We are a Swiss Army knife for your files
Transloadit is a service for companies with developers. We handle their file uploads and media processing. This means that they can save on development time and the heavy machinery that is required to handle big volumes in an automated way.
We pioneered with this concept in 2009 and have made our customers happy ever since. We are still actively improving our service in 2026, as well as our open source projects uppy.io and tus.io, which are changing how the world does file uploading.
Add text overlay to videos
Adding text overlays to videos is a powerful way to enhance your content with titles, subtitles, watermarks, or other textual information.
This demo shows how to use FFmpeg's drawtext filter via the ffmpeg parameter to add text
overlays to your videos. We demonstrate two approaches: using the default font and using a custom
font.
Key Features
- Text Positioning: Center the text using dynamic expressions like
x=(w-text_w)/2andy=(h-text_h)/2 - Background Box: Add a semi-transparent background box behind the text for better readability
- Font Selection: Use the default Sans font or specify custom fonts like 'Times New Roman'
- Styling Options: Control font color, size, box color, transparency, and border width
Important Notes
-
When specifying custom fonts, use the
fontparameter (notfontpath) -
Font names for FFmpeg may differ from ImageMagick conventions - use spaces instead of dashes (e.g., 'Times New Roman' not 'Times-New-Roman')
-
The
preset: "empty"ensures no additional encoding is applied beyond the text overlay -
Use
codec:a: "copy"to preserve the original audio without re-encodingYou can customize the text, position, font, colors, and many other properties by modifying the
vf(video filter) parameter. See the FFmpeg drawtext documentation for all available options.
Step 1:
Handle uploads
We can handle uploads of your users directly.Learn more
":original": {
"robot": "/upload/handle"
}Step 2:
Transcode, resize, or watermark videos
We offer a variety of video encoding features like optimizing for different devices, merging, injecting ads, changing audio tracks, or adding company logos.Learn more
"text_overlay_default": {
"use": ":original",
"robot": "/video/encode",
"result": true,
"ffmpeg": {
"codec:a": "copy",
"vf": "drawtext=text='My text overlay':fontcolor=white:fontsize=24:box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5:boxborderw=5:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)/2"
},
"ffmpeg_stack": "v7",
"preset": "empty"
}Step 3:
Transcode, resize, or watermark videos
We offer a variety of video encoding features like optimizing for different devices, merging, injecting ads, changing audio tracks, or adding company logos.Learn more
"text_overlay_custom": {
"use": ":original",
"robot": "/video/encode",
"result": true,
"ffmpeg": {
"codec:a": "copy",
"vf": "drawtext=font='Times New Roman':text='My text overlay':fontcolor=white:fontsize=24:box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5:boxborderw=5:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)/2"
},
"ffmpeg_stack": "v7",
"preset": "empty"
}Step 4:
Export files to Amazon S3
We export to the storage platform of your choice.Learn more
"exported": {
"use": [
"text_overlay_default",
"text_overlay_custom",
":original"
],
"robot": "/s3/store",
"credentials": "demo_s3_credentials",
"url_prefix": "https://demos.transloadit.com/"
}Live Demo. See for yourself
Loading Uppy demo…
This live demo is powered by 
Uppy, our open source file uploader that you can also use without Transloadit, and 
tus, our open protocol for resumable file uploads that is making uploading more reliable across the world.
Build this in your own language
<!-- This pulls Uppy from our CDN -->
<!-- For smaller self-hosted bundles, install Uppy and plugins manually: -->
<!-- npm i --save @uppy/core @uppy/dashboard @uppy/remote-sources @uppy/transloadit ... -->
<link
href="https://releases.transloadit.com/uppy/v3.10.0/uppy.min.css"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
<button id="browse">Select Files</button>
<script type="module">
import {
Uppy,
Dashboard,
ImageEditor,
RemoteSources,
Transloadit,
} from 'https://releases.transloadit.com/uppy/v3.10.0/uppy.min.mjs'
const uppy = new Uppy()
.use(Transloadit, {
waitForEncoding: true,
alwaysRunAssembly: true,
assemblyOptions: {
params: {
// It's often better store encoding instructions in your account
// and use a `template_id` instead of adding these steps inline
steps: {
':original': {
robot: '/upload/handle',
},
text_overlay_default: {
use: ':original',
robot: '/video/encode',
result: true,
ffmpeg: {
'codec:a': 'copy',
vf: 'drawtext=text='My text overlay':fontcolor=white:fontsize=24:box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5:boxborderw=5:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)/2',
},
ffmpeg_stack: 'v7',
preset: 'empty',
},
text_overlay_custom: {
use: ':original',
robot: '/video/encode',
result: true,
ffmpeg: {
'codec:a': 'copy',
vf: 'drawtext=font='Times New Roman':text='My text overlay':fontcolor=white:fontsize=24:box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5:boxborderw=5:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)/2',
},
ffmpeg_stack: 'v7',
preset: 'empty',
},
exported: {
use: ['text_overlay_default', 'text_overlay_custom', ':original'],
robot: '/s3/store',
credentials: 'demo_s3_credentials',
url_prefix: 'https://demos.transloadit.com/',
},
},
},
},
})
.use(Dashboard, { trigger: '#browse' })
.use(ImageEditor, { target: Dashboard })
.use(RemoteSources, {
companionUrl: 'https://api2.transloadit.com/companion',
})
.on('complete', ({ transloadit }) => {
// Due to `waitForEncoding:true` this is fired after encoding is done.
// Alternatively, set `waitForEncoding` to `false` and provide a `notify_url`
console.log(transloadit) // Array of Assembly Statuses
for (const assembly of transloadit) {
console.log(assembly.results) // Array of all encoding results
}
})
.on('error', (error) => {
console.error(error)
})
</script>
So many ways to integrate
Transloadit is a service for companies with developers. And there are many ways developers can put Transloadit to good use inside your company to automate media processing.
Bulk imports
Add one of our import Robots to acquire and transcode massive media libraries.
Handling uploads
We are the experts at reliably handling uploads. We wrote the protocol for it.
Front-end integration
We integrate with web browsers via our next-gen file uploader Uppy and SDKs for Android and iOS.
Back-end integration
Send us batch jobs in any server language using one of our SDKs or directly interfacing with our REST API.
Pingbacks
Configure a notify_url to let your server receive transcoding results JSON in the transloadit POST field.
On-demand
Use our Smart CDN to adapt files on-demand and stream them directly to your users.
Video encoding
Document processing