Text cut off on slideshow slides: why it happens and a margin plan

Is your text cut off, cropped or covered?

Three different problems look the same on a phone and have different fixes. Sort yours before you change anything.

These three layers are our way of sorting the problem, not a platform classification. The only documented part is the ad guidance in the next section. Everything else here is worth checking.

If the cut is in the file, fix the file: the text box is larger than the slide, the text is too long for the box, or a font was replaced by a wider one when you exported. That last cause is worth checking on any tool, because a missing font changes line lengths. The words per slide page helps you cut the text to fit.

If the cut is a platform crop, see TikTok slideshow photos cropped or Instagram carousel cropped. The rest of this page is about overlays.

What do TikTok and Meta document about overlays?

Only ads. As of November 2026, nothing we read gives pixel margins for organic photo posts.

• TikTok, ads. TikTok for Business (opens in a new tab) publishes downloadable safe-zone template files, says the safe zone depends on orientation and add-ons, and says that the longer the caption, the smaller the safe zone. Key text and logos outside it might be covered or cropped. The page gives no pixels.
• TikTok, photo posts. The Creator Academy article (opens in a new tab) gives no safe-zone figures. Third-party guides disagree: adkit.so (opens in a new tab), TryMyPost (opens in a new tab) and House of Marketers (opens in a new tab) suggest 150 px on every edge, or top 260, bottom 500 and right 200, or about 240 at the top plus the bottom third. We saw those numbers in search excerpts only and did not read the full guides, so they are low confidence.
• Meta, ads. Meta's Business Help Center (opens in a new tab) says 9:16 ads should keep the top, bottom and sides free of key elements, 1:1 or 4:5 Feed ads should keep the bottom and sides free, and Reels ads with disclaimers should leave the bottom 40 percent free. It adds that taller screens may zoom and crop outside the safe zone. The Ads Guide (opens in a new tab) says to consider leaving roughly 14 percent of the top, 35 percent of the bottom and 6 percent on each side free for Instagram Reels image ads.
• Instagram carousels. We found no overlay guidance for organic carousel photos. The one documented crop is the profile grid's first-item tile, covered on the grid crop page.

All of Meta's guidance is for ads, so for organic posts it is a benchmark and not a rule.

What margin plan should you use?

Take the strictest general value for text you cannot afford to lose (the 40 percent bottom margin above applies to Reels ads with disclaimers and is not used here), and express it as a share of the canvas so it scales. The TikTok column restates the strict box from the TikTok safe zone page, which takes the largest margin from the sources above. The Instagram column is our own habit, since nothing documents an overlay there.

Three notes on how to use it:

• On a 3:4 first slide, add the grid trim. If the profile tile is 3:4, as reported, a 3:4 slide loses nothing at the sides. A 4:5 or square first slide loses more, so move the left and right margins in as described on the grid crop page.
• The 9:16 plan costs room. The text area is about 730 x 980 px of a 1080 x 1920 slide. That is the price of never losing a word, so keep the text short.
• Your own test beats this table. Every number here is a rule of thumb.

How do you fix text that is covered?

1. Export and open the file. Confirm that the text is whole before you blame the app.
2. Move the must-read lines into the text area. Put the hook in the upper half of it.
3. Shorten the caption on a test post. TikTok documents the caption effect for ads, so a long caption may be what pushes the covered area up into your text.
4. Use the bottom band for decoration, such as a photo or a color field, not for words.
5. Check on a second phone if you can. Screens differ, and Meta says taller screens may zoom and crop.

The free safe zone checker draws unofficial TikTok margins and the reported Instagram grid crop over your slide, so you can see the plan before you post. It is guidance, and nothing is uploaded.

What should you check before you export?

• The exported file shows every word at full size.
• Must-read text sits inside the margin plan for your canvas.
• The decoration at the bottom carries no words.
• You tested the longest caption you plan to use.
• The first slide of an Instagram carousel also fits the profile-grid column.
• You wrote down the phone and the app version of your test.

Fyslide's slideshow editor lets you move and resize the text on each slide before export, and it renders and exports through Google Chrome, which has to be installed. So look at the exported PNG or JPG, not only the editor view. You upload the files to TikTok or Instagram yourself, since posting from the app is Coming soon, included in your lifetime access as an update.