OpenShot Video Editor - Last entries

OpenShot 3.5.1: Faster Performance, Smoother Editing, Better Previews

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:22:27 +0000

OpenShot 3.5.1 makes editing faster, smoother, and more polished than ever. It adds a built-in Optimize Preview workflow for smoother editing, improves performance and responsiveness, upgrades timeline zooming and trimming, and delivers a long list of important fixes and usability improvements. Download OpenShot 3.5.1 Now!

Highlights

Optimize Preview — a new built-in proxy workflow that creates or links optimized preview media for smoother playback, scrubbing, trimming, and editing on demanding footage.
Faster performance — smarter CPU-aware thread defaults, better thread controls, faster media inspection, and improved responsiveness across editing workflows.
Smoother timeline editing — improved zooming, better playhead-centered zoom behavior, smoother interaction, and better multi-selection trimming and re-timing.
Sharper previews — faster preview dialogs, improved autoplay behavior, better resizing quality, and optimized media support in preview-related tools.
Better AI workflows — enhanced ComfyUI tools with depth, lines, reference-image support, and improved Change Video Style workflows.
Cleaner interface polish — improved thumbnails, synced title thumbnails after edits, and a new User Interface Scale setting.
More fixes and stability — important fixes for timeline scrolling, razor alignment, title refresh behavior, media handling, crashes, and regressions.

OpenShot 3.5.1 Makes Editing Faster and Smoother

OpenShot 3.5.1 is not just a maintenance update. It is a workflow release focused on the parts of editing that matter most every day: responsiveness, smoother previews, faster visual feedback, cleaner timeline interaction, and better control over large or demanding projects. The result is a release that feels faster, more polished, and more capable from the moment you start editing.

1. Optimize Preview: OpenShot’s New Built-in Proxy Workflow

The biggest new feature in OpenShot 3.5.1 is Optimize Preview. This adds a built-in workflow for creating or linking lower-resolution preview files, making it easier to work with large, high-resolution, or demanding video clips during editing.

Instead of forcing every preview, scrub, trim, and dialog to rely on full-resolution source media, OpenShot can now use optimized preview files where available. This helps playback feel smoother, makes timeline work more responsive, and improves the editing experience on real-world footage. Final exports still use the original media, so users get a faster editing workflow without sacrificing output quality.

This is one of the most important upgrades in the release because it changes what kinds of projects feel practical to edit smoothly inside OpenShot.

2. Faster Performance and Smarter System Scaling

Performance is a major theme of 3.5.1. OpenShot now does a better job adapting to the user’s hardware, with CPU-aware default thread settings, improved thread controls, better limits on manual overrides, and more useful system/version information for debugging and support.

Under the hood, media inspection and thumbnail-related work have also been improved so OpenShot no longer has to decode everything at full resolution just to inspect or preview it. That means less wasted work and a faster-feeling editor overall.

These improvements are especially important because they respond directly to real user feedback around performance and help OpenShot behave better across a wider range of systems.

3. A Smoother, More Intuitive Timeline

OpenShot 3.5.1 also improves one of the most important parts of any video editor: the timeline. Zooming behavior has been refined to feel more natural and keep the playhead better centered. Smooth zoom interaction has been improved, and timeline behavior is more consistent when navigating complex edits.

Multi-selection trimming and re-timing have also been improved, making it easier to resize groups of aligned clips while keeping their relationships intact. This is especially useful in stacked edits, synchronized layouts, and more structured timeline work.

Together, these changes make the timeline feel more predictable, more responsive, and easier to control.

4. Sharper Previews and Cleaner Visual Feedback

Preview-related tools received meaningful upgrades in 3.5.1. The preview dialog opens faster, plays back more smoothly, behaves better with autoplay, and handles resizing more cleanly. When optimized preview media exists, OpenShot can also use it in preview-related workflows for better speed and responsiveness.

