How To Edit Text In Template After Effects

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About text layers

You tin can add text to a composition using text layers. Text layers are useful for many purposes, including blithe titles, lower thirds, credit rolls, and dynamic typography.

You tin can breathing the properties of unabridged text layers or the properties of individual characters, such as colour, size, and position. You animate text using text animator properties and selectors. 3D text layers tin can optionally incorporate 3D sublayers, one for each grapheme. (See Animate text with text animators and Per-character 3D text backdrop.)

Text layers are synthetic layers, meaning that a text layer does not apply a footage particular equally its source—though you tin convert text information from some footage items into text layers. Text layers are also vector layers. As with shape layers and other vector layers, text layers are ever continuously rasterized, then when you scale the layer or resize the text, it retains crisp, resolution-independent edges. You lot cannot open up a text layer in its own Layer panel, but you tin work with text layers in the Composition console.

Later Effects uses ii kinds of text: betoken text and paragraph text. Point text is useful for inbound a single word or a line of characters; paragraph text is useful for entering and formatting the text as one or more paragraphs.

Text layers: Vertical and horizontal point text (left), and paragraph text in a bounding box (right) — Vertical and horizontal indicate text (left), and paragraph text in a bounding box (right)

Yous tin can copy text from other applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, or any text editor, and paste it into a text layer in After Effects. Considering After Effects besides supports Unicode characters, yous can copy and paste these characters betwixt After Effects and any other application that likewise supports Unicode (which includes all Adobe applications).

Text formatting is included in the Source Text holding. Use the Source Text belongings to breathing formatting and to change the characters themselves (for case, alter the letter b to the letter c).

After Effects automatically synchronizes missing fonts using the available fonts. The Resolve Fonts dialog is displayed when you open a project that uses fonts that are not installed. If the fonts are available from Adobe, you tin choose to have them automatically synced to your Creative Cloud account and installed. After Furnishings replaces fonts that are not available online with the default font.

With the Apr 2017 release of Subsequently Furnishings CC, installing After Effects does not install a set of fonts. The aforementioned fonts installed with previous versions of Later Effects, such as Adobe Myriad Pro, are available equally part of your Artistic Cloud subscription through Adobe Fonts.

Sequential frames in which Source Text has been animated

Best practices for creating text and vector graphics for video

Text that looks skilful on your computer screen every bit you lot are creating information technology can sometimes look bad when viewed in a concluding output movie. These differences can arise from the device used to view the movie or from the pinch scheme used to encode the movie. The same is true for other vector graphics, such every bit shapes in shape layers. In fact, the same problems can occur in raster images, merely the small-scale and precipitous details of vector graphics cause the bug most ofttimes.

Keep in mind the following as y'all create and animate text and vector graphics for video:

You should always preview your movie on the aforementioned kind of device that your audience use to view it, such equally an NTSC video monitor. (See Preview on an external video monitor.)
Avoid sharp color transitions, specially from one highly saturated colour to its complementary color. Abrupt color transitions are difficult for many compression schemes—such as the compression schemes in MPEG and JPEG standards—to encode. These compression schemes can crusade visual noise almost sharp transitions. For analog television, the aforementioned abrupt transitions tin cause spikes outside the allowed range for the bespeak, also causing dissonance.
When text will exist over moving images, make sure that the text has a contrasting border (such every bit a glow or a stroke) and so that the text is notwithstanding readable when something the aforementioned color as the fill passes backside the text.
Avert thin horizontal elements, which can vanish from the frame if they happen to exist on an even browse line during an odd field, or vice versa. The meridian of the horizontal bar in a capital H, for example, should exist three pixels or greater. You tin thicken horizontal elements by increasing font size, using a bold (or faux bold) style, or applying a stroke. (See Formatting characters with the Character panel.)
When animating text to movement vertically—for scrolling credits, for example—move the text vertically at a rate in pixels per second that is an even multiple of the field rate for the interlaced video format. Such a charge per unit of motion prevents a kind of twitter that can come from the text motion existence out of stage with the scan lines. For NTSC, good values include 0, 119.88, and 239.76 pixels per second; for PAL, good values include 0, 100, and 200 pixels per 2d.

