Photos with text over them are kind of hot right now. My Instagram feed is full of those really beautiful looking photos with quotes on them. Or motivational text. Have you ever wondered the secret behind them? And how you too can easily create such images?

The good news is that you don’t need a degree in graphic design and Photoshop to create those images. All you need is your iPhone, some free apps, a bit of time and even a tinier bit of talent. Yup, It’s as easy as picking an image (the apps will help you there as well), typing in the text, styling it a bit and then sharing it on social media.

Here are the apps that do it best.

1. Over

Over is a free app to boot but if you take the process of creating beautiful photos with text overlays seriously, you’re going to have to invest a couple of dollars (about six) by buying the Pro upgrades.

I’ve seen Over grow from a fun app for adding text over images (with a quirky wheel based menus I never really got) into pretty much a professional tool for getting the job done.

For free, Over will let you pick images from your gallery (or from Unsplash), and will let you add cool fonts and edit the placement.

But it’s the pro tools where Over gets really interesting. Here are just some of the cool features.

• Filters
• Blending mode
• Drop shadow
• Pixabay integration
• Blur
• Tint

Plus, Over has a robust collection of ready to go artwork (for frequently used text and inspirational texts) so you can just drag and drop stuff to make your images look really cool.

You can also unlock font packs.

Unlike the wheel based interaction of the yesteryear, I’m a big fan of Over’s current straightforward and polished UI. Entering text, moving it around, resizing it and editing the text is very easy. If you’ve used Instagram, you’ll get used to Over’s UI pretty easily.

Download: Over

2. Quick

If you think Over is too overwhelming, try the Quick app from the same developers. The app stays true to its name.

You can quickly select the photo from your camera roll, directly type in the text, change it and then change the color of the text using a slider. And that’s basically all you can do. Once you’re done, tap the “Arrow” button to quickly share it on a social network.

The app is free but you’ll have to pay $1.99 to remove the Quick watermark and to unlock premium fonts.

Download: Quick

3. Typorama

Typorama was created for that person who has to upload motivational photos on Instagram every day. Typorama will make that process just so much easier for you. When you open the app, you can search for free stock images (something generic like beach, nature is very easy to find), then Typorama will even generate random quotes for you so you don’t even need to type that.

From the bottom of the screen, you get a myriad of options for customizing the text artwork. And Typorama has some really cool styles here. And each text style and different versions. Just keep tapping to view different versions.

The combination of all of the above features makes it ridiculously easy to create gorgeous motivational images with eye-catching typography (and I haven’t even mentioned features like overlays, gradients and more). All the images you see in the screenshots here were generated by me just typing a bunch of buttons and not doing anything else.

Typorama is really good at this one thing. But it’s not a versatile tool. For instance, there’s no way to add more than one text box. And you don’t have much control over the text style other than moving it around and changing its color or opacity. You have to basically go with the presets. The presets are nice, sure but that’s all you have. At some point, you’re going to run out of then. Some of the presets are locked down and you can pay $3.99 to unlock them. This will also remove the Typorama watermark.

Download: Typorama

4. Enlight

Enlight is a behemoth of a photo editing app (just look at their community submissions on their Instagram profile). I’ve been using it for the past couple of months and I still haven’t figured out how to use all the features (one of these days I’ll figure out the two images double exposure thing, I promise).

Enlight does everything. And that includes almost pro level photo editing features, plus pretty well-done text input and artwork options.

Over will help you overlay amazing text on images. But if you want to edit the image itself, you’ll need something powerful like Enlight.

The app costs $3.99 but for all the great features it provides, I think it’s worth it. I’m personally in love with its black-and-white mode and the crazy level of customizations available.

Download: Enlight ($3.99)

Bonus: Canva for iPad

If you didn’t know already, Canva is the tool for creating awesome graphics and images online. And it does the text over photos thing really well. It’s a feature rich service and it’s quite a workhorse on the web.

Fortunately, it’s also available as an app on iOS, just that it’s only for the iPad. So if you work on the iPad, look into Canva from creating awesome social media images.

Download: Canva for iPad

My Recommendation

If creating these images is part of your job or you’re just really passionate about it, I’d say stick with Over, collect all the stuff they give away for free every day and upgrade to the Pro toolkit. It’s going to be worth it.

What’s Your Favorite App?

Do you have a favorite app for adding images on text? Or for photo editing in general? Share with us in the comments below.