drawtext - FFmpeg 7.1 / Filters / Video

Draw a text string or text from a specified file on top of a video, using the libfreetype library.

To enable compilation of this filter, you need to configure FFmpeg with --enable-libfreetype and --enable-libharfbuzz. To enable default font fallback and the font option you need to configure FFmpeg with --enable-libfontconfig. To enable the text_shaping option, you need to configure FFmpeg with --enable-libfribidi.

Syntax

It accepts the following parameters:

box

Used to draw a box around text using the background color. The value must be either 1 (enable) or 0 (disable). The default value of box is 0.

boxborderw

Set the width of the border to be drawn around the box using boxcolor. The value must be specified using one of the following formats:

boxborderw=10 set the width of all the borders to 10
boxborderw=10|20 set the width of the top and bottom borders to 10 and the width of the left and right borders to 20
boxborderw=10|20|30 set the width of the top border to 10, the width of the bottom border to 30 and the width of the left and right borders to 20
boxborderw=10|20|30|40 set the borders width to 10 (top), 20 (right), 30 (bottom), 40 (left)

The default value of boxborderw is "0".

boxcolor

The color to be used for drawing box around text. For the syntax of this option, check the "Color" section in the ffmpeg-utils manual.

The default value of boxcolor is "white".

line_spacing

Set the line spacing in pixels. The default value of line_spacing is 0.

text_align

Set the vertical and horizontal alignment of the text with respect to the box boundaries. The value is combination of flags, one for the vertical alignment (T=top, M=middle, B=bottom) and one for the horizontal alignment (L=left, C=center, R=right). Please note that tab characters are only supported with the left horizontal alignment.

y_align

Specify what the y value is referred to. Possible values are:

text the top of the highest glyph of the first text line is placed at y
baseline the baseline of the first text line is placed at y
font the baseline of the first text line is placed at y plus the ascent (in pixels) defined in the font metrics

The default value of y_align is "text" for backward compatibility.

borderw

Set the width of the border to be drawn around the text using bordercolor. The default value of borderw is 0.

bordercolor

Set the color to be used for drawing border around text. For the syntax of this option, check the "Color" section in the ffmpeg-utils manual.

The default value of bordercolor is "black".

expansion

Select how the text is expanded. Can be either none, strftime (deprecated) or normal (default). See the Text expansion section below for details.

basetime

Set a start time for the count. Value is in microseconds. Only applied in the deprecated strftime expansion mode. To emulate in normal expansion mode use the pts function, supplying the start time (in seconds) as the second argument.

fix_bounds

If true, check and fix text coords to avoid clipping.

fontcolor

The color to be used for drawing fonts. For the syntax of this option, check the "Color" section in the ffmpeg-utils manual.

The default value of fontcolor is "black".

fontcolor_expr

String which is expanded the same way as text to obtain dynamic fontcolor value. By default this option has empty value and is not processed. When this option is set, it overrides fontcolor option.

font

The font family to be used for drawing text. By default Sans.

fontfile

The font file to be used for drawing text. The path must be included. This parameter is mandatory if the fontconfig support is disabled.

alpha

Draw the text applying alpha blending. The value can be a number between 0.0 and 1.0. The expression accepts the same variables x, y as well. The default value is 1. Please see fontcolor_expr.

fontsize

The font size to be used for drawing text. The default value of fontsize is 16.

text_shaping

If set to 1, attempt to shape the text (for example, reverse the order of right-to-left text and join Arabic characters) before drawing it. Otherwise, just draw the text exactly as given. By default 1 (if supported).

ft_load_flags

The flags to be used for loading the fonts.

The flags map the corresponding flags supported by libfreetype, and are a combination of the following values:

default
no_scale
no_hinting
render
no_bitmap
vertical_layout
force_autohint
crop_bitmap
pedantic
ignore_global_advance_width
no_recurse
ignore_transform
monochrome
linear_design
no_autohint

Default value is "default".