Apply the Autoscroll - Vertical blitheness preset in the Behaviors category to quickly create a vertical text clamber (for example, a credit whorl).

To avoid the risk of twitter that comes with vertical motility, thin graphical elements, and fields, consider presenting credits as a sequence of blocks of text separated by transitions, such as opacity fades.

Fortunately, many problems with text in video and compressed motion picture formats can be solved with ane simple technique: Apply a blur to the text layer. A slight mistiness can soften color transitions and crusade thin horizontal elements to expand. The Reduce Interlace Flicker effect works all-time for the purpose of reducing twitter; it applies a vertical directional mistiness only doesn't blur horizontally, so information technology degrades the image less than other blurs.

Philip Hodgetts provides tips on the Creative Moo-cow website for getting the all-time results when creating text or vector graphics for video.

Scripts and expressions for working with text

This department documents scripting methods for working with text, and includes links to popular scripts and tutorials.

Create one or multiple text layers based on the contents of a text file

Christopher Dark-green provides a script (crg_Text_from_File.jsx) on his website that allows you lot to create one text layer from all of the text, or y'all can create one layer for each line in the text file. The script also provides options for leading and other spacing.

Scripting access to text baselines

Yous can read the baseline (x,y) locations for a text layer using scripting with the After Effects CC 2015 (13.6) update. The new sourceText.value.baselineLocs attribute for TextDocument objects returns an assortment of floats indicating the starting position of each line of text's baseline x and y value.

Line wraps in a paragraph text box are treated as multiple lines.

The array returns float values in the class of:

line0.start_x, line0.start_y, line0.end_x, line0.end_y, line1.start_x, line1.start_y, line1.end_x, line1.end_y … lineN-ane.start_x, lineN-1.start_y, lineN-one.end_x, lineN-1.end_y

If a line has no characters, the ten and y values for commencement and end are the maximum float value (3.402823466e+38F).

Scripting improvements for text layers

Y'all tin can read boosted data through scripting virtually the font and style used in a text layer, including the location of the font file on disk.

Following are the read-only attributes for the textDocument object:

fontLocation: returns string with path of font file, providing its location on disk (not guaranteed to be returned for all font types; render value may be empty cord for some kinds of fonts)
fontStyle: returns string with fashion information —such equally bold, or italic
fontFamily: returns a string with the name of the font family

The value returned is for the first graphic symbol in the text layer at the current time.

Edit source text of text layers

This script displays a palette for editing the text of text layers in an unstyled form. If your text layer uses a complex animation, or is difficult to access or is hidden at the current time, editing the text when not animated or manner can be useful.

Download this script from Jeff Almasol's website: Redifinery.

Map text file to markers

This script maps lines from a text file every bit Source Text keyframes on the selected text layer at successive markers on the layer. You can control the text line to use by entering a line number as the marker's annotate.

Download this script from Jeff Almasol'south website: Redifinery.

Get smart

This script displays a palette with controls for fixing various "obviously text" punctuation into their "smart" typographical representations (for example, (c) is converted to the copyright symbol, ©).

Download this script from Jeff Almasol'southward website: Redefinery.

Other scripts for working with text

Todd Kopriva provides an example script on the Adobe website that demonstrates the text formatting features available through the scripting interface.

Salahuddin Taha provides a script on the Afterward Furnishings Scripts website that enables entry of Arabic text (which flows from correct to left).

Michael Cardeiro provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that makes multiple versions of your compositions using data from a spreadsheet or database. The script goes through your spreadsheet line past line, making a new version of your limerick with text layers in the composition receiving text from the spreadsheet automatically.

The Afterward Effects Scripts website provides many scripts for working with text. Paul Tuersley provides a script on the After Furnishings Scripts website that allows you to search for and edit text layers throughout your Afterwards Effects project, create your own text style presets, and employ them to multiple layers.

Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum for importing Substation Alpha (SSA) karaoke files and automatically creating blithe text layers from them.