Thumbnail generation and presentation were improved as well. Thumbnails are cleaner, more modern, and easier to read at a glance, with a simpler look for videos and better consistency across media types. Title thumbnails also stay in sync more reliably after edits.

These changes may sound small individually, but together they make the editor feel noticeably more polished.

5. Better AI-Assisted Creation with ComfyUI

OpenShot 3.5.1 continues expanding its advanced AI-assisted workflows through ComfyUI. The Change Video Style workflow now has stronger controls, including support for depth, lines, and reference images, helping users guide results more effectively.

The following video demonstrates how OpenShot can take a low resolution/low fidelity simulation of a car drive, extract the depth and lines, and generate multiple videos, controlled by a prompt and reference image. The car and environment can change, but the camera and motion are anchored to our source video's depth and lines. NOTE: This all runs on open-source models, and uses no API calls.

The release also adds new extraction workflows such as Depth and Lines, along with improved setup guidance for advanced ComfyUI use. For users exploring stylized, AI-assisted, or experimental editing workflows, this release offers more control and a stronger foundation.

6. More Polished and Customizable Interface

OpenShot 3.5.1 includes a number of user-interface improvements that help the application feel cleaner and more adaptable. One especially welcome addition is a new User Interface Scale preference, which makes it easier to adjust the size of the OpenShot interface for different displays and comfort levels.

This release also improves translation coverage, refreshes documentation strings, and continues refining the modernized timeline and thumbnail presentation. Altogether, these changes help OpenShot feel more accessible, more consistent, and more ready for a wide range of desktops and workflows.

7. Important Fixes, Stability Updates, and Release Polish

Alongside the headline features, OpenShot 3.5.1 includes many important fixes and quality improvements. Timeline scrolling behavior was corrected, razor alignment was fixed so cuts match the expected visual position, and title thumbnails now refresh correctly after edits. The release also includes stability work around media handling, crash prevention, cache safety, compatibility, translation validation, and automated tests.

This kind of release polish matters. It makes the editor more dependable, improves confidence in day-to-day use, and helps the new workflow features land on a stronger foundation.

Why 3.5.1 Matters

OpenShot 3.5.1 is more than just another update. It is a meaningful step forward for free, open-source video editing. This release makes OpenShot faster, smoother, and more capable where it matters most: real projects, real workflows, and real creators. From optimized previews and better timeline behavior to cleaner visuals and stronger AI-assisted tools, 3.5.1 helps remove friction from the editing process so people can spend less time fighting software and more time creating.

Support Free, Open-Source Video Editing

If OpenShot has helped you create, learn, or share your story, please consider supporting the project with a donation. Monthly PayPal subscriptions help make this work sustainable and directly support continued development, fixes, new features, and future releases.

[[DONATE_WIDGET]]

OpenShot 3.5.1 is available now. Download the latest release and see what is possible with faster editing, smarter previews, smoother workflows, and a free, open-source video editor that keeps getting better.

Download OpenShot 3.5.1

I also want to give a heartfelt thank you to Raffi for tirelessly advocating for the community, triaging bug reports, helping users find answers, and bringing invaluable feedback into the release process.

How Do I Optimize a Video for Smoother Editing?

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:21:27 +0000

Optimizing a video creates a smaller, faster version for editing, so playback, scrubbing, trimming, and previews feel smoother without changing your final export quality.

Optimizing a video is used when your original clip is large, high-resolution, or difficult to preview smoothly during editing. Instead of editing directly with the full source file, OpenShot can create a lighter version that is faster to decode and easier to work with. This is sometimes referred to as proxy editing, but OpenShot calls it Optimize for clarity and ease of use.

What does “optimize a video” mean in OpenShot?

When you optimize a video, OpenShot creates a smaller, faster version of the original clip for use during editing. This optimized version acts as a proxy video, helping improve playback, scrubbing, trimming, and preview responsiveness, while your final export still uses the original full-quality file.

