Text on a vertical video belongs in the middle band of the screen, away from the edges where interface elements live. A viewer reading while holding a phone one handed covers the bottom with a palm, so put the important words higher.
Placement is not decoration. A line of text is a promise that the viewer can follow the clip with the sound off. If it lands under a like button, that promise breaks.
I divide the frame into top, middle, and bottom. The middle is the stage. Headlines and key numbers go there because nothing else uses that space.
The top belongs to titles and notifications. The bottom belongs to captions, thumb reach, and every button a platform decides to add. I keep the middle clear for words that carry meaning.
Long sentences wrap into a wall of type on a phone. I write in stacks of two or three words per line and let each stack breathe. A viewer reads the stack, then looks at the footage, then reads the next one.
Font size has a floor. If I have to squint on my own phone at arm's length, it is too small. Big, light letters over a slightly darkened area beat thin letters that vanish against a bright shirt.
A caption the viewer cannot read in half a second may as well be a sound you never recorded.
Text can carry emotion if you let it. A slow reveal suits a serious point. A hard cut suits a punchline. I keep one type style per clip so the words feel like part of the edit, not a layer sitting on top of it.
Designing vertical video for a phone screen starts with the frame, not the edit. Plan the shots and the text long before you sit down to cut anything.
Vertical video framing for a tall screen is mostly about what you leave out. Here is how to choose a subject, a distance, and a background that holds up.
Safe zones protect a vertical video from the interface that sits on top of it. Learn the areas to avoid across the top, sides, and bottom of the screen.
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