Archive:Kdenlive/Manual/Titles

Titles

Titles are text elements that can be added to the timeline and appear over the top of other clips. Titles are created in the Project Tree and then dragged to the timeline like other video clips.

To create a title, choose Add Title Clip from the Project Menu or from the Right-Click menu in the Project Tree

How to Save a Title

Open the title in the Project Tree by double- clicking it or right-click then choose Clip Properties.

Click the Save As button on the tool bar

Title Editor Toolbar when title editor is wide enough for the whole toolbar to display. The toolbar items are: Selection Tool, Add Text, Add Rectangle, Add Image, Open Document, Save As

or select Save as from the toolbar overflow menu which can be found under the >> button on the toolbar - see picture.

Title Editor Toolbar when title editor is wide not enough for the whole toolbar to display. The toolbar items that do not fit can be accessed from the >> button that appears at the end of the toolbar.

Choose a save location within your project.

The titles are saved as .kdenlivetitle type documents.

How to Load a Title

Choose Add Title Clip from the Add Clip drop down (see picture)

Click the Open Document button on the Title Clip editor toolbar or choose Open document from the >> menu and load up a title saved earlier.

How to edit an existing title

Right click the title clip in the project tree and select Clip properties.

Template Titles - User Defined

Template Titles allow you create a template for other titles in your project. You can create the template title with the settings that all the titles in the project should have and then base subsequent titles on the template. If you decide to change the look of you titles you only need change the template title and the titles based on this template will automatically update to reflect any formating changes you made to the template title.

To create a template title

Choose Add Title Clip from the Add Clip drop down and create a title with the text %s in it and formated how you desire it. Save this title as described above.

To use the template title

Choose Add Template Title from the Add Clip drop down and choose the title with the %s in it that you just saved.

Right click this clip in the project tree and select Clip Properties

Enter the text that this title should display into the text field in the dialog that appears

Drag the title to the timeline.

The %s in the template will be replaced with the text that you enter in the Clip Properties -> Text.

A known issue with template titles is that text centering of the %s replaced text does not work - see this forum post.

Template Titles - Built In

Kdenlive has some built-in title templates that can be accessed from the Template drop-down list found on the bottom of the Title Clip window - see below.

To install more built in title templates choose Download New Title Templates from the Settings menu.

Import an Image into the title

On the Toolbar overflow menu (>>) shown in the picture below the second menu item - (labeled only with Alt + I in ver 0.9.2 - fixed in ver 0.9.4)- is the Add Image Button. Selecting this brings up a file chooser where you can choose an image to be inserted into your title.

Draw Rectangle Toolbar Item

The 1st menu item shown in the picture above - (labeled only with Alt + R in ver 0.9.2 - fixed in ver 0.9.4) is the Add Rectangle button. After selecting this - drag the mouse to draw a rectangle. Use the rectangle toolbar (shown below) to change the fill color, border color and border width of the rectangle.

The rectangles can be placed behind text by selecting them and the changing the Z-index (top right corner) to a lower value.

To make the title scroll vertically

Put a long title onto the title window. Zoom out so you can see it all. The text should run off the top (or bottom) of the viewable area.

Select the Animation tab and click Edit start. Now drag the start rectangle to above the viewable area.

Select Edit end and drag the end rectangle to below the viewable area.

Click OK and preview the scrolling title.

The above title scrolls so that text scrolls up the screen. It is as if the camera starts on the "start rectangle" and then pans down to the "end rectangle"

To make the text scroll faster change the duration field highlighted in red in the image above to a smaller value. To make the text scroll slower change the duration to a larger value.

Note: changing the length of the title clip on the time-line does not change the scrolling speed. If the length of the clip on the time line is longer than the duration specified in the title editor, the titles will pause on the screen for the time after the titles duration expires.

If the length of the clip on the time line is less than the duration specified in the title editor the scrolling will not complete before the title clip finishes.

The above description of title behaviour with respect to duration would appear to only apply to titles that have not been edited after they have been placed on the timeline. If you have expanded the length of the title on the time line and then edit the title (by double clicking it in the project tree) then it's apparent length will become the length that it currently has in the timeline - the scrolling will not pause at the end anymore. However, the length displayed in the title editor does not change.

To make the title scroll Horizontally

Use the instructions for vertical scrolling - just put the start and stop rectangles off to the sides of the screen rather than the top and bottom

How to fade titles in and/or out

To make titles fade in and out you modify the transition that automatically gets added between the title and the track below. The modifications are to add keyframes into the transition and adjust the opacity of the transition at these keyframes. In version 0.9.3 it is an affine transition that is automatically added between the title and the track below. In ver 0.9.2 it is a composite transition.

In the image below we have 4 key frames (labeled 1 to 4). The first key frame is the currently displayed one and we can see the opacity on this key frame is zero. The opacity at keyframe 2 and 3 is 100%. The opacity at the 4th keyframe is zero percent. The overall effect is that the title fades in between keyframe 1 and keyframe2. And then it fades out between keyframe 3 and keyframe 4 .

How to fade in more than one title sequentially

To create a title sequence like this ...

{{#evp:youtube|IIV87bFjfo0}}

Then you put three titles on three different tracks but you make each of them affine transition with an empty video track - see timeline screen shot below.

FAQ

Q: How to duplicate a title clip to modify it slightly

A: You can save a copy of the title (see How to Save a Title) and then create a new title based on that saved version as described above, Or you could use the template titles functionality to base the two slightly different titles on the one template.

• ← Motion
• ↑ Back to menu ↑
• Monitors →