As I’ve jumped into this new challenge of short-form video, one little thing has nagged me: My videos weren’t appearing the way I expected them to.
This was due to a few issues that covered or impacted my video:
1. Icons displayed by the app on the right side
2. Text and descriptions at the bottom
3. Dead space at the top due to the device
4. Cropped out content on the sides
Each of these things taken separately was a minor annoyance. Taken together, they could seriously impact the viewability of your video.
These four things impacted me the most with two primary aspects of my video:
1. Captions. I like my captions big and bold, but they’d often spill off into the icons on the right or get covered by text from the app on the bottom.
2. Screen shares. I do a lot of tutorials, so it’s helpful to share my screen. But when I do this, I zoom in to see important areas that I’m talking about. I quickly realized that the sides were cropped slightly, which would make those screens more difficult to understand.
Because of this, it became obvious that I needed some sort of Safe Zone template for both TikTok and Instagram Reels. I know there are other templates out there, but I wanted to create my own instead of trusting someone else’s.
The templates below are based on what I’ve found for my actual videos — pre and post-publishing. It’s possible you may see differences depending on your device or applications that you use for editing.
I’ve found that the safe zones are similar, but not identical for TikTok and Instagram Reels.
TikTok Safe Zones Template
The icons on the right tend to take up a little more room on TikTok than on Instagram Reels. There does appear to be a little bit more room on the bottom in TikTok, though.
When you click the link above, you’ll download the transparent version of this template. If it doesn’t go straight to your downloads, right-click the image that does pop up to save it.
Instagram Reels Safe Zones Template
Instagram is a bit more forgiving with the room on the right for icons, but I have seen that more space is taken up with descriptive text at the bottom.
When you click the link above, you’ll download the transparent version of this template. If it doesn’t go straight to your downloads, right-click the image that does pop up to save it.
How to Use the Templates
These templates are transparent in the safe portion of the image. So, add it as a layer to whatever editing software you use.
Here’s an example in CapCut.
Add the template to your Media tab and then drag it down to a layer. You can then adjust your captions or other content to fit properly within the safe zone.
Of course, you’ll want to hide that layer or remove it entirely before you export it.
Get a Video Tutorial
I’ve also put together a video tutorial of how to use these safe zone templates. Subscribe by completing the form below and I’ll send it to you.
Enjoy!