How to optimize a video in OpenShot

Import your video. Add your media file to the Project Files panel.
Right-click the file. In the Project Files panel, right-click the video you want to optimize.
Choose Optimize → Optimize Video. OpenShot will begin creating an optimized editing version of the selected clip.
Wait for processing to finish. OpenShot shows progress directly on the file thumbnail while the optimized video is being created.
Edit with smoother previews. Once complete, OpenShot can use the optimized version during editing while keeping the original file for export.

Tip: Optimizing is especially helpful for 4K video, screen recordings, and clips that feel choppy during preview playback.

Try it in OpenShot

If your project feels slow or preview playback is choppy, try Optimize Video in OpenShot. Download and install OpenShot Video Editor (free and open-source), optimize one of your clips, and compare the editing experience before and after. It is one of the easiest ways to make demanding projects feel smoother without changing final export quality.

OpenShot 3.5: A Major Upgrade for Speed, Stability, and Creative Control

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 20:52:44 +0000

Buckle up, everyone. OpenShot 3.5 has arrived, and it is one of the biggest releases in our 18-year history. From a much faster timeline to better exports, improved GPU acceleration, smarter effects, and stronger stability, this release moves OpenShot forward in a big way. I am incredibly proud of it, and I cannot wait for everyone to try it.

Download OpenShot now and take it for a spin.

TL;DR

New default timeline with much faster zooming, scrolling, editing, and new keyframe panel
35% faster overall, with especially large gains in effects and frame processing
Better exports with smaller files and higher quality
Improved GPU acceleration for decoding and encoding
Improved stability with expanded tests, UI tests, and full-cycle replay testing
Audio transitions make cross-fading audio super simple
Mask support for all effects, improved animated masks, and new mask controls
New default Chroma Key with softer edges, better quality, and much faster performance
Faster audio file handling and importing
Experimental ComfyUI integration for advanced AI workflows
Tons of bug fixes across editing, playback, caching, and platform-specific issues

OpenShot 3.5 is all about making editing feel smoother and more dependable. Whether you are cutting together a quick video, building a more complex project, or experimenting with AI-assisted workflows, this release lays a much stronger foundation for what comes next.

A new default timeline, built for speed

OpenShot 3.5 now uses the newer timeline as the default editing experience, and it is one of the most noticeable improvements in the release. Zooming, scrolling, dragging, trimming, and scrubbing feel much smoother, especially on larger projects. The new timeline is simply more responsive and more enjoyable to work with day to day. Alongside it, the keyframe panel is now enabled by default, making advanced animation and property editing much easier to discover and use.

Technical notes: Better timeline rendering, smoother drag and snap behavior, improved multi-selection handling, high-DPI thumbnail support, more stable preview updates, and a more polished default keyframe workflow.

Big performance gains across the editor

Performance was a major focus throughout the 3.5 release cycle. Overall benchmark results show OpenShot 3.5 is about 35% faster, with some of the biggest improvements landing in effects and frame processing. That means better responsiveness during editing, faster previews, and a smoother feeling editor overall. The biggest wins show up in areas like Chroma Key, color effects, and clip processing, but the gains are broad and spread throughout the engine.

Technical notes: Faster hot paths in libopenshot, improved frame processing, optimized effect loops, better cache behavior, and broad engine-side performance work across readers, frame mapping, masks, the timeline, and writing.

Better exports and improved GPU acceleration

OpenShot 3.5 improves export quality in practical ways that users will notice right away: smaller files, better visual quality, and improved defaults for common export presets. At the same time, GPU-related handling has been improved for both decoding and encoding. This makes hardware acceleration more reliable, helps avoid black-frame issues when decoding fails, and gives OpenShot a better path for falling back safely when needed.

Technical notes: Updated export presets and encoder tuning, improved CRF-based defaults, better GOP/B-frame handling, safer hardware decode fallback, and improved hardware verification behavior.

