Moviepy is a versatile Python library that allows you to work with videos programmatically. One of its many functions is the ability to add text to videos, which can be useful for creating subtitles, captions, or adding any kind of textual information to your videos.

In this blog post, we will explore how to use Moviepy to add text to videos in Python.

Step 1: Installing Moviepy

Before we can start using Moviepy, we need to install it. Open your terminal and run the following command:

pip install moviepy

Make sure you have Python and pip installed on your machine.

Step 2: Importing the necessary libraries

Once Moviepy is installed, we can import it into our Python script along with other necessary libraries. Open your favorite text editor or IDE and create a new Python script. Then, import the following libraries:

from moviepy.editor import *

Step 3: Loading the video file

To add text to a video, we first need to load the video file. We can do this using the VideoFileClip class from Moviepy. Here’s an example:

video = VideoFileClip("path/to/video.mp4")

Replace “path/to/video.mp4” with the actual path to your video file.

Step 4: Adding text to the video

Now that we have loaded the video, we can add text to it. Moviepy provides the TextClip class for this purpose. Here’s an example:

text = TextClip("Hello, World!", fontsize=50, color='white', bg_color='black')

In this example, we create a TextClip object with the text “Hello, World!”. We can customize the fontsize, color, and background color according to our preferences.

Step 5: Setting the position of the text

By default, Moviepy places the text in the center of the video. However, we can specify the position of the text using the TextClip’s set_position() method. Here’s an example:

text = text.set_position(("center", "top"))

In this example, we set the position of the text at the top-center of the video.

Step 6: Overlaying the text on the video

Now that we have the video and the text, we can overlay the text on the video using the CompositeVideoClip class. Here’s an example:

final_video = CompositeVideoClip([video, text])

Step 7: Saving the final video

Finally, we can save the modified video with the added text using the write_videofile() method. Here’s an example:

final_video.write_videofile("path/to/final_video.mp4")

Replace “path/to/final_video.mp4” with the desired path and filename for your modified video.

Conclusion

Moviepy provides a simple and efficient way to add text to videos in Python. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can easily add text to your own videos and customize various aspects of the text, such as position, color, and background color.

Give Moviepy a try and empower your videos with informative and captivating text additions!