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Change the appearance of text and shapes

Last updated on Oct 1, 2024

The Titles and Shapes panel in Premiere Elements has a powerful workflow that allows you to change the appearance of text and shapes using fills, strokes, backgrounds, shadows, and masks.

Add fill

You can fill your text or shape with any desired color.

Use the Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon options to create shapes.
In the Edit tab of the Titles and Shapes panel, select Fill under Appearance.
Choose the color from the Color Picker panel.
Select OK.

Edit the appearance of your title or graphic

You can also choose to

Specify the HSB, RGB, or hexadecimal values if you know the exact color values.
Adjust the color using the color field and slider. The numeric HSBA, RGB, and hexadecimal values are adjusted accordingly.
Use the Eyedropper tool to select a color from the screen.
Select Linear Gradient or Radial Gradient from the top of the Color Picker panel and apply gradient fills to the object. Learn more about how to apply gradients.

Add strokes

You can add Outer, Inner, or Center strokes to text and shapes in the Titles and Shapes
panel, or can add multiple strokes to build a unique look.

Select a layer in the Titles and Shapes panel.
Set the color. Then choose if you want to use an Outer, Inner, or Center stroke.

Outer Stroke

An Outer stroke begins at the shape's edge and goes outward as the width is increased. The stroke is drawn behind the fill.

Inner Stroke

The Inner stroke starts at the shape's edge and goes inward as its width is expanded. It draws the stroke over the fill.

Center Stroke

With Center stroke, the stroke is over the fill for shapes, but under the fill for text.
Select the + icon in the Appearance section if you want to create multiple strokes. Then, set the color and width properties of each stroke.

Creating titles using multiple strokes

Add shadows

You can add shadows to text or a shape, or add multiple shadows to create numerous interesting effects. For example, create a second, narrower shadow on top of a wide shadow to give the text or shape more depth.

Select your text or shape layer in the Titles and Shapes panel.
Select the Shadow checkbox.
Adjust the opacity, angle, distance, size, and blur of the shadow.
Select your shadow type from the Color Picker panel. You can choose Solid, Linear, Gradient, or Radial Gradient.
Add multiple shadows by clicking the + icon in the Appearance section.

Add shadows

Note:

Shadows are a per-layer setting. It's not possible to add a shadow to individual characters of a text layer.

Add text backgrounds

Add a background to any text to enhance your design. You can add rounded edges to the background of your text or change the fill color, opacity, and size. Your preferences can also be saved for future edits.

Select a text layer in the Titles and Shapes panel.
Select the Background checkbox in the Appearance section.
Change the fill color, Opacity, Size, and Corner Radius as needed.

Add text background

Create a background with rounded corners

Select a text layer in the Titles and Shapes panel.
Select the Background checkbox in the Appearance section.
Use the Corner Radius slider or hot text to round the corners as needed.

Note:

The slider has a corner radius range of 0-100. The hot text ranges from 0-500 for fully rounded ends on large text layers.

Create mask layers

Use masks to create dynamic transitions, reveals, and wipe animations in Premiere Elements titles by converting text and shapes to mask layers. Masks hide portions of a layer and reveal other portions of the layers below the graphic in the Titles and Shapes panel layer stack.

Select a text or graphics layer in the Edit tab of the Titles and Shapes panel.
Select the Mask with Text or Mask with Shape checkbox in the Appearance section of the Titles and Shapes panel.

Premiere Elements creates a mask of that layer and transparently renders everything outside the layer, revealing the layers below it.

If you have created layer groups, when you select a layer to mask, the mask is applied only to the other layers in that group. It does not extend to layers outside the group.

Mask with Text

Mask with Shape

Example of the type of effect you can create using masked layers
If you would like to ensure that any strokes or shadows in the layer are excluded from the mask, select Mask Only Fill.
If you want everything outside the layer to be visible and everything inside the layer to be transparent, select Invert.

Masking Tutorial: Create reveal animations using masking techniques

Use the example below to learn how to create cool reveal animations using a shape layer and a text layer.

Create a shape layer and a text layer.
To convert the shape layer to a mask, select the shape and click Mask with Shape.

Mask text with shape
In the Effect Controls panel, animate the position of the text.
To position the text outside the masking shape layer for frame 0, click the Keyframe tool in the Effect Controls panel.
Move the playhead in the Effect Controls panel to the right and change the Position value of the text until it is revealed in the shape mask.
Move the playhead back to frame 0 and press Play. Check and tweak the animation if necessary.

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Change the appearance of text and shapes

Add fill

You can also choose to

Add strokes

Add shadows

Add text backgrounds

Create a background with rounded corners

Create mask layers

Masking Tutorial: Create reveal animations using masking techniques

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