Add and style captions

Descript automatically generates captions from your script, so you don’t need to manually time or sync them. After you add captions, you can style how they look, assign them to specific speakers, and remove them without affecting your script.

This article covers how to:

How captions differ from text layers

Captions follow your script and update automatically when you make edits. Text layers aren't connected to your transcript, though you can display dynamic content like speaker names, or static custom text you enter manually. Learn more about using text layers.

Add a captions layer

  1. Open the right-hand sidebar and click the Captions panel.
  2. Choose where to apply captions: Use the toggle at the top to apply captions to just the current scene or all scenes. Do this before applying a captions style.
  3. Select a captions style from the available options to add a new captions layer. Descript will generate captions based on your script and sync them to the timeline.

Sidebar showing how to add a new captions layer

Convert a text layer to captions

You can also convert any text layer to a captions layer:

  1. Select the text layer, then click the ellipsis button in the selection toolbar.
  2. In the right-hand sidebar, open the Type dropdown and switch from Freeform to Captions.

GIF showing how to convert a text layer to captions

Style your captions

Use the Style section of the Layer panel to customize the look of your captions. Styling changes apply to the selected scene or captions layer.

You can adjust:

  • Font, size, and alignment
  • Text and background colors
  • Borders
  • Styles for active words and future words

Style panel showing text and color settings for captions

Reuse your caption style across projects

Want to use the same caption styling in more than one project? Save your styled captions layer in a custom layout.

Layouts let you reuse design elements, including captions, across any scene in any composition. Once saved, you can apply that layout to future projects with just a few clicks. Learn how to create and apply custom layouts.

Add captions for multiple speakers

Create a separate captions layer for each speaker to make dialogue easier to follow visually.

  1. Click Captions in the right-hand sidebar to add a new layer.
  2. Select the captions layer in the scene or timeline, then open the Layer panel.
  3. Click the options slider icon next to the layer type and choose the speaker from the dropdown.
  4. Repeat for each speaker as needed.

Each captions layer can be styled and positioned independently.

Layer panel showing speaker assignment dropdown for caption layers

Remove captions

To delete a captions layer without affecting your script:

  • Select the captions layer in the scene or timeline.
  • Press Delete on your keyboard, or right-click and choose Delete.