How to add text to a TikTok slideshow (step by step)

To add text to a TikTok slideshow, select your photos, tap Next, then tap the Text button on the side panel of the edit screen. Type your line, hold and drag it to where you want it, then tap Done at the top. Pick a font, tap the colour wheel at the top to set the text and background colour, and add a highlight so the line stays readable over a busy photo. Repeat per slide. To change how long a line stays on screen you need the advanced editor, where you hold and drag the arrow on either side of the text. Every control below is named from TikTok's own Help Center, fetched today.

If you need the whole build first, start with how to make a TikTok slideshow from product photos. If the cover is the problem, use how to change the cover on a TikTok slideshow.

Add text to a slideshow, tap by tap

TikTok documents two text paths, and they are not the same screen. This is the quick one.

1. In the TikTok app, tap the Add post + button at the bottom.
2. Tap Photo, then tap Upload and select your images. Up to 35 photos.
3. Tap Next. This is the edit screen, and TikTok lists filter, sound, text, stickers and crop as what you can do here.
4. Tap the Text button located on the side panel.
5. Type your line, then hold and drag the text to where you want it on the photo. Tap Done at the top to save.
6. Select the font you want. To change the colour of the text and its background, tap the colour wheel at the top. You can also change the alignment and add highlights.
7. To resize, tap the slide, then slide two fingers outward or inward on the text. Tap Done.
8. Swipe to the next photo and repeat.

TikTok also documents deleting text: press and hold the text, move it to the top of the screen until the Delete button appears, then drag it onto Delete and release.

One honesty note. TikTok's text instructions are written for "after recording or uploading a video", and its photo post article lists text as available on the edit screen without naming the control. The Text button and the Done, font, colour wheel, alignment and highlight steps above are TikTok's own wording; the photo-specific screen is not separately documented.

Fonts, colour, and the highlight that keeps text readable

The readability problem on a slideshow is that your text sits on a photo you did not design as a background. A white line over a pale product shot disappears.

TikTok's documented lever for this is on the same screen as the font: tap the colour wheel at the top to customise the colour of your text and its background, and you can add highlights to your text.

That is the whole toolkit. There is no documented drop shadow control, no outline slider, and no opacity setting. If you need a stroke or a soft shadow, you are pre-rendering the text outside the app, which is covered further down.

Two habits that fix most of it:

• Set the highlight before you place the line, not after. The highlight changes the block's footprint, so a line that looked well placed shifts once you add it.
• Keep one font for the whole post. TikTok lets you change font per text box, and changing it mid-slideshow is the fastest way to make a product deck look assembled rather than designed.

Controlling when text appears per slide

This is the section other pages get wrong, so here is the documented position.

TikTok's Help Center documents no control called "Set duration". What it documents is the advanced editing tool, and inside that tool text has a duration you change by dragging.

To reach it, TikTok's steps are:

1. Tap Add post +, then take or upload your content.
2. If you uploaded content, tap Next, then tap the Edit button on the side panel to open the editing tool.
3. From the editing screen, tap Text at the bottom.
4. Enter your text, then tap the Continue button.
5. To move the text in time, hold the text below the video track and move it.
6. To change the duration of the text, hold and drag the arrow on either side to make it shorter or longer.
7. To edit the wording, tap the text on the preview screen, or tap Edit at the bottom.

TikTok also documents duplicating a line: tap the text sticker, or the text below the track, and tap Copy. The copy is inserted directly below the original, which is the fastest way to keep identical styling across slides.

Worth knowing before you spend time on this: duration control is more useful on video than on a photo slideshow, because a viewer swipes at their own pace rather than watching a timeline. For most product slideshows, one line placed per photo is the whole job, and the timing controls are not needed at all.

Safe placement, away from the caption and the button rail

TikTok publishes no fixed safe-zone measurements for organic posts. Any article giving you exact pixel margins invented them.

What TikTok does publish is the guidance for ad creative, and the underlying constraint is the same because the interface overlays sit in the same places. TikTok's ad specifications say: "Do not place any text, logos, or key messages on areas where buttons, usernames, and captions may appear in the in-feed section." Its in-feed specification adds that the safe zone is not a fixed rectangle. It "is determined by the dimension (vertical, horizontal, or square), ad caption length, and any additional formats used", and TikTok's own downloadable safe zone files are the only place the values live.

