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How to add stroke around text in After Effects

A clean outline stroke makes titles pop, especially when they’re sitting on top of busy footage that would wash them out.

Steps to add stroke around text

Select your text layer and open the Character panel. Set Fill to None (the slash icon) if you want only an outline with no fill.

After Effects Character panel showing stroke color and width options for text

Enable Stroke, choose a color, then increase the Width until it looks right.

Text layer in After Effects composition viewer with a visible colored stroke applied

If you want both fill and outline together, simply keep Fill on.

Text layer in After Effects composition viewer with a visible colored stroke and a fill applied

One more thing

Use Layer Styles → Stroke (right-click your text layer) for a layer-style outline. Gives you more control and creative options.

Related how-tos

How to add a new text layer in After Effects
How to make glowing text in After Effects
How to add a shadow in After Effects

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