Inky ClipsOn TikTok, the first second decides whether someone keeps watching. Text that visibly writes itself is one of the few things that moves in that first second without a cut, which is why handwritten hooks work so well. The catch is that TikTok covers a good part of the screen with its own buttons and caption, and a phone held at arm’s length shows your text far smaller than your editor does. This guide covers the framing, placement and timing that survive the app.
The clip shows “Wait for the ending” written in Script Bold.
Ink: White
Start in 9:16
TikTok is built for vertical video, 1080 × 1920 pixels. Inky Clips writes onto your video at its own size and exports at the same size, and it doesn’t crop or reframe. So the simplest rule is to start with a clip filmed vertically on your phone. If you want a text-only video, such as a quote or a list, click New blank video, choose Portrait 9:16 and set the Length (up to 60 seconds). For a still image behind the text, use Photo to video with a vertical photo; it keeps the photo’s shape.
If your footage is landscape, crop it to 9:16 in another editor first and then bring the cropped file in. Inky Clips has no crop or reframe tool.
Safe zones: where TikTok covers your video
TikTok doesn’t publish a fixed template, and the overlay changes between app versions and with longer captions, but the covered areas are consistent enough to plan around:
- The bottom fifth or so holds your username, the caption, and the sound name.
- A strip down the right edge holds the like, comment, save and share buttons and your profile picture.
- The top tenth holds the Following / For You tabs and the search icon.
That leaves a generous area in the middle, slightly left of centre. Inky Clips centres new text horizontally and keeps it within 90% of the frame’s width, which is already mostly clear of the right-hand buttons; the thing to watch is height. Drag the text so it sits somewhere between a quarter and two thirds of the way down.
Step by step
Start from a vertical video
Open a clip filmed in 9:16, or click New blank video and choose Portrait 9:16 for a 1080 × 1920 canvas. Inky Clips exports at the video's own size, so the shape you start with is the shape you get.
Write the hook first
Put the playhead at 0:00, click Add text and type a short hook. Keep Draw time around one to one and a half seconds.
Keep it inside the safe zone
Drag the text into the upper-middle of the frame, away from the bottom fifth and the right edge where TikTok draws its buttons and caption.
Make it readable on a phone
Set Size to about 8–12% and turn on Outline so the ink reads over any background.
Move captions up if you use them
Auto captions start near the bottom. Drag them up to around two thirds of the way down so TikTok's caption text doesn't sit on top of them.
Export and upload
Click Export, then Download MP4 and upload the file in the TikTok app or on the web.
Size and weight for a phone screen
Size is a share of the frame’s height. On a vertical video, 8–12% reads comfortably for a hook of a few words; below about 6% the text turns into texture. Thin single-line pens look elegant on a laptop and spidery on a phone, so raise Line width a little, or choose a heavier pen such as Script Bold from the Handwriting group or Sans Bold from Subtitles. Turn on Outline whenever the background moves; it puts a contrasting edge around the ink so it reads over anything.
Timing for people who scroll
- Start writing at 0:00. Put the playhead at the start before you click Add text; new text begins at the playhead.
- Keep the hook’s Draw time short, around one to one and a half seconds. People should be able to read it before they’ve decided to scroll.
- Pick an Easing that lands. Ease out writes fast and settles, which feels decisive for a hook.
- Let it stay, or get out of the way. With Hold until the end on, the hook stays for the whole video. Turn it off and set Fade out at if later text needs the space.
- Stagger a list. For “three things I wish I knew”, add one text per point, each starting where the previous one finishes writing.
Captions too
Most TikTok viewers watch with the sound off at least some of the time. The editor’s auto captions write each word in time with the speech, in more than 60 languages, without uploading your video anywhere. See word-by-word captions for how to set them up and restyle them all at once. The bold fonts in the Subtitles group, including TikTok Sans, are made for exactly this; you can compare them in the font gallery.
Upload
Export gives you an MP4 with your original sound. Send it to your phone and upload it in the TikTok app, or upload it at tiktok.com from the computer. Because the text is part of the picture, it looks exactly the same on every phone, and it will still be there if you post the same file to Reels or Shorts.