【OBS-compatible】Caption Widget
What the Caption Widget Is
The caption widget is an OBS widget for displaying short text on your stream. Use it for announcements, event explanations, current status, viewer instructions, and other information you want to keep visible during a broadcast.
Each caption widget is published as a dedicated URL. Add that URL to OBS as a browser source to place the text overlay in your stream layout.
How It Compares to Other Text Display Options
There are several ways to put text on a stream. The Jamluca caption widget is suited for cases where you need to change the wording during a live broadcast or operate it from a separate device.
| Display option | Updating text during a stream | Design controls | Operate from another device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jamluca caption | Edits in the browser take effect immediately | Font, text color, background | Available via the controller URL |
| OBS text source | Open OBS each time to edit | Limited (mostly font and color) | Not supported |
| Image asset | Recreate and replace the image | Free, depending on the image editor | Not supported |
OBS text sources work for fixed wording, but updating them during a stream requires reopening OBS every time. Image assets give you full design freedom, but you have to redo the image whenever the wording changes. When you need to update text frequently or control it from a phone or staff device, the caption widget is the easier option.
Information That Works Well as Captions
Captions are useful for information viewers should understand quickly while watching.
- Event rules or progress
- Stream announcements
- What is coming next
- Participation instructions or notes
- Social links or hashtags
Short, readable text works better than long sentences. Keep the message concise so it fits naturally into the stream screen.
Customize the Design for Your Stream
In the widget editor, adjust fonts, text colors, background colors, sizes, and more. Match your stream colors and place the caption where it does not cover gameplay or the main camera feed.
Adding a background can help readability. If your stream layout already has a lot of visual information, stronger text size and contrast can make the caption easier to see.
Add It to OBS as a Browser Source
After creating a caption, copy the browser source URL from OBS integration. In OBS, add a Browser source to the scene where you want the caption to appear, then paste the URL.
The basic OBS setup flow is also covered in How to Use Jamluca.
Update Caption Text During a Stream
You can edit caption text from Jamluca. Because you do not need to recreate the OBS source, captions are useful for both preparation before a stream and announcements or schedule changes during a live broadcast.
For team workflows, invite members to a channel. The streamer can handle OBS while a teammate updates captions.
Add Labels such as “BREAKING”
You can attach small labels (chips) such as “BREAKING” or “NEW” around your telop to give it a news-broadcast look. You can set up to two labels and place each one freely — not only outside the telop box (top, bottom, left, right, or the corners) but also inside it.
Each label’s fill (background color), border, shadow, corner radius, font, font size, and text color can be set individually. Because a label can look completely different from the telop body, it’s easy to make just the “BREAKING” label stand out with, for example, a red background.
You can also change a label’s text from the telop controller, so you can swap out just the label while you are live.
An example with one label outside the telop box and another inside it. Each label’s color, border, and position can be set individually.
Highlight Key Words Automatically with AIBETA
Within your caption text, you can highlight just the words you most want viewers to notice in a different color. The kind of look where certain words stand out in a different color in a TV news caption can be done automatically, simply by typing your text.
An example where AI automatically picks out and highlights the key words (shown in blue). The words to emphasize are chosen just from the text you type.
When you turn on "Highlight with AI", an AI running inside your browser reads the caption text, picks out the important words, and colors them with your "highlight style". Because the words are reselected every time you change the text, the highlighting updates each time you edit the content during a stream.
The highlight style can be set separately from the regular text, with its own text color, border, and shadow. Match it to your stream's theme color to make only the highlighted parts stand out.
This AI runs directly inside your browser (on your own device), rather than in the cloud (on an external AI server). The choice of which words to highlight is also computed entirely on your device.
This feature runs the AI model inside your browser, so it requires a WebGPU-capable PC (Chrome / Edge recommended). It is not available on smartphones or unsupported devices. The first run takes a little time to download the AI model, but subsequent runs start quickly.
Even when you change the text from the caption controller during a live broadcast, the AI determines the key words and the highlighted result is reflected on your stream screen.
Note: AI highlighting is currently a beta feature.
Basic Caption Workflow
- Create a caption widget in Jamluca.
- Adjust the text, font, colors, background, and size.
- Copy the browser source URL from OBS integration.
- Paste the URL into an OBS browser source.
- Adjust the position and size in your stream layout.
- Update the caption text from Jamluca when needed.