For more information consult the documentation for the FT_LOAD_* libfreetype flags.

shadowcolor

The color to be used for drawing a shadow behind the drawn text. For the syntax of this option, check the "Color" section in the ffmpeg-utils manual.

The default value of shadowcolor is "black".

boxw

Set the width of the box to be drawn around text. The default value of boxw is computed automatically to match the text width

boxh

Set the height of the box to be drawn around text. The default value of boxh is computed automatically to match the text height

shadowx, shadowy

The x and y offsets for the text shadow position with respect to the position of the text. They can be either positive or negative values. The default value for both is "0".

start_number

The starting frame number for the n/frame_num variable. The default value is "0".

tabsize

The size in number of spaces to use for rendering the tab. Default value is 4.

timecode

Set the initial timecode representation in "hh:mm:ss[:;.]ff" format. It can be used with or without text parameter. timecode_rate option must be specified.

timecode_rate, rate, r

Set the timecode frame rate (timecode only). Value will be rounded to nearest integer. Minimum value is "1". Drop-frame timecode is supported for frame rates 30 & 60.

tc24hmax

If set to 1, the output of the timecode option will wrap around at 24 hours. Default is 0 (disabled).

text

The text string to be drawn. The text must be a sequence of UTF-8 encoded characters. This parameter is mandatory if no file is specified with the parameter textfile.

textfile

A text file containing text to be drawn. The text must be a sequence of UTF-8 encoded characters.

This parameter is mandatory if no text string is specified with the parameter text.

If both text and textfile are specified, an error is thrown.

text_source

Text source should be set as side_data_detection_bboxes if you want to use text data in detection bboxes of side data.

If text source is set, text and textfile will be ignored and still use text data in detection bboxes of side data. So please do not use this parameter if you are not sure about the text source.

reload

The textfile will be reloaded at specified frame interval. Be sure to update textfile atomically, or it may be read partially, or even fail. Range is 0 to INT_MAX. Default is 0.

x, y

The expressions which specify the offsets where text will be drawn within the video frame. They are relative to the top/left border of the output image.

The default value of x and y is "0".

See below for the list of accepted constants and functions.

The parameters for x and y are expressions containing the following constants and functions:

dar

input display aspect ratio, it is the same as (w / h) * sar

hsub, vsub

horizontal and vertical chroma subsample values. For example for the pixel format "yuv422p" hsub is 2 and vsub is 1.

line_h, lh

the height of each text line

main_h, h, H

the input height

main_w, w, W

the input width

max_glyph_a, ascent

the maximum distance from the baseline to the highest/upper grid coordinate used to place a glyph outline point, for all the rendered glyphs. It is a positive value, due to the grid’s orientation with the Y axis upwards.

max_glyph_d, descent

the maximum distance from the baseline to the lowest grid coordinate used to place a glyph outline point, for all the rendered glyphs. This is a negative value, due to the grid’s orientation, with the Y axis upwards.

max_glyph_h

maximum glyph height, that is the maximum height for all the glyphs contained in the rendered text, it is equivalent to ascent - descent.

max_glyph_w

maximum glyph width, that is the maximum width for all the glyphs contained in the rendered text

font_a

the ascent size defined in the font metrics

font_d

the descent size defined in the font metrics

top_a

the maximum ascender of the glyphs of the first text line

bottom_d

the maximum descender of the glyphs of the last text line

n

the number of input frame, starting from 0

rand(min, max)

return a random number included between min and max

sar

The input sample aspect ratio.

t

timestamp expressed in seconds, NAN if the input timestamp is unknown

text_h, th

the height of the rendered text

text_w, tw

the width of the rendered text

x, y

the x and y offset coordinates where the text is drawn.

These parameters allow the x and y expressions to refer to each other, so you can for example specify y=x/dar.

pict_type

A one character description of the current frame’s picture type.

pkt_pos

The current packet’s position in the input file or stream (in bytes, from the start of the input). A value of -1 indicates this info is not available.

duration

The current packet’s duration, in seconds.

pkt_size

The current packet’s size (in bytes).

