Your text stays in this browser. Nothing is uploaded. Type a line, pick a style, and export a looping file with no watermark and no account.
How to use it in 3 steps
Type a short line
Enter up to 80 characters. Short lines read best: two to four words fill a square frame at a size people can read on a phone.
Pick a style, font, and colors
Choose neon, typewriter, glitch, fire, 3D, or rainbow, then set the font, size, two colors, and a solid or transparent background.
Set the loop and export
Choose a canvas size, a duration from 1 to 6 seconds, and 10 to 30 fps. The editor shows the frame count. Then download GIF, MP4, or WebM.
Three tuning tips
Start from the canvas you will post to
Pick square, vertical, or landscape first. Changing the canvas after you tune the size slider means retuning, because the same font size looks smaller on a 1920-pixel-wide frame.
Spend frames only where motion needs them
A slow pulse looks the same at 12 fps and 24 fps, but the 24 fps file has twice the frames. Use the lowest fps where the motion still looks smooth, especially for GIF.
Check the loop seam
Watch the moment the loop restarts. A style that ends in a different state than it began shows a jump. Shorter durations make the seam easier to judge.
How the animation and export pipeline works
Lumen turns a loop into a fixed number of still frames. The count is N = round(duration × fps). At 3 seconds and 24 fps, N = 72. The editor draws each frame onto a canvas at a fixed time step, so frame 0 is time 0, frame 1 is 1/24 of a second later, and so on. The preview uses the same drawing code, so the export matches what you see. File sizes in this site use decimal megabytes (1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes). The table below shows the numbers for the current editor settings.
| Canvas | 1080 × 1080 px (1,166,400 pixels per frame) |
|---|---|
| Frames | N = 3 s × 24 fps = 72 |
| Raw frames before encoding | 72 × 1080 × 1080 × 4 bytes = 336 MB |
| MP4 / WebM upper estimate | 2.8 Mbps × 3 s ÷ 8 = 1.0 MB |
| GIF frame delay | 1/24 s is 4.17 centiseconds; GIF stores whole centiseconds, so delays alternate (4 and 5 cs) to average out |
Raw size explains why settings matter. A 1080 × 1080 frame holds 1,166,400 pixels at 4 bytes each (red, green, blue, alpha), which is 4,665,600 bytes. Times 72 frames, that is about 335.9 MB before any compression. Encoders shrink that a lot, but they still work from every frame, so more frames and more pixels mean more work and, usually, a bigger file. Halve the fps and you roughly halve the frames; shorten the loop by a third and you remove a third of them.
Video files (MP4, WebM) are estimated from bitrate: size ≈ bitrate × duration / 8. Lumen's default bitrate is the pixel count times fps times 0.1, limited to between 1,000,000 and 12,000,000 bits per second. For 1080 × 1080 at 24 fps that is 2,799,360 bits per second, so a 3-second clip is about 1.05 MB. A real file can land above or below that because the encoder spends fewer bits on flat areas and more on busy ones.
GIF works differently. Each frame is limited to a palette of 256 colors, and transparency is a single on-or-off choice per pixel, not a smooth fade. Glows and flames fade through many partially transparent shades, so on a transparent GIF they can leave a hard, fringed edge in the color of the background they were drawn against. If you need a soft edge on an unknown background, use WebM, which keeps transparency in browsers that record it. MP4 cannot carry transparency, so the editor flattens it onto a matte color.
The same palette limit hits smooth gradients. A 3D bevel or rainbow sweep uses far more than 256 shades, so a GIF shows visible bands, called posterizing. MP4 and WebM do not have that limit, so they hold gradients better. MP4 uses the browser's H.264 encoder when it has one and a built-in software encoder otherwise, which is slower but works.
Sources
Common mistakes
Exporting a long, tall GIF at 30 fps
A 6-second 1080 × 1920 loop at 30 fps is 180 frames of 8.3 million bytes each in raw form, about 1,493 MB. Browsers can stall on that. Try 12 to 15 fps, 3 seconds, or MP4.
Posting a transparent file onto the wrong color
Neon and fire are designed to glow on dark. A transparent export dropped on a white slide loses the glow. Use a solid dark background unless you know what sits behind the text.
Expecting MP4 to keep transparency
MP4 cannot store an alpha channel. The editor flattens it onto a matte color. For transparent video, choose WebM or GIF.
Assuming every browser encodes H.264 the same way
Some browsers expose a hardware H.264 encoder and some do not. Lumen falls back to a software encoder, which works but can take longer on large canvases.
Frequently asked questions
Is the animated text maker free?
Yes. There is no payment, no watermark, and no account in this version.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Preview and export run in your browser. The site has no endpoint that accepts text or files.
Which format should I export?
Use MP4 for the broadest playback and the smallest file. Use WebM when you need transparency. Use GIF when a platform only accepts GIFs or you need a file that plays anywhere without a video player.
What styles are available?
Neon, typewriter, glitch, fire, 3D, and rainbow. Rainbow is a style in this editor, not a separate page. Pick it from the style rail and the preview updates immediately.
Can I use the exported files commercially?
The six fonts (Anton, Bungee, Pacifico, Special Elite, Orbitron, Playfair Display) are open-licensed: Special Elite under Apache 2.0, the others under SIL OFL 1.1. Both licenses allow using rendered output commercially. If you embed a font file itself in a product, check that font's license. This is not legal advice.
What are the size limits?
Custom canvases go up to 2160 pixels per side and 3,000,000 pixels in total. Duration is 1 to 6 seconds and frame rate is 10 to 30 fps.
Does it respect reduced motion?
Yes. If your system asks for reduced motion, the preview shows a still frame with a play button. You can still start the loop yourself.