Word-by-Word Highlight

Why it works

The type is only 2.5% of frame height with over 90% empty space around it, so reading pace is controlled entirely by the word-by-word brightening. A slowly rotating product sits under each selling-point card, so the card always has something to look at. In the closing version, the frame where the last word of the subtitle appears lines up with the end frame of the lid-closing motion.

Spec

Timing

One 37-word paragraph: words appear 0–5.92s, the last finishes lighting at 6.34s, hold until the hard cut at 8.3s (about 1.96s, 59 frames); wordmark card 8.3–11s: letters from 8.42s (0.07s apart), tagline 8.8s; film 11s

Easing

Each word is set to #666 and then runs linear to #fff over 0.42s (13 frames); words appear with no movement; product fades up from black over 0.7s (sine in-out); mark expo.out 1.4s (rotation −40→0, meridian rx 20→0.6)

Camera

Text card fixed in the top band; the product is a 3D laptop on a turntable at a constant −13° per second (68°→−40° by 8.3s) with a slow camera push of 2.5% (fov 19°, elevation 17°); the wordmark card drifts scale 1→1.04 over 2.7s

Subject

Gap after each word = 0.075 + 0.0125 × letters seconds (0.09–0.22s), plus 0.42s after a period and 0.22s after a comma; each word appears at 40% gray (#666) and the next appears while the previous is still brightening; the whole paragraph holds and then hard-cuts

Sync

Reading rhythm follows word length and punctuation; the paragraph stays still while the product turns beneath it; at 8.3s the hard cut lands the wordmark, where each letter repeats the same gray-to-white step

Style

Pure black #000 background; white Inter 500 at 33px (3.1% of frame height), 1000px wide, centered, line-height 1.42, text-wrap: balance; wordmark 124px weight 600 with a white disc mark; bloom and fine grain on the product

Prompt

People describe it as

• One sentence lighting up word by word on black
• The words turn from gray to white one at a time
• The subtitle fills in word by word with the action

Often confused with

• Rhythmic TypingRhythmic Typing appends characters one at a time with a cursor; Word-by-Word Highlight brightens whole words in sequence, with no cursor.
• Scattered Spec TypeIn Scattered Spec Type the words land at spread-out positions and appear with a hard cut; in Word-by-Word Highlight the words sit on one line.