why wont the text fill change colour?

[sky_fall1]

hi there. It sounds really obvious but for some reason in adobe after effects after selecting the colour white or any other colour it doesnt change.

The fill can change to no fill from black but not any other colour. Hope thats clear.

Thanks in advance

[Dave_LaRonde]

Double  check your Character Settings: you may have something odd like Stroke Over Fill selected.  And don't forget to highlight the text when you do this, or nothing will take effect.

[vaishnavi_16]

Thank you, this helped.

[Todd_Kopriva]

If Dave's suggestions don't help, show us screenshots and give exact steps to tell us what you're trying. We need details in order to know how to help you.

[sharp_inventor5C0D]

Hello,

I am having the same problems. My default text fill does not change from white.

[Bhaskar Sharma]

The text colour change does not appear in the final composition.

[Rick Gerard]

The text layer must either have all text selected with the text tool or the layer must be selected in the timeline with the selection tool to change the font color in the Character Pannel.

If that doesn't work, select the text layer in your timeline, press the U key twice to reveal all changed properties. If you don't see fill color then drill down until you get it and change it there.

If that doesn't work we need a screen shot with all properties of your text layer revealed.

[dwest1124]

Thanks. 

• Had to expand several layers.   
• The Text layer was not the correct layer.
• It was buried within an Effects layer > Fill > color.
• (Pre-built lower 3rd animation)

[DigiInk]

I had this same issue happen to me just a bit ago...turns out I had accidentally pressed some weird hot key that changed my view settings?

The hot key was Alt+4, apparently this "shows red green blue or alpha channels as gray-scale" but when I toggled it off the color changes showed up just fine!

You can tell if your comp has Alt+4 toggled on if you see the top and bottom boarders of your view lined in white (as shown below)

If your having these problems try typing Alt+4 and see if its fixed!

~best of luck

[danielg94049494]

question a first timer here - working on a title.

I want to key frame text of white fill and black stroke to just black stroke and no fill  -- if that make sense,  I can only go from one fill to another or no fill to no fill. In other words I want the text to become transparent and reveal the background.

Thanks!

[Towerguy]

Hi. It's preferable to start a new thread so that people can search for it if they have the same problem, however, since we're here:

Toggle open your text layer, press the Animate button and select Fill Color/Opacity. Animator 1 will appear and you can keyframe in there.

[omar5DC2]

if someone is still having this issue, I had it too and turned out that there was a huge black stroke over my text and the stroke settings were set to "stroke  over fill"

Fix your strokes people! 

[GameOverMan]

I ran into this issue - never resolved it but I found a quick fix to correct it, go to text in your layer preview and  just right click > layer styles > color overlay > pick the color you want and voila it'll change it

[andrewo37541116]

Thank you, fixed it for me!

[mayaba310200154wmj]

Thanks! Worked for me as well. In 2025. 

[Warren Heaton]

@mayaba310200154wmj 

Consider using Effect > Generate > Fill to set the color of an After Effects Text Layer intead of Layer > Layer Styles > Color Overlay.

Color Overlay happens last in the rendering order (Masks, then Effects, then Transform, then Layer Styles).  As such, the Color Overlay changes the color of all the Effects that have been applied.

[ELLA EDITS]

Hiya - I know this is from a while ago but wanted to add my thoughts in case any one had the same problem.

I was having the same issue & nothing was working - untill I closed and reopened the 'Essential Graphics' window. Then everything worked again 🙂