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Skillscaption-templates

caption-templates

Design & creation

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Updated 10-26 16:17

About this skill

Palmier Pro caption templates

Caption styling is where an agent most easily produces something ugly: it pairs a font with a size that doesn't suit it, picks a neon color that fights the footage, or stacks an outline + background + shadow that no editor would ship. This skill replaces that guesswork with a default. Every value below was read out of a real Palmier project and confirmed against rendered frames.

Hard rules

  1. Pick exactly one template. Paste its config verbatim. Do not blend two templates, do not "improve" a color, do not add an outline or background a template doesn't have.
  2. No style at all is a valid answer. If the user just says "add captions" with no aesthetic intent, call add_captions with no style / animation / transform — the app's own default is clean and correct. Reach for a template only when the user signals a look ("bold", "podcast", "TikTok", "make them pop", "match my brand", names a vibe).
  3. Match orientation. Vertical templates are authored for 1080×1920, horizontal for 1920×1080. Using the wrong set gives text that is comically large or unreadably small — see Porting across canvas sizes.
  4. Fonts outside this catalog are fair game — but verify them. Palmier's font list is far larger than the 13 families used here; this catalog is a curated slice, not the available set. Set whatever font the user asks for. What doesn't change: after setting an unfamiliar font, render a frame with inspect_timeline and confirm it actually resolved instead of silently falling back to a default.
  5. Always verify. After add_captions or update_text, run inspect_timeline on a frame inside the caption range and actually look at it.

Workflow

- [ ] 1. get_timeline — canvas width/height, fps, which track has speech
- [ ] 2. Pick ONE template from the picker below (or none — see rule 2)
- [ ] 3. add_captions with that template's exact block
- [ ] 4. inspect_timeline mid-caption — confirm it renders as described
- [ ] 5. Report the template name you used

Restyling captions that already exist? Skip to Switching a template on existing captions — it is not just passing the new style.

Picker

Ask what the video is, not what color the user likes. The left column is the answer to "what is this?"

Vertical (1080×1920 — Reels / TikTok / Shorts)

Use it for Template Look
Default vertical. Talking head, any topic Clean Creator White Inter bold, soft shadow, lower-third. Safe everywhere.
Punchy retention edit, keyword emphasis Keyword Yellow Inter bold, active word pops yellow
Music / lyric / high-energy Karaoke Fill Poppins bold, words fill in left-to-right
Max energy, big phrases Phrase Pop Manrope 72 bold, gold word pop
Podcast clip, understated Minimal Podcast Inter on a rounded translucent black pill
Podcast clip, modern Modern Podcast DM Sans bold, sky-blue active word
Playful, bouncy Bounce Poppins 76, word-by-word pop
Loud hook / cold open Punch Zoom Anton 100 ALL CAPS, dead center
Meme / reaction Meme Classic Impact ALL CAPS, thick black outline
One word at a time, hypnotic One Word Inter bold, single word, centered

Horizontal (1920×1080 — YouTube / web / landscape)

Use it for Template Look
Default horizontal. Anything Podcast Clean Captions Helvetica Neue, white, bottom. Invisible in a good way.
Broadcast / interview / accessibility Documentary Arial on a translucent black bar, full sentences
Emphasis without shouting Number Callout Inter bold, active word turns orange
Highlighter effect Marker Highlight Dark text under a sweeping yellow block
Clean, designed, brand-safe Floating Pill Dark text on a white rounded pill
Aggressive emphasis Shake Emphasis Anton CAPS, red word pop
Editorial / essay / interview Editorial Serif Georgia, quiet, no gimmicks
Film / trailer / title-card feel Cinematic Title Avenir CAPS, wide tracking, centered
Two-line / translation stack Bilingual Stack Inter bold, sits higher for a second line
Big graphic statement over a backdrop Footage Stencil Bold 120pt CAPS knocked out of the footage ⚠️ see gotcha
Tech / terminal / hacker Typewriter Terminal Green Courier on a black bar, types out
Comic / gaming / loud Comic Book POW Yellow Impact, black outline, hard drop shadow, tilted
Ambient, barely-there Minimalist Whisper Tiny lowercase grey at the very top
Retro / VHS / 80s Retro VHS Cream Courier CAPS with cyan fringe, over+underlined
Wedding / luxury / lifestyle Elegant Wedding Serif Times New Roman, warm cream, tracked out
Kids / cartoon / family Kids Cartoon Bubbly Pink Comic Sans, white outline, purple shadow
Reel-style over landscape footage Instagram Reel Bold Yellow Yellow Helvetica CAPS, black outline, centered
Meme bar / hard-cut humor TikTok Meme Bottom Bar Black CAPS on a solid white bar at the very bottom
The catalog

Every block below is a complete add_captions payload. Copy it whole. Add trackIndex only if auto-detection picks the wrong speech track.