Audio transitions and much better audio file handling

Audio got some very meaningful quality-of-life upgrades in 3.5. Transitions are now much smarter about sound, making it easier to create cross-fades, fade-ins, and fade-outs without extra manual work. On top of that, audio file handling is faster and more responsive in the UI, making import and day-to-day editing feel snappier. These improvements make audio work feel more natural and less fiddly.

Technical notes: Timeline-aware audio fades tied to transitions, equal-power cross-fade behavior, faster audio decoding paths, improved waveform generation, and faster handling of audio-heavy project workflows.

Masks, Chroma Key, and more powerful effects

Effects got stronger in OpenShot 3.5, both in quality and in flexibility. A new default Chroma Key mode delivers softer edges, better halo handling, and major performance gains. Mask support has also expanded across more effects, animated masks behave better, and new controls make it easier to build more advanced effect workflows. Together, these changes make OpenShot more capable for compositing, selective effects, and fine-tuned edits.

Technical notes: New default soft chroma mode, improved animated mask timing and trimming, mask inversion and expanded effect mask support, better effect behavior defaults, and significant effect-side performance gains.

Stability, testing, and a long list of bug fixes

One of the most important parts of OpenShot 3.5 is what it fixes. This release includes tons of bug fixes across playback, timeline editing, dragging, trimming, caching, missing-file handling, and platform-specific issues. It is also backed by stronger testing: expanded unit test coverage, new UI unit tests, and the new openshot-replay testing suite for broader full-cycle testing. The result is a release that feels more dependable and less fragile in everyday use.

Technical notes: Expanded automated testing, more regression coverage, UI-level testing, replay-based full-cycle testing, and fixes across caching, preview correctness, playback edge cases, and platform-specific paths.

Experimental: ComfyUI integration for AI workflows

OpenShot 3.5 also includes early experimental ComfyUI integration, opening the door to more advanced AI-assisted workflows. This includes support for a growing list of workflows, plus custom OpenShot-oriented work around tracking, segmentation, and SAM2-powered pipelines. It is exciting work, but it still requires setup and is best thought of as an advanced feature for adventurous users. We are laying the groundwork now so this can grow into something much more powerful over time. See our ComfyUI installation guide to learn more.

Technical notes: Dynamic workflow loading, JSON-driven ComfyUI integrations, support for generation and advanced tracking/segmentation flows, and OpenShot-specific workflow work that is still evolving.

Support OpenShot

If you love where OpenShot is headed and want to help us keep things moving, please consider making a donation. Your support helps fund development, testing, packaging, infrastructure, and the long-term work required to keep improving OpenShot for everyone. A small monthly donation is one of the very best ways to support OpenShot, and keep the updates and improvements coming regularly.

Thank You

A huge thank you to Raffi, all of our bug reporters, translators, testers, the Discord and Reddit community, and everyone who has sent emails, shared ideas, or given their time to help move OpenShot forward. Open source software is a community effort, and this release is better because of all of you.

What’s next

Work is already underway on what comes next. I will soon be merging work on Qt6 / PyQt6 / PySide6 branches, which are an important step for the future of OpenShot. A new Android build is also coming soon, and I am excited to share more about that as it gets closer. I will also soon be removing our web-based timelines, which should shrink the size of OpenShot's downloads considerably. And for anyone interested in helping shape the future of OpenShot’s AI features, especially the ComfyUI integration, I would love more feedback, testing, and contributions to help improve that feature set. You can get involved with an email to hello@openshot.org or join our Discord and say hello.

How Do I Split a Clip?

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:32:29 +0000

Splitting a clip lets you cut a video or audio clip into separate pieces so you can remove mistakes, tighten pacing, or add transitions.

Splitting a clip is used when you want to change or remove part of a video without affecting the rest of it. Instead of trimming the beginning or end, splitting allows you to work with individual sections of the same clip on the timeline.

What does “split a clip” mean in video editing?

When you split a clip, you create a cut at the playhead (the current timeline position). After the split, the original clip becomes two clips—each piece can be moved, trimmed, deleted, or edited on its own.

How to split a clip in OpenShot

Add your clip to the timeline. Import your video (or audio), then drag it onto a track.
Move the playhead to the cut point. Place it exactly where you want the split.
Select the clip. Click the clip so it’s highlighted.
Slice the clip. Right-click the clip and choose Slice, or use the slice tool.
Choose the slice option. Select slicing at the playhead.
Edit the new pieces. Move, trim, delete, or add a transition.

Tip: Zoom in on the timeline before slicing for more precise cuts.

Try it in OpenShot

If you’re new to editing, splitting clips is one of the fastest ways to improve pacing and remove mistakes. Download and install OpenShot Video Editor (free and open-source), then practice slicing a clip a few times—you’ll use this workflow in almost every project.

How Do I Trim the Start or End of a Video?

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:56:58 +0000

Trim the start or end of a video to remove unwanted footage. This step-by-step tutorial shows how to trim video clips in OpenShot.

Trimming a video is one of the quickest ways to clean up footage before you start making more detailed edits. It’s especially useful for removing awkward starts, long pauses, or extra seconds at the end of a clip so your video feels more polished.

What does it mean to trim a video?

When you trim a clip, you shorten it by adjusting its start point, end point, or both. Trimming removes unwanted frames from the edges of a clip without creating multiple pieces.

This makes trimming ideal for simple edits like removing dead space, false starts, or extra footage after the action is finished.

How to trim the start or end of a video in OpenShot

Add your clip to the timeline. Import your video and drag it onto a track in the timeline.
Select the clip. Click the clip so it’s highlighted.
Hover over the clip edge. Move your mouse to the beginning or end of the clip until the cursor changes to a resize icon.
Click and drag to trim. Drag inward from the start to remove the beginning, or drag inward from the end to remove the ending.
Preview your trim. Play the clip to check the timing. You can adjust the trim again at any time.

Tip: Zoom in on the timeline before trimming for more precise, frame-accurate edits.

When should I trim vs split?

Trim when you only need to remove footage from the beginning or end of a clip.
Split when you need to remove or rearrange something in the middle of a clip.

In most editing workflows, you’ll trim clips first and then split them later as your edit becomes more detailed. Both tools work together.

Try it in OpenShot

Trimming is fast and visual in OpenShot Video Editor, making it easy to clean up footage without complex menus or settings. Download and install OpenShot (it’s free and open-source), then practice trimming a few clips—you’ll use this skill in almost every video you create.

How Do I Remove a Section from the Middle of a Video?

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 23:14:41 +0000

To remove part of a video from the middle, you split the clip at the start and end of the section you don’t want, then delete the unwanted piece.

Removing a section from the middle of a video is useful when you want to clean up footage without changing the beginning or end of a clip. This technique is commonly used to cut out mistakes, long pauses, or unwanted moments while keeping the rest of the video intact.

The easiest way to do this is by splitting the clip at two points—once at the start of the section you want to remove, and once at the end—then deleting the middle piece.

How to remove the middle of a video in OpenShot

Add your clip to the timeline. Import your video and drag it onto a track.
Move the playhead to the start of the section. Place it where the unwanted part begins.
Split the clip. Right-click the clip and choose Slice, or use the slice tool.
Move the playhead to the end of the section. Place it where the unwanted part ends.
Split the clip again. This creates three separate pieces.
Delete the middle piece. Click the unwanted section and press Delete.

Tip: Zoom in on the timeline before splitting to make sure your cuts are precise.

Try it in OpenShot

Cutting out unwanted sections is one of the fastest ways to improve a video. OpenShot makes it easy to split and delete parts of a clip visually on the timeline, so you can clean up your footage in seconds.

How Do I Rotate a Video?

