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Burn text, captions, or watermarks directly into video files.

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Problem

You need to add text to videos—captions, watermarks, titles, or dynamic labels. Manual video editing doesn’t scale for batch processing.

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Solution

What’s in this recipe:
  • Add simple text overlays
  • Create styled captions with backgrounds
  • Position text with alignment options
Use video.overlay_text() to burn text into videos with full control over styling and position.

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Setup

%pip install -qU pixeltable

import pixeltable as pxt

# Create a fresh directory
pxt.drop_dir('overlay_demo', force=True)
pxt.create_dir('overlay_demo')

Connected to Pixeltable database at: postgresql+psycopg://postgres:@/pixeltable?host=/Users/pjlb/.pixeltable/pgdata
Created directory ‘overlay_demo’.
<pixeltable.catalog.dir.Dir at 0x3038f9900>

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Load sample videos

# Create a video table
videos = pxt.create_table(
    'overlay_demo.videos',
    {'video': pxt.Video, 'title': pxt.String}
)

# Insert a sample video
videos.insert([
    {
        'video': 's3://multimedia-commons/data/videos/mp4/ffe/ffb/ffeffbef41bbc269810b2a1a888de.mp4',
        'title': 'Sample Video'
    }
])

Created table ‘videos’.
Inserting rows into `videos`: 0 rows [00:00, ? rows/s]Inserting rows into `videos`: 1 rows [00:00, 184.43 rows/s]
Inserted 1 row with 0 errors.
1 row inserted, 3 values computed.

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Add a simple text overlay

# Add a simple watermark in the corner
videos.add_computed_column(
    watermarked=videos.video.overlay_text(
        'My Brand',
        font_size=24,
        color='white',
        opacity=0.7,
        horizontal_align='right',
        horizontal_margin=20,
        vertical_align='top',
        vertical_margin=20
    )
)

Added 1 column value with 0 errors.
1 row updated, 1 value computed.

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Add YouTube-style captions

# Add a caption with a semi-transparent background box
videos.add_computed_column(
    captioned=videos.video.overlay_text(
        'This is a sample caption',
        font_size=32,
        color='white',
        box=True,                    # Add background box
        box_color='black',
        box_opacity=0.8,
        box_border=[6, 14],          # Padding: [top/bottom, left/right]
        horizontal_align='center',
        vertical_align='bottom',
        vertical_margin=70           # Distance from bottom
    )
)

Added 1 column value with 0 errors.
1 row updated, 1 value computed.

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Add dynamic titles from table columns

# Add video title as an overlay (dynamic per video)
videos.add_computed_column(
    titled=videos.video.overlay_text(
        videos.title,                # Use the title column!
        font_size=48,
        color='yellow',
        opacity=1.0,
        horizontal_align='center',
        vertical_align='top',
        vertical_margin=30
    )
)

Added 1 column value with 0 errors.
1 row updated, 1 value computed.
# View all versions
videos.select(
    videos.title,
    videos.video,
    videos.watermarked,
    videos.captioned,
    videos.titled
).collect()

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Explanation

Positioning options:
Styling options:
Background box options:
Requirements:
  • FFmpeg must be installed and in PATH

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See also