How to Outline Text on Instagram Stories

Making your text stand out on a busy Instagram Story background can feel like a losing battle, but adding a simple outline is one of the easiest ways to make your words pop. This small design trick instantly boosts readability and gives your Stories a more polished, professional look. This tutorial will walk you through several methods for outlining text, from a simple in-app hack to using features you might not even know exist.

Why Adding a Text Outline to Your Stories is a Game-Changer

Before we get into the "how," let's talk about the "why." You might think a text outline is just a minor stylistic choice, but it has a significant impact on how your audience engages with your content. In a feed where people tap through Stories at lightning speed, every second of attention counts.

Here’s how an outline transforms your Stories:

• Improves Readability Immediately: This is the biggest benefit. Whether your background is a bright, sunny video or a complex, detailed photograph, an outline creates a clean separation between your text and the image behind it. White text over a sky? Black text over a dark concert? An outline makes it legible no matter what.
• Strengthens Brand Identity: Consistency is everything on social media. By using your brand's specific colors for your text fill and outline, you reinforce your brand identity with every Story you post. It's a subtle but powerful way to make your content instantly recognizable.
• Captures and Holds Attention: Bold, outlined text is visually more compelling than flat text. It draws the eye and encourages viewers to actually stop and read what you’ve written instead of mindlessly tapping past it. It helps your key messages land with more impact.
• Adds a Professional Touch: Little design details separate amateur content from professional-grade marketing. Mastering text outlines shows you have a handle on the platform’s creative tools and care about the quality of what you produce.

Think of it this way: if your Story is a poster, the text is your headline. An outline makes sure that headline gets read.

The Go-To Hack: Creating Outlined Text Directly in the Instagram App

This is the classic, manual method that gives you full control over both the fill and outline colors. It takes a little practice to get the hang of it, but once you master this layering technique, you can create perfectly branded text for any situation. It involves creating two text layers and carefully placing one on top of the other.

Step-by-Step Guide to the Layer-and-Drag Technique

Don't worry if this feels tricky at first. After a few tries, it will become second nature.

1. Step 1: Open Your Story and Add Your Background.
   Start by opening the Instagram Story creator and either shooting a new photo or video, or selecting one from your camera roll.
2. Step 2: Create Your "Shadow" Layer.
   Tap the text icon ("Aa") in the upper right-hand corner. Type out the message you want to display. Now, use the color picker at the bottom to choose the color you want your outline to be. For example, if you want white text with a black outline, you would select black for this first layer. Position this text roughly where you want it to appear in the final design. Don’t worry about perfect placement just yet.
3. Step 3: Create Your "Top" Layer.
   Without deselecting anything, tap the text icon (“Aa”) again to create a new, separate text box. Type the exact same message again. This is important - typos or extra spaces will throw off the alignment. Now, select the color that you want the fill of your text to be. In our example, this would be white.
4. Step 4: Align the Layers for the Outline Effect.
   Here's the part that requires a delicate touch. You now have two identical text layers in different colors. Tap and drag the top layer (the white one) and carefully position it over the shadow layer (the black one). By placing it slightly offset - just a little up and to the side - the bottom layer will peek out from behind, creating a perfect outline or drop-shadow effect.

Pro-Tip: Use two fingers to resize or rotate the text layers for more precise control. When you drag the text around, Instagram’s blue guide lines will appear to help you center it horizontally or vertically. This technique works best with bold, blocky fonts where the outline has more surface area to be visible. Thinner, script-style fonts can get messy and hard to read with this method.

Quick &, Easy: Using Instagram’s Built-in Outline Effect

If the layer-and-drag method feels too fussy, you're in luck. Instagram has a semi-hidden feature built into certain fonts that creates an outline or shadow effect with a single tap. The limitation is that you can’t customize the fill and outline colors separately, but it's incredibly fast.

How to Find and Use the Glow/Outline Font Style

This trick relies on an alternate style option available for some fonts in the Story editor.

1. Step 1: Add Text to Your Story.
   Just like before, open your Story, add your background media, and tap the "Aa" icon to open the text editor.
2. Step 2: Select a Compatible Font.
   Type your message. Now, slide through the font options at the bottom. The effect works on several fonts, but the most common one is the second font from the right (a strong, sans-serif font).
3. Step 3: Toggle the Text Effect On.
   When you have a compatible font selected, look at the top left of your screen. You’ll see an icon that looks like the letter "A" with stars around it or an "A" inside a box. Tap this icon. Like magic, your text will now have a background highlight or a drop shadow, which functions as an outline. You can tap it multiple times to cycle through the available effects for that font.
4. Step 4: Change the Color.
   Once the effect is active, you can still change the primary color of the text using the color palette. The outline/shadow will typically default to a complementary color (like black or a dark gray) that makes the primary color pop.

This method is a fantastic way to add some flair to your text in seconds, perfect for when you're creating content on the fly.

Taking Your Text Outlines to the Next Level

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start using text outlines more strategically as a part of your design process.

Creative Ways to Style Your Outlined Text

• Create a 3D Effect: Use the layer-and-drag method but with three layers instead of two. Create a black base layer, a slightly-offset gray or brand-color mid-layer, and then your main top layer. This gives your text a cool, three-dimensional pop.
• Combine with Gradient Text: For a really eye-catching trick, combine an outline with gradient text. First, type your text and highlight it all. Then, with one finger, tap and hold on a color in the palette to open the advanced color slider. With another finger on the "end" text selection cursor, drag both fingers simultaneously across the text and the color slider. This creates a rainbow effect. Now, put a simple black or white outlined layer behind it for a truly standout result.
• Pull Colors from Your Background: Don’t just guess at colors. Use the Dropper Tool (the icon on the far left of the color palette) to pull a color directly from your background photo. Use a darker shade from the photo for your outline and a lighter one for your fill. This creates a cohesive and professional-looking design.

When You Need It Perfect: Using Third-Party Apps

The Insta-native methods are great for day-to-day use, but sometimes you need pixel-perfect precision, especially for major brand announcements or ad campaigns. In these cases, using a third-party design app is your best bet.

Apps like Canva, Adobe Express, or Over are built for this. For example, in Canva:

1. Create a design using the Instagram Story template (1080x1920 pixels).
2. Upload your background image or video.
3. Add a text box and type your message.
4. Select the text box, then navigate to the "Effects" tab.
5. Choose the "Outline" effect (some apps call it "Stroke"). Here, you can control everything: the outline color, the thickness down to the pixel, and the offset.

After you’ve designed your perfect outlined text, you can save the image or video to your phone and upload it directly to your Instagram Story. It’s an extra step, but for moments when the design needs to be flawless, the control it offers is unbeatable.

Final Thoughts

Outlining text on your Instagram Stories is a simple skill that delivers huge results, making your content more legible, on-brand, and visually engaging. Whether you use the manual layer-and-drag hack for ultimate color control, the quick built-in font effect, or a third-party app for perfect precision, you’re taking a big step toward creating more professional and effective content.

Once you’ve perfected your Story designs, the next step is building a consistent content schedule. Creating beautiful content in the moment is great, but planning ahead is how brands truly grow. This is where we designed Postbase to make a difference. Because it’s built for modern formats like Stories and Reels, we make it simple to upload your content, plan it on a visual calendar, and schedule it all ahead of time. It helps remove the daily stress of figuring out what to post and lets you focus on creating great content.