Text expansion

If expansion is set to strftime, the filter recognizes sequences accepted by the strftime C function in the provided text and expands them accordingly. Check the documentation of strftime. This feature is deprecated in favor of normal expansion with the gmtime or localtime expansion functions.

If expansion is set to none, the text is printed verbatim.

If expansion is set to normal (which is the default), the following expansion mechanism is used.

The backslash character \, followed by any character, always expands to the second character.

Sequences of the form %{...} are expanded. The text between the braces is a function name, possibly followed by arguments separated by ’:’. If the arguments contain special characters or delimiters (’:’ or ’}’), they should be escaped.

Note that they probably must also be escaped as the value for the text option in the filter argument string and as the filter argument in the filtergraph description, and possibly also for the shell, that makes up to four levels of escaping; using a text file with the textfile option avoids these problems.

The following functions are available:

expr, e

The expression evaluation result.

It must take one argument specifying the expression to be evaluated, which accepts the same constants and functions as the x and y values. Note that not all constants should be used, for example the text size is not known when evaluating the expression, so the constants text_w and text_h will have an undefined value.

expr_int_format, eif

Evaluate the expression’s value and output as formatted integer.

The first argument is the expression to be evaluated, just as for the expr function. The second argument specifies the output format. Allowed values are x, X, d and u. They are treated exactly as in the printf function. The third parameter is optional and sets the number of positions taken by the output. It can be used to add padding with zeros from the left.

gmtime

The time at which the filter is running, expressed in UTC. It can accept an argument: a strftime C function format string. The format string is extended to support the variable %[1-6]N which prints fractions of the second with optionally specified number of digits.

localtime

The time at which the filter is running, expressed in the local time zone. It can accept an argument: a strftime C function format string. The format string is extended to support the variable %[1-6]N which prints fractions of the second with optionally specified number of digits.

metadata

Frame metadata. Takes one or two arguments.

The first argument is mandatory and specifies the metadata key.

The second argument is optional and specifies a default value, used when the metadata key is not found or empty.

Available metadata can be identified by inspecting entries starting with TAG included within each frame section printed by running ffprobe -show_frames.

String metadata generated in filters leading to the drawtext filter are also available.

n, frame_num

The frame number, starting from 0.

pict_type

A one character description of the current picture type.

pts

The timestamp of the current frame. It can take up to three arguments.

The first argument is the format of the timestamp; it defaults to flt for seconds as a decimal number with microsecond accuracy; hms stands for a formatted [-]HH:MM:SS.mmm timestamp with millisecond accuracy. gmtime stands for the timestamp of the frame formatted as UTC time; localtime stands for the timestamp of the frame formatted as local time zone time.

The second argument is an offset added to the timestamp.

If the format is set to hms, a third argument 24HH may be supplied to present the hour part of the formatted timestamp in 24h format (00-23).

If the format is set to localtime or gmtime, a third argument may be supplied: a strftime C function format string. By default, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format will be used.

Commands

This filter supports altering parameters via commands:

reinit

Alter existing filter parameters.

Syntax for the argument is the same as for filter invocation, e.g.

fontsize=56:fontcolor=green:text='Hello World'

Full filter invocation with sendcmd would look like this:

sendcmd=c='56.0 drawtext reinit fontsize=56\:fontcolor=green\:text=Hello\\ World'

If the entire argument can’t be parsed or applied as valid values then the filter will continue with its existing parameters.