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 23:18:34 +0000

Rotating a video lets you fix sideways or upside-down footage by adjusting the clip’s rotation so it displays correctly.

Rotating a video is most commonly needed when footage is recorded in the wrong orientation, especially on phones or handheld cameras. This lets you correct the angle of a clip without re-recording or changing the rest of your edit.

OpenShot lets you rotate a video visually using simple controls, making it easy to fix orientation issues in just a few steps.

How to rotate a video in OpenShot

Add your clip to the timeline. Import your video and drag it onto a track.
Select the clip. Click the clip so it’s highlighted.
Open the clip properties. Right-click the clip and choose Properties.
Adjust the rotation value. Change the rotation setting (for example, 90°, 180°, or 270°) until the video is oriented correctly.
Preview the result. Play the video to confirm the rotation looks right.

Tip: If black bars appear after rotating, you may need to resize or scale the clip to fill the frame.

Try it in OpenShot

Fixing video orientation is quick and beginner-friendly in OpenShot. Rotate your clips to the correct angle, then continue editing without worrying about sideways or upside-down footage.

OpenShot 3.4 Released | Improved Performance, New Effects, Exciting Updates!

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 05:40:48 +0000

Let's go! OpenShot 3.4 is here, and it's one of our largest updates we've ever done. An overall 32% speed up in performance, lower memory utilization, many new video effects and features, many bugs and crashes fixed, and an experimental timeline for those brave enough to test the future of OpenShot! Download OpenShot 3.4 Now!

Top highlights

Big speed-up across the board: ~32% faster overall in internal benchmarks (197,011 → 133,239 “lower is better”).
New Effects:
- Sharpen (detail enhancement; includes High Pass mode)
- Color Map (LUT) (color grading via .cube LUT files; supports 1D & 3D LUTs)
- Spherical Projection (flatten/convert 360°/180° footage; fisheye options + improved quality)
- Lens Flare (classic flare look; based on FlareFX-style filter)
- Outline (edge/line styling with improved antialiasing)

Performance improvements

Faster libopenshot core (benchmarks vs prior release; bigger is better):
- Mask effect: +63%
- Crop effect: +39.8%
- Clip rendering: +37.8%
- FFmpeg Reader: +30.0%
- Timeline (with transforms): +29.5%
- Brightness: +24.1%
- FFmpeg Writer: +21.3%
- Timeline: +20.5%
- Saturation: +20.3%
- Frame Mapper: +14.9%
Faster exports (~23% improvement) by integrating the caching thread into the Export dialog (reduces CPU contention and improves throughput).
Faster waveforms for long audio + time-curved clips (less decoding work; better handling during timeline edits).
Faster FFmpeg decoding (aligned buffers / SIMD-friendly handling).

Cropping (interactive)

Demo: Interactive cropping in the preview!

Interactive Crop handles in the video preview (crop what you see, directly on the canvas).
Crop context menu + improved crop/transform handle synchronization (better origin handling, fewer surprises when resizing).

Timing Mode (drag to re-time)

Timing toggle button (re-time by dragging clip edges, similar to trimming).
More consistent frame-accurate behavior while re-timing (project FPS precision).

Keyframes & snapping

Demo: Dragging keyframes is now super easy!

Draggable keyframes on the timeline (with live preview while dragging).
Snapping improvements:
- Keyframes participate in snapping targets (especially during trims)
- Better snap tolerance during trims/re-timing
- Avoid “snap to self” edge cases (prevents odd lock-ups)

Experimental Timeline (Preferences → Experimental)

Demo: The Experimental Timeline in action!

Experimental Timeline can be enabled in Preferences → Experimental. It’s the bleeding-edge direction of OpenShot’s timeline and may still have rough edges.

Unstable / use at your own risk.

