Working with Text

Working with Text

This document provides the basics for different methods of practice working with Text within the Doodly software or video design. It demonstrates good and bad practices when working with text and images in a video design.

Note: Readable text is very important to a doodle or other video production. Ensuring viewers can read and understand the message inside a video production is a key point for viewers to stick around and finish watching the entire video and hearing the entire message.

Too Much Text

Unless we are reaching out to the hearing impaired, having too much text on a doodle makes the viewer work for the content. Be clear and concise in your point. Put yourself in the viewers shoes. After working a full day and being extremely tired from work, would you rather read this:

• Welcome to this famous product where we tell you how to make a gabillion dollars in 1 day with no effort from anything you do. With this world renowned famous system that is keeping people from working as slaves and saving lives, you can make a gabillion dollars too, in one day. We all want to know about how this famous system works…. (are you tired of reading this yet? So are your potential viewers.)
  OR
• Greatest Product Ever will net
  A GABILLION DOLLARS IN 1 DAY!
  No Effort & Easy Money

Color and Size

• When using text in a video design, size matters and so does color. If using a dark grey text on a black background, this will not be easily seen by the viewer. Use a contrasting color that is not hard on the eyes. Using bright neon green on a black background may not be the best option when trying to keep someone’s attention in your video.
• Color matters on images as well. Using a black title on a darker image doesn’t work well.

Backgrounds

It is okay to use an opaque background behind your text to make your text pop but also keep in mind that this will immediately draw the viewer’s eye to it and away from where the focus may be desired so overuse is not recommended.

Focus

Use colored text, backgrounds and text size sparingly to draw your viewer’s attention to a specific area in your doodle for that scene but if there is too much of this then we will lose the viewer’s focus within the doodle and potentially lose the viewer altogether.

Alignment Controls within Doodly

These controls only appear if you have more than 1 line of text within your text box area. If the text is not long enough then we will not see these controls.

Stretching Bounding Text Box

The only time Doodly allows a disproportionate control is stretching the bounding box text area on the canvas left and right. This motion will not affect the text size but allow for a longer text box in order to fit more text on 1 line. Dragging the bounding box up, down or diagonal will result in increasing or decreasing the size of the text.