The following options are also supported as commands:

x
y
alpha
fontsize
fontcolor
boxcolor
bordercolor
shadowcolor
box
boxw
boxh
boxborderw
line_spacing
text_align
shadowx
shadowy
borderw

Examples

Draw "Test Text" with font FreeSerif, using the default values for the optional parameters.
```
drawtext="fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSerif.ttf: text='Test Text'"
```
Draw ’Test Text’ with font FreeSerif of size 24 at position x=100 and y=50 (counting from the top-left corner of the screen), text is yellow with a red box around it. Both the text and the box have an opacity of 20%.
```
drawtext="fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSerif.ttf: text='Test Text':\
          x=100: y=50: fontsize=24: fontcolor=yellow@0.2: box=1: boxcolor=red@0.2"
```
Note that the double quotes are not necessary if spaces are not used within the parameter list.

Show the text at the center of the video frame:

drawtext="fontsize=30:fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:text='hello world':x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)/2"

Show the text at a random position, switching to a new position every 30 seconds:

drawtext="fontsize=30:fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:text='hello world':x=if(eq(mod(t\,30)\,0)\,rand(0\,(w-text_w))\,x):y=if(eq(mod(t\,30)\,0)\,rand(0\,(h-text_h))\,y)"

Show a text line sliding from right to left in the last row of the video frame. The file LONG_LINE is assumed to contain a single line with no newlines.
```
drawtext="fontsize=15:fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:text=LONG_LINE:y=h-line_h:x=-50*t"
```
Show the content of file CREDITS off the bottom of the frame and scroll up.
```
drawtext="fontsize=20:fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:textfile=CREDITS:y=h-20*t"
```
Draw a single green letter "g", at the center of the input video. The glyph baseline is placed at half screen height.
```
drawtext="fontsize=60:fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:fontcolor=green:text=g:x=(w-max_glyph_w)/2:y=h/2-ascent"
```

Show text for 1 second every 3 seconds:

drawtext="fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:fontcolor=white:x=100:y=x/dar:enable=lt(mod(t\,3)\,1):text='blink'"

Use fontconfig to set the font. Note that the colons need to be escaped.
```
drawtext='fontfile=Linux Libertine O-40\\:style=Semibold:text=FFmpeg'
```

Draw "Test Text" with font size dependent on height of the video.

drawtext="text='Test Text': fontsize=h/30: x=(w-text_w)/2: y=(h-text_h*2)"

Print the date of a real-time encoding (see documentation for the strftime C function):
```
drawtext='fontfile=FreeSans.ttf:text=%{localtime\:%a %b %d %Y}'
```

Show text fading in and out (appearing/disappearing):

#!/bin/sh
DS=1.0 # display start
DE=10.0 # display end
FID=1.5 # fade in duration
FOD=5 # fade out duration
ffplay -f lavfi "color,drawtext=text=TEST:fontsize=50:fontfile=FreeSerif.ttf:fontcolor_expr=ff0000%{eif\\\\: clip(255*(1*between(t\\, $DS + $FID\\, $DE - $FOD) + ((t - $DS)/$FID)*between(t\\, $DS\\, $DS + $FID) + (-(t - $DE)/$FOD)*between(t\\, $DE - $FOD\\, $DE) )\\, 0\\, 255) \\\\: x\\\\: 2 }"

Horizontally align multiple separate texts. Note that max_glyph_a and the fontsize value are included in the y offset.

drawtext=fontfile=FreeSans.ttf:text=DOG:fontsize=24:x=10:y=20+24-max_glyph_a,
drawtext=fontfile=FreeSans.ttf:text=cow:fontsize=24:x=80:y=20+24-max_glyph_a

Plot special lavf.image2dec.source_basename metadata onto each frame if such metadata exists. Otherwise, plot the string "NA". Note that image2 demuxer must have option -export_path_metadata 1 for the special metadata fields to be available for filters.
```
drawtext="fontsize=20:fontcolor=white:fontfile=FreeSans.ttf:text='%{metadata\:lavf.image2dec.source_basename\:NA}':x=10:y=10"
```

For more information about libfreetype, check: http://www.freetype.org/.

For more information about fontconfig, check: http://freedesktop.org/software/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html.

For more information about libfribidi, check: http://fribidi.org/.

For more information about libharfbuzz, check: https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz.