A text highlight in a video does one thing: it tells the viewer exactly which word or phrase to pay attention to. This is a technique used extensively in documentary content, explainer videos, and political commentary. A narrator reads a quote from a report. The quote appears on screen as animated text. As the narrator reaches the key phrase, that specific phrase is visually marked: a yellow fill behind the words, an underline, or a hand-drawn circle around them. It works because it redirects attention precisely rather than generally. The viewer does not have to scan the entire quote to find what matters. The highlight does the work. This article covers every highlight style available in Moshion, what each one looks like visually, and how to use them across common video production scenarios. Text pasted from an article, with fill highlights marking the key numbers and terms. [Moshion](/create) generates animated content from a text description: charts, maps, timelines, text animations, text highlights, and complex animated concepts. Export as MP4 and drop into any editor. ## The three highlight styles ### Fill A coloured rectangle appears behind the selected text. The rectangle has 70% opacity so the text colour shows through clearly against the highlight colour. Fill is the most legible of the three styles. The contrast between text and background is high, and the shape of the highlight makes the selected region immediately obvious. Works on any background colour. **When to use fill:** When the priority is legibility. When the viewer needs to read the highlighted phrase quickly. When you are highlighting numbers, percentages, or short terms. ### Underline A horizontal stroke appears below the selected text. Stroke weight is configurable: thin (3px), medium (5px), or thick (8px). Underline is more subtle than fill. The text itself is not visually altered, so it reads naturally. The stroke draws the eye downward and marks the phrase without dominating it. The effect is closer to annotation than emphasis. **When to use underline:** When the highlight should feel secondary to the text itself. When you are annotating a longer excerpt and want the highlight to feel like a note rather than a shout. When fill would feel too heavy for the visual context. ### Circle An oval or rounded rectangle outline surrounds the selected text at a small offset. Stroke weight is configurable: thin, medium, or thick. Circle reads as the most deliberate of the three styles. It looks like a hand-drawn mark, which suits content where you want the highlight to feel like someone's annotation rather than a designed element. **When to use circle:** When the "annotating a physical document" feeling fits your content. When the text you are highlighting is short enough to sit inside a single oval without awkward line breaks. When underline feels too passive and fill feels too heavy. A short title with a single word circled. Highlights work on any text length, from a two-word title card to a full paragraph. ## Selecting text to highlight In Moshion, you select the text to highlight directly in the text preview panel. Drag across any portion of the text, and a toolbar appears above the selection with the three style options. Set the style, adjust stroke weight if applicable, pick a colour, and click Apply. The highlight is saved to that text element and appears in the rendered animation. You can add multiple highlights to the same text. A quote can have one word with a fill highlight, a different word with an underline, and a third word circled. They stack independently. ## Colour choices The default highlight colour is yellow (#FBBF24), which is visible against most backgrounds. You can use any hex colour. Highlights compete with the text they mark, so high-saturation colours work better than muted ones. A pale yellow fill at low contrast does not function as emphasis. If your video has a consistent visual palette, matching your accent colour to the highlight colour creates cohesion. For circle and underline styles, the stroke colour does not need to match anything else in the frame. These are annotation marks, and annotation marks are often contrasting by design. [Moshion](/create) generates animated content from a text description: charts, maps, timelines, text animations, text highlights, and complex animated concepts. Export as MP4 and drop into any editor. ## Templates Each template describes a production scenario with a specific highlight configuration. ### The pulled quote **Use case:** You have a written source (report, article, study, speech) and you want to show a specific excerpt on screen with the key finding marked. The most common documentary technique. **Example text:** "Between 2010 and 2023, the share of global electricity generated from renewable sources rose from 19% to 31%." * "19%" and "31%": Fill, accent yellow (#FBBF24) * "renewable sources": Underline, medium weight, matching colour The numbers are what the viewer needs to remember, so they get Fill. The category label gets Underline as secondary emphasis. Avoid circling a phrase that spans a line break, because the circle outline will break across two lines and lose its shape. **Animation pairing:** Typewriter entrance so the text appears as the narration reads it, with highlights visible from the start. Typewriter entrance with a phrase