Text & Titles

Adding text and titles is an important aspect of video editing, and OpenShot comes with an easy-to-use Title Editor. Use the Title menu (located in the main menu of OpenShot) to launch the Title Editor. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T.

Titles are simply vector image files with transparent backgrounds (*.svg). OpenShot comes with many easy-to-use templates, but you can also create your own or import new templates into OpenShot. These templates allow you to quickly change the text, font, size, color, and background color. You can also launch an advanced, external SVG editor for further customizations (if needed). Once the title is added to your project, drag and drop the title on a Track above a video clip. The transparent background will allow the video below to appear behind the text.

Overview

_images/title-editor.jpg

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Name

Description

1

Choose a Template

Choose from any available vector title template

2

Preview Title

Preview your title as you make changes

3

Title Properties

Change the text, font, size, colors, or edit in an advanced, external SVG image editor (such as Inkscape)

4

Save

Save and add the title to your project

Custom Title Templates

OpenShot can use any vector SVG image file as a custom title template in the Title Editor dialog. Just add an SVG image file to your ~/.openshot_qt/title_templates/ folder, and it will appear the next time you launch the Title Editor dialog. You can also right click on any SVG files in your Project Files panel, and choose Edit Title or Duplicate Title.

Note: These SVG templates are only used by the Title Editor dialog, and not Animated Title dialog.

3D Animated Titles

Adding a 3D animated title is just as easy, using our Animated Title dialog. Use the Title menu (located in the main menu of OpenShot) to launch the Animated Title editor. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B. Note: Blender must be installed and configured before this feature will work in OpenShot. See Installing Blender.

_images/animated-title.jpg

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Name

Description

1

Choose a Template

Choose from any available 3D title templates

2

Preview Title

Preview your title as you make changes

3

Title Properties

Change the text, colors, and advanced properties

4

Render

Render the 3D animation, and add it to your project

Importing Text

You can generate text & titles in many different programs, such as Blender, Inkscape, Krita, Gimp, etc… Before you can import text into OpenShot, you must first export the text from these programs into a compatible image format that contains a transparent background and alpha channel.

The SVG format is a great choice for vector graphics (curves, shapes, text effects and paths), however it is not always 100% compatible with OpenShot. Thus, we recommend using PNG format, which is a great web-based image format that can include a transparent background and alpha channel. A transparent background and alpha channel are needed for OpenShot to allow the text to not cover up videos and images on the timeline below them.

For information on importing animated sequences into OpenShot, please see Image Sequences.

Installing Inkscape

The Advanced Editor feature in the Title Editor dialog requires the latest version of Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/release/) be installed and the OpenShot Preferences updated with the correct path to the Inkscape executable. See the General tab in Preferences.

Installing Blender

The Animated Title feature in OpenShot requires the latest version of Blender (https://www.blender.org/download/) be installed and the OpenShot Preferences updated with the correct path to the Blender executable. See the General tab in Preferences. NOTE: The minimum supported version of Blender is 2.8+. Older versions of Blender are not compatible with OpenShot Video Editor.

For a detailed guide on how to install these dependencies, see Blender & Inkscape Guide.