What is a lower third?
Last updated 2026-10-20
A lower third is a graphic in the lower part of the video frame, most often a name and title that identifies the person on screen. The name describes where it sits, not an exact size. It comes from broadcast television and now appears in interviews, YouTube videos and short-form social video.
What a lower third is
A lower third is text, sometimes with a box or a shape behind it, placed in the lower part of the picture. The classic version has two lines: a person's name on top and their role underneath. Some have one line, and some add a third tier for context such as a place or a date.
The word third is loose. Wikipedia describes the graphic as sitting in the title-safe lower area of the screen, and says it need not cover a whole third. In its simplest form it is just text, often white with a drop shadow. Others add boxes, images, shading or animation.
Broadcast television is where it comes from. Wikipedia says the Chyron I character generator, an early digital tool from the 1970s, was made for rendering lower thirds, and that its popularity is why people in North America sometimes call the graphic a chyron.
| Video type | Line 1 | Line 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Interview or podcast clip | Guest name | Job title and company |
| Product review | Product name | One fact, such as the model |
| Tutorial | Step name | A short description |
| Quote or testimonial | Who said it | Where it was said |
When to use one in social video
Use a lower third when a viewer would otherwise ask who is this. A creator talking to camera about their own channel rarely needs one, because the whole video already says who they are.
- Introduce a new speaker. Show the name and role the first time someone appears, then leave it off. Repeating it every time they speak is clutter.
- Credit a quote. When you cut to a line from an interview or another clip, name who said it.
- Label a step or a place. A tutorial can name each step. A travel video can name each location.
- Skip it when the screen is busy. On a short vertical video a lower third competes with captions, so make one leave before the other arrives.
Where to place it so the app does not cover it
On a vertical video the app draws its own interface over parts of your picture. TikTok's creative best practices tell advertisers to keep content visible within the UI safe zone. A lower third on the very bottom edge, the way it sits on a television, can end up underneath that interface.
There is no single margin to design to. TikTok's in-feed ad specs say the safe zone's size changes with the video's orientation, the length of the ad caption and any extra formats, and they link downloadable safe zone files. The TikTok video size guide and the Instagram Reels size guide cover what each platform publishes.
So raise it. Put the lower third in the lower middle of a vertical frame instead of on the bottom edge, keep it narrow, and check it in the platform's own preview before you post. If you also use captions, give them a different height, or time one to leave before the other arrives.
How long to keep it on screen
There is no official rule. Hold it long enough to read the name and title once, and take it off before it becomes furniture.
Read the text out loud at a normal pace and hold the graphic a little longer than that. Keep the entrance and exit quick, a fraction of a second each, so most of the time is spent holding still. A slow fade-in makes the first word hard to read.
Build a lower third in Woven
Woven has no lower-third templates and no preset to pick. You build one from a text box, a text style and an entrance animation. Text always draws above every picture lane, so it stays visible over your footage. For a colored bar behind the words, put an image on a higher picture lane under the text.
Ask in chat
- Add a lower third at 0:04 for the speaker: Sam Rivera on the first line, Head of Growth on the second, held for three seconds.
- Use the Pill style for the name and slide it in from the left, then fade it out.
- Move my captions higher so they do not collide with the lower third.
Or do it by hand
- 1Add the name. Click Add, then Text. A text box appears at the playhead and lasts 3 seconds. Double-click it on the canvas and type the name.
- 2Pick a style. Open the Style tab and choose a Text style under Appearance. Subtitle gives a dark backing and Pill gives black text on white. Use the Edit tab to set the Font and Size.
- 3Add the title line. Add a second text box with the role. Make it Plain and smaller than the name, then drag it just below the first.
- 4Place both. Drag them to the lower middle of the canvas, inside the platform's safe zone rather than on the bottom edge.
- 5Animate it. Open the Animation tab. Under Presets, set In to Slide Up and pick a Direction arrow for the way it travels: → brings it in from the left. Then set Out to Fade Out. Keep the Duration short, and repeat for the second box.
Common questions
A lower third is a graphic in the lower part of the frame that names a speaker or adds context. It can be plain text, or it can include boxes, images and animation.
It is named for where it sits, in the lower part of the screen. It does not have to fill exactly a third, and it stays inside the title-safe area.
In practice there is none. Chyron is another name for the same graphic, used mostly in North America because of the popularity of the Chyron I character generator, an early tool for rendering lower thirds.
There is no official rule. Read the text aloud at a normal pace and hold it a little longer than that.
In any editor, add a text item near the bottom with the name and role, style it, and animate it in and out. In Woven that is Add, then Text, a Text style and an In animation.
No. Woven has no lower-third presets. You build one from a text box, a style such as Subtitle or Pill, and an entrance.
Sources
- Lower third - Wikipedia, checked October 19, 2026
- Chyron Corporation - Wikipedia, checked October 19, 2026
- TikTok Ads Help: Auction In-Feed Ads, checked October 19, 2026
- TikTok Ads Help: Creative best practices for performance ads, checked October 19, 2026
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