Why are my captions blurry after uploading?
Platform compression. TikTok, X, and Instagram aggressively re-encode uploads. Fix: heavier fonts (Inter Black, Anton), thicker stroke (6px+), and 1080p export at high bitrate.
Detail
Captions look crisp in your editor and blurry in the feed because every social platform re-encodes uploaded video. The re-encode is most aggressive on X, TikTok, and Instagram, less so on YouTube. Thin fonts, fine outlines, and small text suffer worst. Fix: use heavyweight sans-serifs (Inter Black, Anton, Bebas Neue, Montserrat Black), pair with a 4–6px black stroke or a solid background plate, export at 1080p (not 4K — platforms downsample anyway), and use a high bitrate (10+ Mbps) so re-encoding starts from a cleaner source.
- Use heavy fonts: Inter Black, Anton, Bebas Neue, Montserrat Black
- Add a 4–6px stroke or solid plate
- Export at 1080p, not 4K — platforms downsample
- Bitrate ≥10 Mbps so re-encoding starts cleaner
A heavy sans-serif. Inter Black, Montserrat Black, and Anton are reliable defaults. Avoid thin fonts — they break apart on compressed video.
56–72px on a 1080×1920 canvas — about 6–8% of frame width. Use heavier fonts at the smaller end of the range and thinner fonts at the larger end.