--- title: "How to add a price strikethrough with Claude (tested prompt and script)" description: "The old price gets crossed out with a red line, then the lower price pops in beside it. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the Python script we tested yourself." url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/price-strikethrough --- # How to add a price strikethrough with Claude The old price gets crossed out with a red line, then the lower price pops in beside it. Made by the script on this page, from our own test clip. ## Get this effect 1. ### Switch to Code in your [Claude Desktop App](https://claude.com/download) 2. ### Install the skill (once) ``` Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills ``` 3. ### Ask for the effect ``` Add a price strikethrough to input.mp4 The two prices: $48, $29 Second the line starts crossing out the old price: 1.0 ``` ## Several videos, several effects, one ask Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them. Add a price strikethrough to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades. ## Settings you can change Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the script. | Setting | Default | What it does | | ---------- | ---------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | `OLD, NEW` | `$48, $29` | The two prices. | | `STRIKE` | `1.0` | Second the line starts crossing out the old price. | | `NEW_AT` | `1.4` | Second the new price pops in. | ## In other editors From each editor’s own help pages, in our words. We haven’t run these ourselves. Closest built-in: **Strikethrough** · desktop and mobile 1. Select the text of the old price. 2. On the toolbar, choose Strikethrough, listed beside Bold, Italics and Underline. 3. Optionally recolor the text with Text color on the toolbar. 4. For the new price, select its text, click Animate and pick Pop. Page doesn't say the strikethrough line can differ from the text color, so a red line isn't confirmed. Source: [Format text](https://www.canva.com/help/format-text/) (Canva), checked October 22, 2026. ## Without the skill Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the script itself. ``` Add a price drop animation to input.mp4: "$48" in white bold (black outline) at 30% across and 85% down; at 1 second a thick red (230, 30, 45) line crosses it out over 0.25 seconds; at 1.4 seconds "$29" pops in larger in yellow (255, 214, 0) at 68% across. Both stay to the end. Use Python with Pillow to draw it and ffmpeg to put it on the video (don't rely on ffmpeg's drawtext filter), keep the audio, and save it as output.mp4. ``` ## Run it without Claude This is the exact script we tested. Save it as `price-strikethrough.py` and run: ``` python3 price-strikethrough.py input.mp4 output.mp4 ``` ``` #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Price strikethrough: the old price appears, a red line crosses it out, then the new price pops in beside it. Usage: python3 price-strikethrough.py input.mp4 output.mp4 Needs ffmpeg and Pillow (pip install pillow). """ import json import math import subprocess import sys from pathlib import Path from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont OLD, NEW = "$48", "$29" STRIKE = 1.0 # second the line starts crossing out the old price STRIKE_TIME = 0.25 # seconds the line takes to cross NEW_AT = 1.4 # second the new price pops in Y = 0.85 # where the prices' center sits (0 = top, 1 = bottom) LINE = (230, 30, 45) # strike line color NEW_COLOR = (255, 214, 0) # new price color FONTS = ["/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial Bold.ttf", # macOS "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf", # Linux "C:/Windows/Fonts/arialbd.ttf"] # Windows FONT_FILE = next((f for f in FONTS if Path(f).exists()), None) or sys.exit("No bold font found: add one to FONTS") def overlay(t): img = Image.new("RGBA", (w, h)) draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img) stroke = round(w * 0.008) old_x = w * 0.30 x0, y0, x1, y1 = draw.textbbox((old_x, h * Y), OLD, font=old_font, anchor="mm") draw.text((old_x, h * Y), OLD, font=old_font, anchor="mm", fill="white", stroke_width=stroke, stroke_fill="black") if t >= STRIKE: p = min(1, (t - STRIKE) / STRIKE_TIME) reach = x0 - 8 + (x1 - x0 + 16) * p draw.line([x0 - 8, (y0 + y1) / 2 + 6, reach, (y0 + y1) / 2 - 6], fill=LINE, width=round(w * 0.018)) if t >= NEW_AT: scale = ease_out_back((t - NEW_AT) / 0.3) if scale > 0.05: size = max(8, round(new_font.size * scale)) font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, size) draw.text((w * 0.68, h * Y), NEW, font=font, anchor="mm", fill=NEW_COLOR, stroke_width=stroke, stroke_fill="black") return img def ease_out_back(p): """0 -> 1 with a small overshoot past 1 before settling, which reads as a 'pop'.""" p = min(max(p, 0), 1) return 1 + 2.70158 * (p - 1) ** 3 + 1.70158 * (p - 1) ** 2 def probe(path): info = json.loads(subprocess.check_output(["ffprobe", "-v", "error", "-select_streams", "v:0", "-show_entries", "stream=width,height,r_frame_rate:format=duration", "-of", "json", path])) s = info["streams"][0] num, den = s["r_frame_rate"].split("/") return s["width"], s["height"], s["r_frame_rate"], float(num) / float(den), float(info["format"]["duration"]) def render(src, out): """Draw overlay(t) on every frame of src and save to out, keeping the audio.""" ff = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-y", "-v", "error", "-i", src, "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "rgba", "-s", f"{w}x{h}", "-r", rate, "-i", "-", "-filter_complex", "[0:v][1:v]overlay=shortest=1,format=yuv420p[v]", "-map", "[v]", "-map", "0:a?", "-c:v", "libx264", "-crf", "18", "-c:a", "copy", out], stdin=subprocess.PIPE) for i in range(math.ceil(duration * fps)): ff.stdin.write(overlay(i / fps).tobytes()) ff.stdin.close() if ff.wait(): sys.exit("ffmpeg failed") src, out = sys.argv[1:3] w, h, rate, fps, duration = probe(src) old_font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(w * 0.11)) new_font = ImageFont.truetype(FONT_FILE, round(w * 0.16)) render(src, out) ``` ## More product shots - [Animated feature callouts **Animated feature callouts**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/animated-feature-callouts) - [Before/after slider **Before/after slider**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/before-after-slider) - [Best seller badge **Best seller badge**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/best-seller-badge) - [Callout arrows and circles **Callout arrows and circles**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/callout-arrows-and-circles) - [Carousel swipe **Carousel swipe**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/carousel-swipe) ## Find 3x _winning ads_ Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. Find the shots that win, add the effect with Claude, and ship 3x more ad edits. [Start 14-day free trial](https://www.recharm.com/get-started)