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This guide will show you the best apps to Add Text to Photos on your phone or online. Adding text to photos is a great way to stand out on social media, and your iPhone or Samsung phone makes it easy to do. It seems easy enough to change and edit a photo, right? The truth is that it can be, as long as you use the right program to help you get there.
There are so many apps that let you add text to photos that it can be hard to figure out where to start. In this article, you’ll learn about some of the best ways to add text to images and use a variety of other photo editing tools. You’ll hear a lot about PhotoDirector, which is well-known as the best app for this task.
Best Apps to Add Text to Photos Comparison Table
App Name | Features | Price | Download Link |
---|---|---|---|
Word Swag | Custom font styles, Text layouts, Image filters, Graphic overlays | $4.99 | Download |
Phonto | Custom font installation, Text color and size adjustments, Filters and effects | Free with in-app purchases | Download |
Design Lab | Customizable templates, Graphics and icons library, Photo editing tools | Free with in-app purchases | Download |
Canva | Customizable templates, Stock photo and video library, Collaboration and sharing tools | Free with in-app purchases | Download |
PicsArt | Customizable templates, Photo and video editing tools, Sticker and brush library | Free with in-app purchases | Download |
Text Art | Custom font styles, Text color and size adjustments, Artistic text effects | Free with in-app purchases | Download |
Typorama | Customizable templates, Graphic and font library, Photo editing tools | $3.99 | Download |
Snapseed | Advanced photo editing tools, Filters and effects, Selective adjustments | Free | Download |
Word Swag

Feature | |
---|---|
Pre-designed text | Provides a variety of stylish text designs |
Image background | Allows users to add text on top of images |
Text effects | Offers various text effects such as shadow, gradient, and more |
Font options | Includes a wide range of fonts to choose from |
Sharing options | Enables easy sharing of designs on social media |
Word Swag is the only app you need to find if you want to add text to photos on an iPhone. This app can also be downloaded for free on Android devices. Word Swag is helpful if you want to make posts for social media. For social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest, you can choose from 17 different sizes.
You can choose from different backgrounds and quotes until you find one you like. Also, Word Swag’s editing tools make it easy to add text to your photos. You just have to tap the screen until you find a text font that you like. You can also pick from different backgrounds.
The Good
- Easy-to-use interface for making text designs that look good.
- A lot of fonts and text effects to choose from
- Adding text to images to make personalized designs
- Social media sharing options that are easy to use
The Bad
- Text designs have few ways to change them.
- Some features may need to be bought within the app.
- Might not be good enough for more complex graphic design needs
Phonto

Feature | |
---|---|
Text customization | Offers a variety of options for text customization |
Font collection | Includes a large collection of fonts to choose from |
Image background | Allows users to add text on top of images |
Text effects | Offers various text effects such as shadow, gradient, and more |
Alignment tools | Provides tools for aligning text for precise placement |
Phonto might be the best app for Android users who want to edit photos with text. It is one of the many mobile apps that iOS users can also use. When you use Phonto to edit photos, you can choose from more than 400 fonts. If you want, you can also download more fonts.
With this app’s text tool, you can change the size, color, gradient, and direction of the text. To get different effects, you can turn the text and even move it to a different perspective plane. You can also add stickers and shapes like hearts, squares, stars, and bubbles to your picture.
The Good
- A lot of fonts and text effects to choose from
- Options for changing the text that are easy to use
- Adding text to images to make personalized designs
- Alignment tools to put text exactly where you want it
The Bad
- Compared to other apps, it has fewer ways to edit photos.
- Some fonts may need to be bought inside the app.
- May not be good for graphic design needs that are too complicated.
Design Lab

Feature | |
---|---|
Graphic design | Offers a wide range of graphic design tools and features |
Text customization | Provides a variety of options for text customization |
Image editing | Allows users to edit and enhance images for design projects |
Layer management | Offers layers for managing design elements |
Templates | Includes pre-designed templates for quick design creation |
Design Labs is an app for editing photos that makes it easy to add text. You can choose from a lot of templates and put them in your own folders. It has advanced text options that let you change the text’s kerning, position, opacity, and more.
You can also bend the text or make it look like it’s in 3D. It also has different tools for editing photos that can help you make your pictures look better. It lets you choose different canvas sizes for social media platforms so you can design better before you publish.
The Good
- Tools and features for graphic design in their entirety
- There are many ways to change the text.
- Having the ability to edit images to improve designs
- Layer management for organizing design elements
- Templates make it easy and quick to make a design.
The Bad
- Compared to other apps, it’s harder to learn.
- Some advanced features may need to be bought inside the app.
- May be too much for new or occasional users.
Canva