For examples of expressions for the Source Text property, come across Writing expressions for source text and MarkerKey attributes (expression reference).

Enter point text

When you enter point text, each line of text is independent—the length of a line increases or decreases as you edit the text, just it doesn't wrap to the next line.

The pocket-size line through the type tool arrow marks the position of the text baseline. For horizontal text, the baseline marks the line on which the text rests; for vertical text, the baseline marks the centre centrality of the characters.

When you enter point text, it is created using the properties currently prepare in the Character panel. You tin change these properties after by selecting the text and modifying settings in the Character console.

Do 1 of the post-obit to create a text layer:

Choose Layer > New > Text. A new text layer is created and an insertion point for the Horizontal Blazon tool appears in the centre of the Composition panel.

Double-click a Blazon tool. A new text layer is created and an insertion bespeak for the appropriate type tool appears in the eye of the Composition panel.

The pointer for a type tool changes depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer is not directly over a text layer, it appears as a new text pointer; click to create a new text layer. Shift-click always creates a new text layer.

Enter text characters past typing. Printing Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Render (Mac Os) to begin a new line.

You can also cull Edit > Paste to paste text that you take copied from any awarding that uses Unicode characters. Text receives the formatting of the first graphic symbol in the text layer into which information technology is pasted.

To end text-editing style, printing Enter on the numeric keypad, select another tool, or press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac OS).

Enter paragraph text

When y'all enter paragraph text, the lines of text wrap to fit the dimensions of the bounding box. Y'all can enter multiple paragraphs and apply paragraph formatting.

You tin resize the bounding box at any time, which causes the text to reflow within the adjusted rectangle.

When you enter paragraph text, it has the properties set in the Character and Paragraph panels. Yous tin change these properties later by selecting the text and modifying settings in the Grapheme and Paragraph panels.

Select the Horizontal Type tool or the Vertical Type tool .

Practise one of the following in the Composition console to create a text layer:

Drag to ascertain a bounding box from a corner.

Alt-drag (Windows) or Choice-drag (Mac OS) to define a bounding box effectually a center betoken.

The arrow for a type tool changes depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer is not directly over a text layer, it appears equally a new text pointer; elevate to create a new text layer. Shift-elevate always creates a new text layer.

Enter text by typing. Press Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to begin a new paragraph. Press Shift+Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Shift+Return (Mac Os) to create a soft carriage return, which begins a new line without beginning a new paragraph. If y'all enter more text than can fit in the bounding box, the overflow icon appears on the bounding box.

Yous tin can as well choose Edit > Paste to paste text that y'all have copied from any application that uses Unicode characters. Text receives the formatting of the first character in the text layer into which it is pasted.

To end text-editing style, printing Enter on the numeric keypad, select another tool, or printing Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac Bone).

Select and edit text in text layers

You can edit text in text layers at whatever time. If you lot set the text to follow a path, designate it as a 3D layer, transform it, or animate information technology, yous can still continue to edit it. Before you lot can edit text, you lot must select it.

To disable the Path Options holding group for a text layer, click the visibility (eyeball) switch for the Path Options property group. Temporarily disabling the Path Options property group can brand editing and formatting text easier.

The pointer for a type tool changes, depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition console. When the pointer for a type tool is directly over a text layer, information technology appears as the edit text pointer ; click to identify the insertion indicate in the existing text.

To select text with a blazon tool, practice one of the post-obit:

To select a range of text, elevate over the text.

To select a range of text, click, motility the pointer, and so Shift-click.

To select a word, double-click it. To select a line, triple-click it. To select a paragraph, quadruple-click it. To select all text in a layer, quintuple-click anywhere in the text.

To utilise the arrow keys to select text, hold down Shift and printing the Right Arrow or Left Pointer central. To utilize the arrow keys to select words, hold down Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or Shift+Control (Mac OS) and press the Right Arrow or Left Pointer key.

To select all text in a text layer and actuate the most recently used type tool, double-click the text layer in the Timeline panel.

Online resources for selecting and editing text in text layers

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website for editing the source text of text layers.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that converts various obviously text punctuation into their "smart" typographical representations (for example, (c) is converted to the copyright symbol, ©).

