The Ultimate Guide to Adding Text to Images for More Engagement and Impact

As a blogger, you know that images are essential for capturing attention, breaking up text, and reinforcing your message. But did you know that by adding text to your images, you can boost engagement and conversions even further?

In this ultimate guide, I‘ll dive into why and how to add text to pictures strategically using an expert approach. Whether you‘re creating social media graphics, featured images, content upgrades, or email headers, you‘ll learn data-driven best practices to take your visuals to the next level.

Why Add Text to Images? The Data Says It Works

Let‘s start with some compelling statistics that show the benefits of combining text and images:

• Tweets with images get 150% more retweets than text-only posts. (Source)
• Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without. (Source)
• Content with relevant images gets 94% more views on average compared to content without. (Source)

It‘s clear that visual content performs better. But images with added text can be even more powerful. Check out this data:

• Text overlay graphics average a 64.4% increase in engagement rate on social media over regular images. (Source)
• Adding text overlays to video thumbnails can boost click-through rates on YouTube by up to 48%. (Source)

Those numbers don‘t lie. By customizing images with a headline, call-to-action, or key takeaway, you can draw in more readers, keep them engaged, and inspire them to act.

6 Types of Content That are Perfect for Adding Text to Images

So what types of content work best with text-enhanced images? Pretty much anything! But here are some specific use cases:

1. Social media graphics – Adding text to photos helps you capture more real estate in the feed and allows you to convey a message without relying on the caption.

2. Blog post featured images – Make your featured images work harder by adding an enticing title or intriguing question related to the post topic.

3. Pinterest pins – Pins with text overlays tend to get more engagement, especially when they feature a strong headline or helpful tips. (Source)

4. Content upgrades and opt-in incentives – Add text to mockups of your ebook, checklist, or template to make it look more attractive and premium.

5. Email headers – Replace boring plain-text email headers with a beautiful, branded image featuring the email subject line or key message.

6. Infographics – Adding text to charts, graphs, and data visualizations helps explain the insights and makes them more shareable.

The common thread is that in all these cases, the added text enhances the image by providing context, promising value, or piquing curiosity. It‘s an opportunity to start telling your story and persuading your audience before they even dive into the meat of the content.

Tools for Adding Text to Images

As I mentioned in the previous post, you don‘t need expensive or complicated software to create stunning graphics. Here‘s a quick recap of some of the best tools, with a few expert tips for each:

Canva

Canva is popular among marketers for good reason. Its drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, and it offers a huge library of templates, fonts, and design assets.

To add text like a pro in Canva:

• Keep an eye on the character and line limits for each text type (heading, subheading, body) to avoid overflow
• Use the "Position" dropdown to place your text in front of or behind other elements
• Hold Shift while resizing text boxes to maintain proportions
• Customize templates to match your brand by changing colors and fonts
• Take advantage of the "Styles" feature under the Text tab to save your formatting and apply it with one click

Adobe Photoshop

For those who need more advanced capabilities, Photoshop is the gold standard for working with images. Its text tools are robust and precise.

A few power tips:

• Use the Character panel (Windows > Character) for fine-tuned control over typography settings
• Convert your text layer to a Smart Object to resize without losing quality
• Organize text layers into Layer Groups for easy bulk edits
• Try the Warp Text tool for bending and shaping text
• Save custom Character and Paragraph Styles to maintain consistency

Snapseed

When working with text on mobile images, Snapseed is my go-to app for its range of pro-level features.

Some tips for using text in Snapseed:

• The "Expand" menu option lets you add more space around your image to fit text
• Pinch to resize text or drag to reposition it
• Tap the checkerboard icon to toggle a transparent text background on/off
• Use Looks to add filters to your text layer for extra flair
• Tap and hold the eye icon to get a before/after preview

No matter what tool you use, the key is to be intentional and consistent with your text elements. Develop a style guide for your brand that covers fonts, colors, formatting, and voice. Using the same look and feel across images will make you instantly recognizable.

Design Best Practices for Readable, Effective Image Text

Adding text to an image isn‘t just slapping some words on a picture. Like any good design, it requires thought and a focus on user experience. After all, what good is text if it‘s hard to read or clashes with the image?

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Contrast is King

The number one rule of designing with text is to make sure it‘s readable. That means ensuring high contrast between the text and background.

Imagine yellow text on a white background or dark grey text on a black image. No one wants to squint to try to decipher the words.

Luckily, there are objective standards we can use. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. (Source)

You can use tools like WebAIM‘s Color Contrast Checker to test if your text/background combo passes the bar.

Size Matters

The average adult reading distance for digital devices is 20-40 inches for phones and tablets and 20-28 inches for laptops. (Source)

To be legible at those distances, aim for a minimum font size of 12pt/16px for phones and 14pt/18px for tablets and laptops. For text that you want to emphasize (like headlines), go bigger – at least 20pt/26px for mobile and 24pt/32px and up for desktop.

