How to add title cards to a video on a Mac
Open with a title, label a section, or end on your logo — drop images onto the timeline as held title cards, with a Ken Burns zoom or a static Hold, then export. 100% offline on your Mac.
Title cards, intros and outros
A title card is a still image — a title, a logo, or a photo — held on screen for a few seconds. Crisp lets you drop images straight onto the timeline alongside your video, so you can open with a title, label a section, or end on your logo, all in one offline edit.
Step by step
Open Crisp and import your photo or title image
Open Crisp (it starts in the editor) and Import the image you want as a title card: a photo, a logo, or a graphic you made. PNG, JPEG and HEIC all work.
Add it to the timeline as a still
Click Add as photo on the image in the Media panel. It drops onto the timeline as a held frame — place it at the start for an intro, at the end for an outro, or between clips.
Set the duration
Drag the card edge on the timeline (or edit its duration in the inspector) to hold it as long as you want — 2 to 3 seconds is typical for a title.
Choose motion: Ken Burns or Hold
A photo card gets a gentle Ken Burns zoom by default. For a clean logo or text card, select it and set Photo motion to Hold so it stays perfectly still.
Add a transition and export
Pick a transition like Dissolve so the card fades into your footage, then Export. Crisp renders the whole thing to a clean MP4 on your Mac.
Hold for logos, Ken Burns for photos
Photos look best with a subtle Ken Burns zoom (on by default). A text or logo card usually wants to stay still — select it and switch Photo motion to Hold. Mix both in one video.
What size to make the image, and what happens if you don’t
Match the video. If your export is 1920×1080, make the card 1920×1080; for a vertical edit, 1080×1920. That is the whole rule, and the reason it matters is that the two motion settings handle a mismatch in opposite directions.
- Ken Burns fills the frame and crops. The image is scaled up until it covers the canvas — so whichever edge is proportionally longer runs off-screen — and then the slow zoom runs on top of that, from full size to about 18% closer over the length of the card. A tall photo in a widescreen edit loses the top and bottom, and text near an edge can drift out of frame as the zoom pushes in.
- Hold fits the whole image and pads. Nothing is cropped; the gap is filled with bars instead — down the sides for a portrait image in a landscape edit, top and bottom for the reverse.
So a logo or a text card wants Hold and the right aspect ratio: Hold alone keeps every pixel but frames it in bars, and Ken Burns alone fills the screen but is the setting that can zoom your wording off the edge. Photographs are the opposite case — they are usually better cropped than boxed, which is why Ken Burns is the default.
Make a title image
Crisp holds any image you give it, so make your title card in whatever you like — Preview, Keynote, Canva, or a screenshot — export it as a PNG or JPEG, and drop it on the timeline. Want text over your footage? Use captions.
Add title cards to your video — offline
Free to try on your Mac. Drop images onto the timeline as intros, outros and title cards — no account, no upload.
Download Crisp for MacApple Silicon · macOS 12+ · Notarized
Title card questions
How do I add a title card to a video on a Mac?
Import your title image, click Add as photo to place it on the timeline, set its duration, pick Hold or Ken Burns motion, add a transition, and export: all on your Mac.
How do I keep a logo card from zooming?
Select the card and set Photo motion to Hold. It stays perfectly still, ideal for logos and text.
Can I put text directly over my video?
For text on top of footage, use captions. Title cards are full-screen still images shown between or around your clips.
Related guides
Make a photo slideshow · Add captions · Split a clip · Colour grade a video