full-screen statement; t05 Highlighter Quote writes a quote and swipes a marker behind one word. The pack's 30 named animation moves include word rise, slam, typewriter, highlighter and beat words, so a prompt can name a move instead of describing it.

Kinetic type tied to a voice is covered in animated captions for Reels.

To try it yourself, the free starter kit has three prompts in the same format and one template to render.

Questions

Is kinetic typography the same as animated captions?

Animated captions are one kind of kinetic typography, tied to a voice. Kinetic typography also covers titles, hooks and statements where the text itself is the whole video.

How fast can words appear?

Give each word about 0.3 s of reading time and each screen at least 1.2 s. Hooks can move faster, but only when the words are short and big.

Which fonts work best?

Bold, condensed or heavy sans serifs read best at speed on a phone. Keep headlines at 72 px or more on a 1080-wide canvas.