How do I make on-screen text look professional?

The Diagnosis

Amateur text is usually three sins at once: too much of it, too small, and animated at random. Professional text inverts all three. One thought on screen at a time — the frame has a working-memory budget and every extra word spends it. Sized for the glance: if it doesn't read at phone size in half a second, it doesn't read. And moving with intent, not decoration — text that arrives, lands, and exits with purpose engages viewers as motion AND as language, which is why kinetic type out-retains static captions; random bounces and rainbow presets engage nobody and read as template. Two timing rules do the heavy lifting: sync text to the spoken word with a slight delay so it lands as confirmation rather than subtitle, and reserve the full-frame text slam for the one line per video that deserves to be read twice. Text is emphasis. Emphasizing everything emphasizes nothing.