Add Text to AI Images That People Can Read
Words on a social picture decide whether someone understands it in the second they give it. But words are also where AI pictures most often go wrong: a swapped letter, an invented word, a price that is not yours. To add text to AI images that people can read, you need to prompt carefully and check afterwards. Here is a practical method.
Decide if the picture needs the words
Not every post needs text inside the image. The caption can carry detail. Put words in the picture only when they help someone who is scrolling fast:
- a headline
- an offer or a date
- a name or title
- a short quote
Everything else belongs in the caption.
Keep it short
The shorter the text, the better the chance it is rendered correctly, and the more people will read it. Aim for a few words as a headline. Avoid long sentences, small print and lists in the picture.
Put the exact words in quotation marks
Write the text you want, precisely, and mark it as text.
A square post with a soft pink background. Centre, in large dark green letters: "Open Sundays". Under it, in smaller letters: "10 to 6".
If you only say "add a sale message", the AI will invent one. You may get a promise you never made.
Describe the look of the text
Four things decide readability, and you can state all of them:
- Size: "large", "very large", "small label".
- Contrast: dark on light or light on dark, not mid-tone on mid-tone.
- Position: top, centre, left third, bottom band.
- Style: bold sans serif, elegant serif, hand-lettered, plain.
Portrait post. Warm photo of a fresh loaf. Add a solid cream band across the lower third with the words "Fresh every morning" in bold dark brown letters. Keep the text well away from the edges.
A solid band, panel or plain area behind the words is the simplest way to guarantee contrast on a busy photo.
Respect the safe areas
Text too near the edge can be cropped or covered. In Melon Cut Design social formats, posts keep 13% clear on each side and 12% at the top and bottom, and stories keep 8% on each side and 14% at the top and bottom. Details are in Keep Text Inside the Safe Area of a Story.
Fonts
If your brand has fonts in its guidelines, name the brand with @ and they are followed. You can also attach a font to the prompt. A consistent font is the easiest way to make posts look like they come from one place.
The proofreading step
This is not optional. Before anything leaves your hands:
- Read each word, letter by letter.
- Check prices, dates, times, phone numbers and addresses against the real ones.
- Look again at names, since they are easy to mistype.
- Take extra care with health, legal and financial wording.
If one letter is wrong, ask again with a short instruction, such as: "Same picture, with the headline spelled exactly: Open Sundays."
When text keeps failing
If a long phrase keeps coming back wrong, shorten it. If it still fails, leave a clear empty area in the picture and add the words in the caption or in another tool you trust. Keep the picture and the text separate rather than posting something that is wrong.
A note on layout
Plan space for the words when you write the prompt: "empty space in the top third" gives the text somewhere to sit. For more on writing prompts, see Write a Good AI Image Prompt.
Doing it in Melon Cut
In Melon Cut Design, write the exact text in quotes, choose your social format, and name your brand with @ to use its fonts and colours. Make up to 4 pictures from one prompt and keep the one where the words are right.