Create Horizontal Text Crawl in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2018)

A horizontal text crawl is that scrolling text you see at the bottom of news broadcasts, sports channels, and live event coverage. Information flows across the screen from one side to the other, letting the viewer read it while the main content continues above. It is useful for scrolling announcements, tickers, or any text too long to display statically.

Today we go over how to create a horizontal text crawl in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Create a Text Crawl

Creating the Background Bar

1. Open your sequence with the footage you want the crawl over.
2. Select the Rectangle Tool and draw a bar across the bottom of the frame.
3. Under Appearance in the graphics controls, set the fill to your background color. A semi-transparent dark bar is the standard look.

Creating the Crawl Text

4. Go to File > New > Legacy Title. Give it a name like “Text Crawl.”
5. Click Show Background so you can see your footage as reference.
6. Use the Type Tool to type your scrolling text. Copy and paste from another document for longer text.
7. Use the Selection Tool to position it at the bottom, aligned with your background bar.
8. Format with your desired font, size, and color.

Setting Up the Crawl

9. Click Roll/Crawl Options in the Legacy Title window.
10. Under Title Type, choose:
    • Crawl Left to scroll right to left (standard).
    • Crawl Right to scroll left to right.
11. Under Timing, check:
    • Start Off Screen to begin out of view.
    • End Off Screen to scroll completely out of view.
12. Click OK and close the Legacy Title window.

Adding to the Timeline

13. Drag the crawl from the Project panel onto the timeline above your footage.
14. Adjust the clip length to control scroll speed. Longer clip means slower scroll.
15. Align it with your background bar.

Tips

• Keep it readable. If you can’t read it at the current speed, it is too fast.
• Use dividers between items. Separate pieces of information with vertical bars or bullets: “Breaking News | Markets Up 2% | Weather at the Top of the Hour”
• For vertical scrolling credits, check out scrolling credits with the Roll feature.
• Loop the crawl by duplicating on the timeline with Start/End Off Screen enabled.

That is how you create a horizontal text crawl in Premiere Pro. The Legacy Title Crawl feature handles the animation automatically.