Read practically for a slideshow:

• The right edge carries the profile picture, like, comment, share and sound controls. Nothing important goes there.
• The bottom carries your username and caption, and it grows upward as the caption gets longer.
• The top carries the feed tabs and the search icon.
• A shorter caption gives your on-slide text more usable room, because TikTok states caption length is one of the inputs to the safe zone.

The one check worth doing every time: save a draft and look at the post in the feed rather than in the editor. The editor preview is not what a viewer sees. You can also check and resize the images themselves against a vertical frame with the TikTok slideshow size guide, or right here.

Pre-rendered text versus in-app text

Both work. They win in different places, and picking by habit rather than by job is where teams lose hours.

In-app text wins when you are testing a hook, fixing wording ten seconds before posting, or making a one-off post. It is fast and it needs no other tool.

Pre-rendered text wins when the same layout runs every week. You get a real type system, an outline or shadow TikTok does not offer, exact repeat placement across posts, and the same asset reusable in paid placements. It also survives TikTok's compression better, because the text is part of the image rather than an overlay rendered at export.

For a product account posting weekly, pre-rendered is usually the default and in-app text is the patch. That is the split worth writing down for whoever operates the account.

Setting type on 20 frames by hand is the part that eats the afternoon. CineRads generates the frames from your product photos and brand assets with the copy already placed, so the in-app work is a caption and a cover. You can also lay out a sequence first in the TikTok slideshow maker.

One line per slide

The format enforces this whether you like it or not. A viewer sets the pace by swiping, so a slide holding two claims gets half-read by fast swipers and skipped by the rest.

Give each slide one job and write one line for it:

• Opening slide: name the problem in the buyer's own words.
• Middle slides: one piece of evidence each. A result, a comparison, a process step.
• Final slide: one ask. Save, shop, or comment. Not all three.

If a line needs a second clause to make sense, it is two slides. Splitting it costs nothing, because you have up to 35.

Match the wording to the image underneath. A line that could sit on any of your photos is not doing work, and it is the most common thing worth deleting on a review pass.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add text to a TikTok slideshow?

On the edit screen, tap the Text button on the side panel, type your line, hold and drag it into place, then tap Done at the top. Pick a font, tap the colour wheel to set colour, and add a highlight if the photo is busy.

Where is Set duration on TikTok?

TikTok's Help Center documents no control by that name. Text timing lives in the advanced editing tool: open it with the Edit button on the side panel, tap Text at the bottom, then hold and drag the arrow on either side of the text to make it shorter or longer.

How do I change the font on TikTok slideshow text?

After you enter the text, select the font on the same screen. TikTok also puts alignment, highlights and a colour wheel for text and background colour there.

How do I make text readable over a photo?

Use the highlight option, which TikTok documents alongside the colour wheel. It sets a background behind the line. There is no documented outline or drop shadow control, so anything more than a highlight has to be pre-rendered.

How do I delete text from a TikTok slideshow?

Press and hold the text, move it to the top of the screen until the Delete button appears, then drag it onto Delete and release.

Where should text sit so the interface does not cover it?

TikTok's ad guidance is to keep text, logos and key messages off the areas where buttons, usernames and captions appear. In practice that means away from the right edge and away from the bottom. TikTok publishes no fixed pixel margins on any fetchable page and states that caption length is one of the inputs to the safe zone, so a shorter caption buys you room.

Can I copy the same text style to every slide?

Yes. In the advanced editor, tap the text sticker or the text below the track and tap Copy. The duplicate is inserted directly below the original with the same styling.

How many words should be on a slide?

TikTok publishes no guidance on this. The working rule is one idea per slide, and a line short enough to read in the time a thumb takes to swipe.

Sources

• TikTok Help Center: Editing, posting, and deleting (Text button on the side panel, Done at the top, font, colour wheel, alignment, highlights, two finger resize, deleting text)
• TikTok Help Center: Editing TikTok videos and photos (advanced editor, Text at the bottom, moving text in the track, dragging the arrow to change duration, Copy to duplicate, 35 item limit)
• TikTok Help Center: Making a post (photo post steps, text available on the edit screen, 35 photo limit)
• TikTok Ads Manager: TopView ad specifications (do not place text, logos or key messages where buttons, usernames and captions appear)
• TikTok Ads Manager: TikTok Auction In-Feed Ads, last updated June 2026 (safe zone determined by dimension, caption length and additional formats; values only in downloadable files)