Colors follow Palmier's defaults: text color omitted = white; outline.color / background.color / shadow.color omitted = black.

Vertical — 1080×1920

Clean Creator

White Inter bold in the vertical safe zone. The default for any short-form talking head.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "animation": "fadeIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 64, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 8, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.5 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Keyword Yellow

Same body as Clean Creator, one size up, active word pops yellow. Retention edits.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "animation": "popIn",
  "highlightColor": "#FFD900",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 70, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 8, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.45 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Karaoke Fill

Words fill in white left-to-right as spoken. Music, lyrics, high tempo.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "animation": "wordReveal",
  "highlightColor": "#FFFFFF",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Poppins", "fontSize": 66, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.55 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Phrase Pop

Biggest of the vertical body styles, gold word pop. Maximum energy.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "animation": "popIn",
  "highlightColor": "#FACC15",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Manrope", "fontSize": 72, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 10, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 4 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.55 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Minimal Podcast

Non-bold Inter on a rounded translucent black pill, sitting low. Understated podcast clips.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 54,
    "background": {
      "enabled": true, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.65,
      "cornerRadius": 16, "padding": { "x": 24, "y": 14 }
    },
    "shadow": { "enabled": true }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.85 }
}

Modern Podcast

DM Sans bold with a sky-blue active word. Cleaner and cooler than Keyword Yellow.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "animation": "fadeIn",
  "highlightColor": "#5CC8FF",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "DM Sans", "fontSize": 62, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 2 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.4 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Bounce

Large Poppins with a per-word bounce. Playful, no color accent.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "animation": "wordPop",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Poppins", "fontSize": 76, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Punch Zoom

Anton 100 ALL CAPS, dead center, two words at a time, no animation. Cold opens and hooks.

{
  "maxWords": 2,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Anton", "fontSize": 100, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase",
    "shadow": { "enabled": true }
  }
}

Meme Classic

Impact CAPS with a thick black outline, hard against the bottom. Shadow is deliberately off.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Impact", "fontSize": 72, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase",
    "outline": { "enabled": true, "width": 9, "color": "#000000" },
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.88 }
}

One Word

One word at a time, centered. Hypnotic pacing; produces ~3.5× as many caption clips.

{
  "maxWords": 1,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 52, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 8, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.5 }
  }
}

Horizontal — 1920×1080

Podcast Clean Captions

Plain white Helvetica Neue at the bottom, no animation. The horizontal default.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Helvetica Neue", "fontSize": 40,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 4, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.5 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.9 }
}

Documentary

Arial on a translucent black bar, full sentences, hard bottom. Broadcast and accessibility.

{
  "maxWords": 8,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Arial", "fontSize": 42,
    "background": { "enabled": true, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.45 },
    "shadow": { "enabled": true }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.9 }
}

Number Callout

White Inter bold; the active word recolors orange and scales. Emphasis that stays readable.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "highlightPop",
  "highlightColor": "#FF6B00",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 54, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 8, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.5 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.8 }
}

Marker Highlight

Dark text with a yellow block sweeping across the active word. ⚠️ Un-highlighted words are #111111 with no outline — they wash out over light footage. Use Number Callout instead if the plate is bright.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "highlightBlock",
  "highlightColor": "#FFD23F",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 52, "bold": true, "color": "#111111",
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.85 }
}

Floating Pill

Near-black text on an opaque white rounded pill. Brand-safe and designed-looking. Shadow off.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "popIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 46, "bold": true, "color": "#1A1A1A",
    "background": {
      "enabled": true, "color": "#FFFFFF", "opacity": 1,
      "cornerRadius": 40, "padding": { "x": 28, "y": 16 }
    },
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.82 }
}

Shake Emphasis

Anton CAPS with a red word pop. The loudest horizontal option.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "wordPop",
  "highlightColor": "#FF2A2A",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Anton", "fontSize": 62, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase",
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 8, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.5 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.78 }
}

Editorial Serif

Georgia, not bold, no accent color. Essays, interviews, anything that shouldn't shout.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "fadeIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Georgia", "fontSize": 50,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 2 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.4 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.82 }
}

Cinematic Title

Avenir CAPS with wide tracking, centered, static. Reads as a title card rather than a caption.

