diff --git a/src/components/canvas/players/caption-player.ts b/src/components/canvas/players/caption-player.ts
index f8908d7e..bb4d6a06 100644
--- a/src/components/canvas/players/caption-player.ts
+++ b/src/components/canvas/players/caption-player.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { Player, PlayerType } from "@canvas/players/player";
 import { type Cue, findActiveCue } from "@core/captions";
 import type { Edit } from "@core/edit-session";
 import { parseFontFamily, resolveFontPath } from "@core/fonts/font-config";
+import { sanitizeColor } from "@core/shared/color-utils";
 import { isAliasReference } from "@core/timing/types";
 import { type Size, type Vector } from "@layouts/geometry";
 import { SubtitleLoadParser, type SubtitleAsset } from "@loaders/subtitle-load-parser";
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ export class CaptionPlayer extends Player {
 		if (captionAsset.stroke?.width && captionAsset.stroke.width > 0 && captionAsset.stroke.color) {
 			const strokeFilter = new pixiFilters.OutlineFilter({
 				thickness: captionAsset.stroke.width,
-				color: captionAsset.stroke.color
+				color: sanitizeColor(captionAsset.stroke.color)
 			});
 			this.text.filters = [strokeFilter];
 		}
@@ -146,7 +147,7 @@ export class CaptionPlayer extends Player {
 		return new pixi.TextStyle({
 			fontFamily: baseFontFamily,
 			fontSize,
-			fill: captionAsset.font?.color ?? "#ffffff",
+			fill: sanitizeColor(captionAsset.font?.color),
 			fontWeight: fontWeight.toString() as pixi.TextStyleFontWeight,
 			wordWrap: true,
 			wordWrapWidth: width * 0.9,
@@ -219,7 +220,7 @@ export class CaptionPlayer extends Player {
 
 		this.background.clear();
 		this.background.fillStyle = {
-			color: bgConfig.color,
+			color: sanitizeColor(bgConfig.color),
 			alpha: bgConfig.opacity ?? 0.8
 		};
 
diff --git a/src/components/canvas/players/text-player.ts b/src/components/canvas/players/text-player.ts
index 4c1ec3af..eb4bd199 100644
--- a/src/components/canvas/players/text-player.ts
+++ b/src/components/canvas/players/text-player.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { Player, PlayerType } from "@canvas/players/player";
 import { TextEditor } from "@canvas/text/text-editor";
 import type { Edit } from "@core/edit-session";
 import { parseFontFamily, resolveFontPath } from "@core/fonts/font-config";
+import { sanitizeColor } from "@core/shared/color-utils";
 import { type Size, type Vector } from "@layouts/geometry";
 import { type ResolvedClip, type TextAsset } from "@schemas";
 import * as pixiFilters from "pixi-filters";
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ export class TextPlayer extends Player {
 		if (textAsset.stroke?.width && textAsset.stroke.width > 0 && textAsset.stroke.color) {
 			const textStrokeFilter = new pixiFilters.OutlineFilter({
 				thickness: textAsset.stroke.width,
-				color: textAsset.stroke.color
+				color: sanitizeColor(textAsset.stroke.color)
 			});
 			this.text.filters = [textStrokeFilter];
 		}
@@ -85,7 +86,7 @@ export class TextPlayer extends Player {
 			if (textAsset.stroke?.width && textAsset.stroke.width > 0 && textAsset.stroke.color) {
 				const textStrokeFilter = new pixiFilters.OutlineFilter({
 					thickness: textAsset.stroke.width,
-					color: textAsset.stroke.color
+					color: sanitizeColor(textAsset.stroke.color)
 				});
 				this.text.filters = [textStrokeFilter];
 			} else {
@@ -157,7 +158,7 @@ export class TextPlayer extends Player {
 		return new pixi.TextStyle({
 			fontFamily: baseFontFamily,
 			fontSize: textAsset.font?.size ?? 32,
-			fill: textAsset.font?.color ?? "#ffffff",
+			fill: sanitizeColor(textAsset.font?.color),
 			fontWeight: fontWeight.toString() as pixi.TextStyleFontWeight,
 			wordWrap: true,
 			wordWrapWidth: width,
@@ -198,7 +199,7 @@ export class TextPlayer extends Player {
 		const { width, height } = this.getSize();
 		this.background.clear();
 		this.background.fillStyle = {
-			color: textAsset.background.color,
+			color: sanitizeColor(textAsset.background.color),
 			alpha: textAsset.background.opacity ?? 1
 		};
 		this.background.rect(0, 0, width, height);
diff --git a/src/core/shared/color-utils.ts b/src/core/shared/color-utils.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..42914027
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/core/shared/color-utils.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+/**
+ * Color helpers for Pixi text/style construction.
+ */
+
+/** Matches Pixi Color HEX_PATTERN (3/4/6/8 hex digits, optional # or 0x). */
+const HEX_PATTERN = /^(#|0x)?(([a-f0-9]{3}){1,2}([a-f0-9]{2})?)$/i;
+const FUNCTIONAL_COLOR = /^(rgb|rgba|hsl|hsla)\(/i;
+const CSS_COLOR_NAME = /^[a-z]+$/i;
+
+/**
+ * Return a Pixi-safe color string, or `fallback` when the value is missing/invalid.
+ * Incomplete hex (e.g. `#00`, `#0`) and empty strings fall back instead of throwing in TextStyle.
+ * @internal
+ */
+export function sanitizeColor(color: string | undefined | null, fallback = "#ffffff"): string {
+	if (typeof color !== "string") {
+		return fallback;
+	}
+
+	const value = color.trim();
+	if (!value) {
+		return fallback;
+	}
+
+	if (HEX_PATTERN.test(value) || FUNCTIONAL_COLOR.test(value) || CSS_COLOR_NAME.test(value)) {
+		return value;
+	}
+
+	return fallback;
+}
diff --git a/tests/color-utils.test.ts b/tests/color-utils.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5cea1d35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/color-utils.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import { sanitizeColor } from "@core/shared/color-utils";
+
+describe("sanitizeColor", () => {
+	it("falls back for incomplete hex colors that crash Pixi TextStyle", () => {
+		expect(sanitizeColor("#00")).toBe("#ffffff");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("#0")).toBe("#ffffff");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("")).toBe("#ffffff");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("   ")).toBe("#ffffff");
+	});
+
+	it("falls back for nullish and non-string values", () => {
+		expect(sanitizeColor(undefined)).toBe("#ffffff");
+		expect(sanitizeColor(null)).toBe("#ffffff");
+	});
+
+	it("preserves valid hex, named, and functional colors", () => {
+		expect(sanitizeColor("#ffffff")).toBe("#ffffff");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("#fff")).toBe("#fff");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("#ff00ff00")).toBe("#ff00ff00");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("red")).toBe("red");
+		expect(sanitizeColor("rgb(255, 0, 0)")).toBe("rgb(255, 0, 0)");
+	});
+
+	it("uses a custom fallback when provided", () => {
+		expect(sanitizeColor("#00", "#000000")).toBe("#000000");
+	});
+});