What Is a Lower Third?
A lower third is a text graphic placed in the bottom area of the frame that tells the viewer who is on screen or adds context to what they are watching. When a name and title fade up under someone in an interview, that is a lower third. It lives in the bottom band of the picture, hence the name, and it is one of the most common graphics in all of video.
You have seen thousands of them. The news anchor's name. The expert's credentials. The location stamp on a travel show. They are so ordinary that most viewers never consciously notice them, which is exactly the point of a good one.
Where the name comes from
It is literal. The graphic sits in the lower third of the screen, roughly the bottom band of the frame. Wikipedia describes it as a graphic overlay placed in the lower area of the screen, frequently white text with a drop shadow to keep it legible against any background.
You will also hear it called a chyron. That is a brand name that became a generic term, the same way people say band-aid or kleenex. As No Film School explains, the word comes from the Chyron Corporation, whose character generators dominated broadcast graphics starting in the 1970s. So when an old-school news producer says 'put up the chyron,' they mean the lower third. Editors also call them CG, for character generator, or simply captions.
What a lower third is for
The core job is identification. The viewer sees a face and immediately wonders, who is this and why should I listen? The lower third answers both in about three seconds: Dr. Maya Okonkwo, Climate Scientist. Done. Now the audience can focus on what she is saying instead of guessing who she is.
But it does more than name people. A lower third can stamp a location, label a chapter, flag a date, or add a one-line clarification the speaker did not provide. In news it summarizes the story in a banner. In a corporate testimonial it tells you the customer's company so the praise carries weight. In a tutorial it can label the step you are on.
The common thread: a lower third hands the viewer information their eyes and ears would otherwise have to work for.
Anatomy of a good one
Most lower thirds follow the same structure. A primary line, usually a name, in a larger or bolder weight. A secondary line, usually a title or role, smaller and quieter underneath. Often a background element, a bar, a box, a subtle gradient, so the text stays readable no matter what is behind it. Sometimes a logo or accent color tying it to the brand.
The design rules are not complicated, but breaking them shows instantly:
- Legibility first. White or near-white text with a shadow or a backing shape survives a busy background. Thin gray text over a bright window does not.
- Keep it short. A lower third is read at a glance. A name and a five-word title, not a paragraph.
- Mind the safe area. Push it too low or too far to the edge and it gets clipped on some screens. Leave margin.
- Animate gently. A soft fade or slide in and out reads as professional. A spinning, bouncing entrance pulls focus off the speaker.
When to use one, and when to hold back
Use a lower third the first time a new person appears, the first time you cut to a new location that matters, or any moment the viewer needs context that is not otherwise on screen. In a multi-person piece, re-identify someone if they have been off screen long enough that a viewer might have lost track.
Now the restraint. Do not leave a lower third up the entire time someone talks. Fade it up when they first appear, hold it for a few seconds so it can be read twice, then take it away. A name that lingers for ninety seconds becomes visual noise. And do not stack a lower third under your single most important emotional beat, the same logic as a cutaway, do not put a graphic over the moment the words need to land alone.
One more: resist the urge to label everything. If it is obvious who is talking, a returning host, the narrator, you do not need to name them every cut. Over-labeling makes a piece feel like a slideshow.
A worked example
You are cutting a three-person panel discussion into a tight highlight video. Each speaker needs identifying, but the conversation cuts between them quickly. If you lower-third every single time the camera switches, the screen never settles.
The fix: introduce each person with a full lower third, name and title, the first time they speak. Hold it about four seconds, long enough to read twice, then fade it. After that, only bring the lower third back if the same person returns much later, or if you suspect the viewer has lost the thread. The graphics serve the conversation instead of fighting it. The talking gets the screen; the labels get out of the way.
Planning lower thirds in the pre-edit
Lower thirds get built in your editing software, the title tools in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut all have templates ready to go. But the decisions, who needs naming, what their title is, where in the cut they first appear, are decisions you make in the pre-edit, while you are still choosing which moments make the cut.
That is where a transcript-first approach helps. When you select your soundbites from the transcript and arrange them into a story, you can see at a glance every place a new speaker enters, because the transcript already tags who said what. You note 'lower third here' against the first line of each new voice, then finish the actual graphic in the NLE. The pre-edit decides the where and the what; the editor builds the look. With ScriptCut you arrange the talking in the transcript, see exactly where each speaker comes in, and export a clean timeline to your NLE where the lower thirds go on. For the bigger picture, see how to edit a testimonial video and how to add captions to video clips, which covers the related world of on-screen text.
A lower third is a small graphic with an outsized job: it answers the viewer's first question before they finish asking it. Get it clean, legible, and brief, and it disappears into the work, which is the highest compliment a graphic can earn. Related reading: how to edit a talking-head video.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Is a lower third the same as a chyron?
In everyday use, yes. Chyron is a brand name from the Chyron Corporation, whose character generators were the broadcast standard in the 1970s, and it became a generic term for the lower-third graphic. Editors also call them CG or captions.
How long should a lower third stay on screen?
Long enough to read comfortably twice, usually around three to five seconds, then fade it out. Leaving a lower third up for an entire interview turns it into visual noise and clutters the frame.
What text goes in a lower third?
Usually a name on the primary line and a title or role on the secondary line. Keep it short, a name plus a few-word descriptor. It is meant to be read at a glance, not studied.
Do I design lower thirds before or during editing?
You decide who needs naming and what their title is during the pre-edit, when you can see every place a new speaker enters. You build the actual graphic in your editing software, where the title tools and templates live.