{
  "maxWords": 3,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Avenir", "fontSize": 48, "fontCase": "uppercase", "tracking": 8,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true }
  }
}

Bilingual Stack

Plain Inter bold sitting higher than a normal lower-third, leaving room for a translation line beneath.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "fadeIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 54, "bold": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 8, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.5 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.74 }
}

Footage Stencil Bold

120pt CAPS knocked out of the layers below. ⚠️ Requires a distinct backdrop under the caption track — over the same footage it renders invisible. get_timeline does not report fillMode, so it reads back looking like an ordinary group.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "wordPop",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 120, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase", "tracking": -2,
    "outline": { "enabled": true, "width": 10, "color": "#000000" },
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  }
}

Then, in a second call, switch the group to stencil fill:

{ "captionGroupId": "<from add_captions>", "fillMode": "footage" }

Typewriter Terminal

Terminal green Courier, lowercase, typing out on a near-black bar. Tech and dev content.

{
  "maxWords": 8,
  "animation": "typewriter",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Courier New", "fontSize": 42, "fontCase": "lowercase", "color": "#33FF66",
    "background": {
      "enabled": true, "color": "#0A0A0A", "opacity": 0.85,
      "cornerRadius": 0, "padding": { "x": 32, "y": 18 }
    }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.85 }
}

Comic Book POW

Yellow Impact CAPS, heavy black outline, hard offset drop shadow, tilted 4° and sitting high. Gaming and comedy.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "wordPop",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Impact", "fontSize": 96, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase", "color": "#FFDE00",
    "outline": { "enabled": true, "width": 12, "color": "#111111" },
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": 6, "y": 6 }, "color": "#111111", "opacity": 1 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.45, "rotation": -4 }
}

fontSize reads back near 95.98 — Palmier auto-fits long captions. Author 96.

Minimalist Whisper

Tiny lowercase grey at 80% opacity, parked at the top of frame. Ambient; not for accessibility.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "fadeIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Inter", "fontSize": 30, "fontCase": "lowercase", "tracking": 3,
    "color": "#EAEAEACC",
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.1 }
}

Retro VHS

Cream Courier CAPS with a cyan chromatic fringe offset left, over- and underlined, top of frame.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Courier New", "fontSize": 44, "fontCase": "uppercase", "tracking": 4,
    "color": "#FFF8E7", "underline": true, "overline": true,
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": -3, "y": 0 }, "color": "#00E5FF", "opacity": 0.8 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.12 }
}

Elegant Wedding Serif

Times New Roman in warm cream with light tracking, low in frame. Weddings, luxury, lifestyle.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "fadeIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Times New Roman", "fontSize": 44, "tracking": 2, "color": "#F5EFE0",
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": 0, "y": 3 }, "color": "#000000", "opacity": 0.4 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.88 }
}

Kids Cartoon Bubbly

Pink Comic Sans with a white outline and a purple hard shadow; active word goes orange.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "wordPop",
  "highlightColor": "#FF7A00",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Comic Sans MS", "fontSize": 66, "bold": true, "color": "#FF5FA2",
    "outline": { "enabled": true, "width": 8, "color": "#FFFFFF" },
    "shadow": { "enabled": true, "blur": 0, "offset": { "x": 4, "y": 4 }, "color": "#7A2E8C", "opacity": 1 }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.72 }
}

Instagram Reel Bold Yellow

Yellow Helvetica CAPS with a thin black outline, centered. Reel energy on a landscape canvas. Shadow off.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "animation": "popIn",
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Helvetica Neue", "fontSize": 72, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase",
    "tracking": -1, "color": "#FFE600",
    "outline": { "enabled": true, "width": 5, "color": "#000000" },
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  }
}

TikTok Meme Bottom Bar

Black CAPS on a solid white bar pinned to the very bottom. Hard-cut meme humor.

{
  "maxWords": 5,
  "style": {
    "fontName": "Helvetica Neue", "fontSize": 46, "bold": true, "fontCase": "uppercase",
    "color": "#000000",
    "background": {
      "enabled": true, "color": "#FFFFFF", "opacity": 1,
      "cornerRadius": 0, "padding": { "x": 16, "y": 6 }
    },
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  },
  "transform": { "centerY": 0.95 }
}

Parameter reference

maxWords is the density dial and the single biggest driver of feel. Palmier still breaks on natural pauses, so it is a cap, not a quota.

maxWords Feel Templates
1 One word at a time, hypnotic One Word
2 Rapid-fire Punch Zoom
3 Standard vertical / short-form all vertical, Cinematic Title
5 Standard horizontal most horizontal
8 Full sentences, broadcast Documentary, Typewriter Terminal

animation — fadeIn (safe, default), popIn, slideUp, typewriter, wordReveal (karaoke fill), wordSlide, wordPop (per-word bounce), wordCycle, highlightPop (active word recolors + scales), highlightBlock (active word gets a colored block behind it), off. Word-timed presets read the transcript, so they cost nothing extra. highlightColor only does anything with wordReveal, wordPop, highlightPop, highlightBlock, and the popIn/fadeIn variants that carry one.