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that sets keyframes for the Source Text belongings of a text layer and sets the values to text from a text file; the keyframes are placed at times specified by layer markers on the text layer.

Resize a text bounding box

With a type tool active, select the text layer in the Composition panel to display the bounding box handles.

Position the arrow over a handle—the pointer turns into a double arrow —and practice 1 of the post-obit:

Drag to resize in 1 management.

Shift-drag to maintain the proportion of the bounding box.

Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Control-drag (Mac Os) to scale from the center.

Move a text layer

You lot can drag with the move pointer in the Composition panel to move a text layer. To activate the move arrow without leaving text editing way, move the type tool away from the text in the Limerick console; when y'all see the move pointer , drag to move the text. You tin can too hold down the Ctrl (Windows) or Control (Mac OS) key to momentarily activate the move pointer.

Convert betoken or paragraph text

When you convert paragraph text to point text, all characters exterior the bounding box are deleted. To avoid losing text, resize the bounding box so that all text is visible earlier conversion.

Using the Selection tool , select the text layer.

You tin't catechumen the text layer if it's in text-editing mode.

Using a type tool, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac Bone) anywhere in the Composition panel, and choose Convert To Paragraph Text or Convert To Point Text.

When y'all convert from paragraph text to signal text, a carriage return is added at the end of each line of text, except the terminal line.

To display the bounding box of paragraph text and automatically select a type tool, double-click the text layer in the Timeline console.

Expanded text back up

Y'all can type and edit text in correct-to-left writing styles such as Arabic, and Indic writing style such equally Hindi.

Limitations of the right-to-left and Indic text

There are a few limitations to using right-to-left and Indic text systems:

Per-character animation works left-to-right and does non work with glyph characters.

Enable right-to-left and Indic text

To enable right-to-left or Indic text, follow these steps:

Select Preferences > Type.

In the Preferences dialog, modifyText Engine to preferred language.

Changing Languages Selection — Changing Languages Pick

South Asian and Middle Eastern: Works with right-to-left languages such every bit Standard arabic, Hebrew, and Indic languages.
Latin : Works with other languages.

Restart After Furnishings to utilize the changes.

Modify the direction of text

Horizontal text flows from left to right; multiple lines of horizontal text lie from top to bottom. Vertical text flows from top to lesser; multiple lines of text lie from right to left.

Change the direction of text

A. Horizontal point textB. Horizontal point text converted to verticalC. Horizontal paragraph textD. Horizontal paragraph text converted to vertical

Using the Selection tool , select the text layer.

Y'all tin't convert text in text-editing mode.

Using a blazon tool, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) anywhere in the Composition console, and choose Horizontal or Vertical.

You tin switch the text direction between left-to-right and right-to-left. To alter the direction, click the text direction buttons in the Paragraph panel.

Change Text direction — Change Text management

Font ligatures

Ligatures are typographic replacement characters for certain letter pairs if they are available in a given Open Type font. You can use font ligatures by enabling the Ligatures option in the Character panel. Later on Effects has ligatures in many fonts for character combinations in dissimilar languages. You can also enable the choice using theFont Ligature checkbox at the bottom of theGraphic symbol panel.

Hindi digits

You can use Hindi digits use enabling the Hindi Digits option in the Grapheme panel. Y'all tin can also enable the selection using the Hindi Digits checkbox at the bottom of the Character panel.

Convert text from Photoshop to editable text

Text layers from Photoshop retain their manner and remain editable in Subsequently Furnishings.

If you imported the Photoshop document as merged layers, then you must first select the layer and choose Layer > Convert To Layered Comp to decompose the imported Photoshop document into its layers.

Add the Photoshop text layer to your composition and select it.

Choose Layer > Catechumen To Editable Text.

The layer becomes an After Effects text layer and no longer uses the Photoshop text layer as its source footage detail.

If the layer contains layer styles, the layer styles are converted to editable layer styles as if the Layer > Layer Styles > Convert To Editable Styles command had been used on the layer earlier converting the text to editable text.

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