Font Choice

With thousands of fonts out there, it‘s easy to get carried away. But for maximum readability and professionalism, it‘s best to stick to a few tried-and-true options.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Sans-serif: Open Sans, Roboto, Lato, Montserrat
• Serif: Lora, Merriweather, Libre Baskerville
• Display/Heading: Playfair Display, Raleway, Bitter

When pairing fonts, use a sans-serif for body text and a complementary serif or display font for headlines. Two fonts are usually plenty. Be wary of using overly trendy or gimmicky typefaces that may look dated quickly.

Layout and Spacing

The way you arrange text on an image can have a big impact on readability and visual appeal. A few tips:

• Avoid long lines of text – aim for 35-50 characters per line, or about 4-6 words, to minimize eye fatigue
• Break up text into short paragraphs or bullet points to increase white space and scannability
• Use a grid to anchor your text to strategic points like the rule of thirds for balance and consistency
• Leave breathing room around text, but keep related text chunks (like a heading and subhead) close to each other

Text and SEO: Do‘s and Don‘ts

Adding text to images can be beneficial for SEO, as long as you follow a few best practices.

First, any text that appears in the image should also be included in the page/post content. Search engines can‘t "read" text within images, so you need to optimize the surrounding context.

For the image itself, make sure to:

• Use a descriptive file name that includes your target keyword (e.g. "red-velvet-cupcake-recipe.jpg")
• Fill out the alt text field with a brief description of what‘s in the image, including any text
• Add structured data where relevant, like recipe schema that lists ingredients shown in the image
• Compress images to reduce file size and improve page load speed – tools like TinyPNG can help

However, avoid these common mistakes:

• Keyword stuffing in file names or alt text
• Using images to display important navigational or textual info instead of HTML text
• Hiding text within images to try to game search rankings – this can backfire and get you penalized

Ultimately, image SEO is about providing additional context and making your images accessible to search engines. The on-page text is still the priority.

Examples and Case Studies

Need some inspiration? Let‘s look at a few clever uses of text on images in the wild.

Moz‘s Whiteboard Friday Thumbnails

Image Source

Moz‘s popular Whiteboard Friday video series uses custom thumbnails featuring the video title in bright, bold text. This makes the topic pop at a glance, both on their blog and in YouTube results.

Backlinko‘s Definitive Guides

Image Source

Backlinko creates highly anticipated "definitive guide" ebooks on SEO and online marketing. The covers prominently display the title along with an eye-catching graphic. This helps build buzz when shared on social media.

Starbucks Instagram Quotes

Image Source

Starbucks often shares text-based graphics on their Instagram featuring feel-good quotes about coffee, friendship, and positivity. These highly shareable posts garner tons of likes and comments.

Notice how all of these examples are tied to a strong brand identity. The fonts, colors, and tone used in the text align with the overall aesthetic and voice. That‘s key for creating images with text that look professional and purposeful.

Accessibility and Adding Text to Images

As you‘re adding text to images, don‘t forget about accessibility. Visually impaired users may be using a screen reader to consume your content, so you need to make sure they‘re getting the full picture (pun intended).

That‘s where alt text comes in. Alt text is a short text description of an image that gets read aloud by screen readers. It‘s also displayed if the image fails to load.

For images that contain important text, your alt text needs to convey that information. Here‘s an example:

<img src="startup-funding-infographic.png" alt="Infographic titled ‘The State of Startup Funding in 2024‘. Bar graph shows total venture capital investment at $162 billion, down 50% from 2021. Pie chart breaks down funding by stage, with seed and early stage rounds accounting for 63% of deals.">

The goal is to provide an equivalent experience for all users, regardless of ability. Just be careful not to go overboard and stuff your alt text with irrelevant terms. Keep it concise and descriptive.

Beyond alt text, you can improve the accessibility of images with text by:

• Using high-contrast colors (as discussed above)
• Providing captions or transcripts for videos and complex graphics
• Placing text over solid-color backgrounds when possible vs. high-frequency images
• Avoiding images that flash more than 3 times per second, as they may cause seizures
• Offering a text-only alternative for infographics or data visualizations

It‘s not about sacrificing style for accessibility. With a little extra effort, your text images can be both beautiful and inclusive.

Final Thoughts

I hope this deep dive into adding text to images has been enlightening! To recap, remember:

• Text overlays can significantly boost engagement and conversions
• There are endless possibilities for enhancing images with text, from social posts to email graphics
• Tools like Canva and Photoshop make it easy to design professional-looking visuals
• Contrast, font size and choice, and layout all impact readability
• SEO for images with text involves descriptive file names, alt text, and on-page optimization
• Accessible images convey text content to all users

The power of images plus text is undeniable. So next time you‘re creating content, consider how you can merge your visuals and copy for greater impact. Your audience (and analytics) will thank you.

For even more tips, tools, and templates for leveling up your visual content, check out our resource library. Now go get creative and add some (optimized, on-brand) text to those images!