transform.centerY — 0 = top, 1 = bottom. Omitting it centers at 0.5. The catalog's positions:

centerY Zone Templates
0.10–0.12 Top overlay Minimalist Whisper, Retro VHS
0.45–0.50 Dead center Punch Zoom, Cinematic Title, Footage Stencil Bold, Comic Book POW, Instagram Reel Bold Yellow, One Word
0.72–0.74 Vertical safe zone (above UI chrome) most vertical, Bilingual Stack
0.78–0.85 Standard lower-third Shake Emphasis, Editorial Serif, Floating Pill, Marker Highlight, Number Callout, Minimal Podcast, Typewriter Terminal
0.88–0.95 Hard bottom Meme Classic, Documentary, Elegant Wedding Serif, Podcast Clean Captions, TikTok Meme Bottom Bar

Color defaults, so you know what "omitted" means: text color defaults to white, outline.color and background.color and shadow.color default to black. shadow.enabled defaults to false — a shadow block with blur and offset but no enabled: true renders nothing.

Sizes are canvas points, where the canvas equals the project's pixel dimensions. Every number in this catalog is authored for a 1080-line canvas.

Porting across canvas sizes

  • Same orientation, different resolution (4K, 720p): multiply fontSize, outline.width, shadow.blur, shadow.offset, background.padding, and background.cornerRadius by targetHeight / 1080. centerY, tracking, and opacities are already normalized — leave them.
  • Vertical template on a horizontal project (or vice versa): don't. Pick the equivalent from the other table. The two sets are tuned differently on purpose — vertical runs 54–100pt on a 1080-wide canvas, horizontal runs 30–72pt on a 1920-wide one.

Switching a template on existing captions

update_text is a partial patch — omitted properties keep their old values. Switching from a template with an outline to one without leaves the outline on. Always explicitly clear what the outgoing template set:

{
  "captionGroupId": "<from get_timeline>",
  "animation": "off",
  "fillMode": "color",
  "style": {
    "color": "#FFFFFF", "tracking": 0, "fontCase": "mixed",
    "bold": false, "italic": false, "underline": false, "overline": false,
    "outline": { "enabled": false },
    "background": { "enabled": false },
    "shadow": { "enabled": false }
  }
}

Send that reset first, then the new template's style / animation / transform in a second call. Two calls, reliably correct, beats one call that half-applies.

maxWords cannot be changed by update_text — it decides how the transcript was split. To change caption density you must delete the caption clips and re-run add_captions.

Gotchas

  • Footage Stencil Bold renders invisible over a single video layer. It uses fillMode: "footage", which knocks the letters out of whatever is below — with the same footage below, the result is pixel-identical to the footage. It needs a distinct backdrop (a color matte, a blurred copy, a b-roll layer) beneath the caption track. Also note get_timeline does not report fillMode, so a stencil group looks like an ordinary one when you read it back.
  • Marker Highlight only reads on the highlighted word. Its base text is #111111 with no outline; over light footage the un-highlighted words nearly disappear. That is the intended effect, but confirm the footage is dark enough — otherwise use Number Callout, which keeps the base text white.
  • shadow.enabled is easy to lose. Several catalog templates carry shadow blur/offset values with the shadow switched off (Meme Classic, Floating Pill, Marker Highlight, Footage Stencil Bold, Minimalist Whisper, Instagram Reel Bold Yellow, TikTok Meme Bottom Bar). Copy enabled exactly; don't assume a shadow block means a visible shadow.
  • get_timeline omits anything at its default. Reading a group back and seeing no color means white, not "unset". Don't round-trip a read into a write and expect fidelity — write from this catalog.
  • fontSize may come back fractional (e.g. 95.977 instead of 96). Palmier auto-fits the box for long captions. Author the round number; ignore the drift on read.

Expanding beyond the catalog

When the user wants something not in the catalog, start from the nearest template and change one axis, keeping everything else:

| User asks | Change | |---|---|---| | "brand colors" | style.color and/or highlightColor only | | "bigger" / "smaller" | fontSize only, ±20% steps | | a specific font | style.fontName only — then inspect_timeline to confirm it resolved, and re-tune fontSize if the new face runs wider or narrower | | "higher" / "lower" | transform.centerY only, ±0.05 steps | | "more/less energy" | swap animation within the same family (fadeIn ↔ popIn ↔ wordPop) | | "tighter" / "looser" captions | maxWords, and re-run add_captions | | "add a background" | copy the background block from Minimal Podcast, Documentary, Floating Pill, Typewriter Terminal, or TikTok Meme Bottom Bar wholesale |

Changing two or more axes at once is how captions get ugly. If the user's request genuinely needs a new look, build it, then inspect_timeline and show them the frame before moving on.