underlined for attribution. The text appears character by character while the highlight is visible throughout. ### The contradicted claim **Use case:** You are setting up a contrast between what someone said and what actually happened. You want to mark the specific claim that was wrong. **Example text:** "The company stated that it had 'no plans for layoffs' in its February earnings call." * "no plans for layoffs": Circle, thick weight, red or high-contrast colour Circle suits this use case because it reads as a hand-drawn correction mark. Red increases the sense of contradiction. Do not use fill here because it would make the phrase look important rather than wrong. **Animation pairing:** Reveal (word-by-word) so the quote reads progressively, with the circled phrase appearing as the narration reaches it. ### The expert stat **Use case:** You are citing a statistic from a credible source and want the viewer to retain the number. **Example text:** "According to the IMF, global public debt reached $100 trillion in 2024, equivalent to 93% of global GDP." * "$100 trillion": Fill, accent colour * "93% of global GDP": Fill, same accent colour Two fills on numbers in the same sentence work because both numbers are the point. If the sentence had three or more numbers, mark only the most important one, otherwise the highlight stops functioning as selective emphasis. **Animation pairing:** Step Fade entrance so the words appear in sequence. ### The annotated article excerpt **Use case:** You want to reproduce a key paragraph from a news article, academic paper, or report as animated text with your own annotations marked. This technique appears frequently in political commentary and research-based content. For a longer excerpt of 3 to 5 sentences: * One or two key phrases: Fill, yellow * One attribution or source detail: Underline, thin weight, grey or muted colour * One disputed or surprising claim: Circle, medium weight, contrasting colour With longer excerpts, limit the total number of highlights to three. More than that, and the viewer's eye has no clear path through the text. The fill highlights draw the eye first, then the underline and circle follow. **Animation pairing:** Typewriter entrance at a pace matched to your narration. ### The comparison frame **Use case:** You are showing two competing claims, options, or time periods side by side. Each side has one phrase marked for contrast. * Element 1 ("2019 projection: GDP growth of 3.5% by 2025"): Fill on "3.5%", green * Element 2 ("2025 actual result: GDP growth of 1.2%"): Fill on "1.2%", red This is the one case where using two different highlight colours in the same frame is correct. The colour contrast communicates the directional difference without the viewer having to read a legend. **Animation pairing:** Slide In on element 1 timed to your narration of the first claim, then Slide In on element 2 timed to your narration of the actual result. ### The term definition **Use case:** You are introducing a technical term, a piece of legislation, a historical concept, or a foreign word and want to mark it clearly before defining it. **Example text:** "Quantitative easing is a monetary policy tool where a central bank buys financial assets to inject money into the economy." * "Quantitative easing": Fill, accent colour The term being defined gets the fill. The definition itself does not. This creates a clear visual relationship: highlighted phrase is the subject, unmarked text is the explanation. **Animation pairing:** Typewriter or Step Fade. ### The source attribution **Use case:** You are sourcing a claim and want the attribution to be visible without dominating the frame. **Example text:** "This figure comes from the 2023 World Bank Global Development Report, Chapter 4." * "World Bank Global Development Report": Underline, thin weight, grey or subdued colour Underline on an attribution reads as a citation rather than emphasis. Keep the colour muted so it reads as secondary to any fill highlights on the main claim in the same frame. **Animation pairing:** Fade In, slower than the main claim element. If the attribution appears below the claim, time it to appear 0.5 to 1.0 seconds after the main text is fully visible. ## What not to highlight Highlighting everything is the same as highlighting nothing. If every other word has a fill behind it, the fills stop functioning as emphasis and become visual noise. **Highlighting filler words.** "According to," "which stated that," "in its quarterly report" are connective tissue, not content. Mark the substance. **Using circle on long phrases.** The circle outline requires the phrase to fit in a single line. On two lines, the circle breaks into two separate ovals, which reads as an error. If the phrase you want to circle spans more than about seven words, use underline or fill instead. **Using the same highlight colour as your background.** A yellow fill on a yellow background is invisible. Check your highlight colour against your theme's background colour before committing to it. **Stacking overlapping highlights.** Two highlights that cover overlapping character ranges will render on top of each other. Keep highlight ranges non-overlapping. Animated visuals for your videos. In seconds. Moshion generates the animated visual you need. 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