Feature | |
---|---|
Drag-and-drop | Provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface |
Templates | Offers a wide range of pre-designed templates for various uses |
Graphics library | Includes a vast library of graphics for design customization |
Collaboration | Allows users to collaborate on designs with team members |
Printing options | Provides printing options for physical design outputs |
Canva is a popular photo editor with plenty of features to keep anyone busy on both mobile and desktop platforms. Also, you don’t need to know much about design to add text to photos. Canva has both a free and a paid version that you can use to add text to your photos.
There are some professional features in the free version that make it popular with businesses as well. Canva has an interface that is easy to use and comes with all the editing tools you need to make good visual content. For example, you can choose from over 100 different fonts and layouts to make banners, posters, flyers, and of course, write on your images.
The Good
- Drag-and-drop interface is easy to use. There are a lot of pre-made templates and graphics to choose from.
- Team projects have tools for working together.
- Options for printing designs that will be made real
The Bad
- Some advanced features may need to be paid for.
- Compared to other apps, it has fewer ways to customize it.
PicsArt

Feature | |
---|---|
Photo editing | Provides a wide range of photo editing tools and features |
Text customization | Offers options for text customization |
Stickers | Includes a vast library of stickers for design customization |
Collage maker | Allows users to create photo collages with multiple images |
Social sharing | Enables easy sharing of designs on social media |
Check out PicsArt if you want to add text to photos online. This app has text tools and other features that make it easy to make photos that are unique and stand out. The photo editor has drawing effects like the ability to change the thickness of text and the exposure of colors.
You can also add frames. If you want to use the spacing and highlighting tools, you’ll have to buy the paid version. In addition to being able to add text to photos, you can also change the size, font, color, and shadow of your text. To start, just click the icon for the text tool.
The Good
- Tools and features for editing photos in depth
- Lots of stickers for making your own designs
- Make photo collages with a collage maker.
- There are ways to share on social media that make it easy to do so.
The Bad
- Some advanced features may need to be bought inside the app.
- Text art can only be changed in a few ways, so it might not be good for complex graphic design needs.
Text Art

Feature | |
---|---|
Text styles | Offers a variety of text styles and effects |
Customization | Allows users to customize text size, color, and alignment |
Backgrounds | Includes a collection of backgrounds for text art creation |
Sharing options | Enables easy sharing of text art on social media |
Save options | Provides options for saving text art in different formats |
Text Art lets you add artistic text to your photos, which makes you stand out from the crowd. To do this, it comes with a number of fonts in different styles. Also, it comes with presets for social media, so you can make sure the canvas size is right before you publish it. You can also change the color, shadow, gradients, and more of your images.
The Good
- There are many different text styles and effects that can be used to make unique text art.
- Size, color, and placement of text can be changed.
- Backgrounds to make text art look better
- Easy ways to share on social media
- Save choices in different formats to give yourself more options.
The Bad
- Compared to other graphic design apps, there aren’t as many ways to customize it. It also might not have enough advanced features for more complicated designs.
- There aren’t many ways to edit images to add them to text art.
Typorama

Feature | |
---|---|
Text styles | Offers a wide range of text styles and effects |
Typography tools | Provides tools for fine-tuning typography settings |
Filters | Includes filters for enhancing text art designs |
Image editing | Allows users to edit and enhance images for design projects |
Sharing options | Enables easy sharing of designs on social media |
Typorama lets you add text to photos that looks good. It lets you use different fonts and typefaces to make complicated text layouts. It has more than 50 styles and designs, some of which are 3D. It can randomly choose a style for your text. This app can also find more than one hundred fonts and typefaces.
You can also make flyers, posters, blog headers, wallpapers, and more with Typorama. It also has filters, overlays, and adjustment tools for photos so you can make them look better before posting them on social media. If you run out of images, it also has stock images from Pixabay and Unsplash.
The Good
- There are many different text styles and effects that can be used to make unique designs.
- Tools for typography that give you precise control over the settings
- Filters for enhancing text art designs
- Having the ability to edit images to improve designs
- Easy ways to share on social media
The Bad
- Compared to other graphic design apps, it has fewer ways to change things.
- Some advanced features may need to be bought inside the app.
- May not be good for graphic design needs that are too complicated.
Snapseed

Feature | |
---|---|
Photo editing | Provides a wide range of photo editing tools and features |
Filters | Offers a variety of filters for enhancing photos |
Adjustment tools | Includes tools for adjusting brightness, contrast, and more |
Healing tool | Allows users to remove unwanted elements from photos |
RAW editing | Supports RAW photo editing for professional results |
Snapseed is a great tool for editing photos made by Google. But it only lets you choose from 38 different text styles. You can also change the position, size, color, and transparency of the text. There are no more fonts to choose from, so your choices are limited. On the plus side, you get professional tools to edit your photos and make them look better.
The Good
- Tools and features for editing photos in depth
- A large number of filters to improve photos
- Tools for making precise changes to photos
- Healing tool for getting rid of things that don’t belong in photos
- Support for editing RAW files to get professional results
The Bad
- Compared to other apps, it may be harder to figure out how to use.
- Some advanced features may need to be bought inside the app.
- Mostly made for editing photos, not for text art or graphic design.
FAQs
Go to Photos and pick the picture you want to use. Tap “Edit,” and then tap “Markup.” You can add text, shapes, and more by tapping the “Add” button. Tap “Done” and then “Done” again.
How does text overlay work? Text overlay or video overlay means adding a text element over a video file so that users can see text on their screen while watching a video. Text on top is one of the most important parts of social videos, which are becoming more and more popular on social media.