FFmpeg drawtext: Change Font Style, Size, and Color

This article provides a straightforward guide on how to customize text overlays in FFmpeg using the drawtext video filter. You will learn the exact parameters required to modify the font family, adjust the text size, and apply custom colors to create professional-looking subtitles, watermarks, or text overlays on your videos.

The drawtext filter in FFmpeg uses specific parameters to control the appearance of text. To customize the style, size, and color, you will use the fontfile (or font), fontsize, and fontcolor parameters within your filter chain.

1. Changing the Font Style

To change the font style, you must point FFmpeg to a font file on your system using the fontfile parameter. This parameter accepts absolute paths to TrueType (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf) files.

If your FFmpeg installation is compiled with fontconfig support, you can alternatively use the font parameter followed by the font’s system name (e.g., font='Arial').

Using a specific font file path: fontfile='/path/to/Arial.ttf'
Using system font name (requires fontconfig): font='Courier New'

2. Changing the Font Size

To adjust the size of the text, use the fontsize parameter. This value is defined as an integer representing the font size in pixels.

Example: fontsize=48

3. Changing the Font Color

To modify the text color, use the fontcolor parameter. FFmpeg supports color names (such as white, red, blue, yellow), 6-digit hexadecimal values (prefixed with 0x or #), or hexadecimal values with alpha transparency channels.

Using color names: fontcolor=yellow
Using hexadecimal values: fontcolor=0xFF5733
Using color with opacity (80% white): fontcolor=white@0.8

Complete Command Example

To put these parameters together, apply the -vf (video filter) flag followed by the drawtext arguments separated by colons.

Here is a complete command that overlays the text “Sample Video Text” in 48px, bold yellow Arial font, positioned at coordinates (x=100, y=100):

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "drawtext=text='Sample Video Text':fontfile='/Library/Fonts/Arial Bold.ttf':fontsize=48:fontcolor=yellow:x=100:y=100" -codec:a copy output.mp4

Adding Borders and Background Boxes (Optional)

To make your customized text more readable against complex video backgrounds, you can also add borders or a solid background box:

Add a text border: Use borderw (border width) and bordercolor.
```
borderw=2:bordercolor=black
```
Add a background box: Use box=1 and boxcolor.
```
box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5:boxborderw=10
```