Smoother scrolling/zooming on large timelines (reduced geometry rebuilds).
Markers, waveforms, keyframe rendering, improved snapping, and more track visuals.
Thumbnail handling improvements for trimming and preview reliability.
New Keyframe panel and in-timeline keyframe editing

Editing & workflow

Repeat / Loop / Ping-Pong options added to the Time context menu (supports trims + Timing mode).
Multi-selection editing improvements:
- Transform multiple clips together (location/scale/rotation/skew, etc.)
- Property dock supports multi-select navigation (jump between selected items cleanly)
Copy/Paste files into Project Files from the OS clipboard (assets auto-saved into the project asset folder).

Import / Export compatibility

Final Cut Pro XML (v4/v5 xmeml) improvements:
- Better spec compliance (DTD support; cleaned up nonstandard attributes)
- Improved import order (video tracks first, audio tracks after)
- Motion + keyframes round-trip (trim, alpha, volume, position, scale, rotation — with some limitations)
EDL import/export improved (more standards-friendly, plus OpenShot details as comments).
Timecode alignment updated to match common standards (00:00:00:00 framing behavior).

Media handling & accuracy

Duration strategy modes in FFmpegReader (more consistent handling across tricky media).
Stronger consistency between frame counts and durations (duration and video_length now match in meaning; unknown durations handled more predictably).
Animated GIF import via FFmpeg (supports animation + alpha; fixes duration/video_length accuracy).
Better H.265 playback on Apple devices (adds hvc1 tagging where needed).
Audio direction fixes for reversed/time-curved clips (more reliable audio when time runs backward or changes direction).

Developer tools

New Benchmark tool in libopenshot (easier performance testing and version comparisons).

Stability & reliability

Undo/Redo reliability fixes (transaction grouping survives save/reload; fewer selection-related crashes).
Crash prevention in common editing actions (deleting tracks/transitions, “Save Frame As…”, waveform extraction edge cases).

Packaging & platform support

AppImage improvements to work better on newer distros (dependency fixes and environment hardening for modern Linux systems).
Ongoing cross-platform maintenance across Linux/macOS/Windows (build and compatibility updates).

Infrastructure & automations

SQS-based autoscaling build infrastructure (builders run only when needed; reduces ongoing infrastructure cost).
Additional CI/release automation improvements (more reliable asset handling and deployment flow).

Credits, translations, and community

Updated supporter credits and acknowledgements.
Translation updates (many languages refreshed; more completed translations).
Special thanks to Raffi for community support, testing, issue advocacy, and helping drive quality forward.

Smarter Edits, Stunning Design | Discover What’s New in OpenShot 3.3

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 19:14:37 +0000

Smarter edits, stunning design—OpenShot 3.3 is here to transform your editing experience! 🌟 Featuring precision tools like ripple editing and enhanced zoom controls, alongside the sleek new Cosmic Dusk theme, this release is as powerful as it is beautiful. Take your video editing to the next level with OpenShot 3.3. Download it now and see the difference! 🚀

Highlights & Features:

Cosmic Dusk Theme: Introducing a sleek new default theme for a modern editing experience.
Comprehensive Ripple Editing Improvements:
- Playhead alignment during ripple slices ensures precise timeline adjustments.
- Ripple slice now supports multi-layer selections and realigns the timeline effortlessly.
- Ripple delete adjusts the timeline without leaving gaps and maintains synchronization.
- Ripple select (Alt+Click) lets you quickly select all items to the right of a clicked position.
- Keyboard shortcuts like Shift+Delete for ripple delete streamline the workflow.
Zoom Slider Enhancements: Precise zooming with frame boundary banding, draggable selections, and seamless navigation.
Multi-File Drag and Drop: Simplified handling of large batches of clips with better snapping and faster operations.
Recovery Menu: Seamlessly recover projects from auto-save files with a time-based recovery menu.
Auto-Show Properties: Clicking on effects or keyframes now auto-opens the properties dock for intuitive editing.
Project Profile Matching: Easily match your project's profile to imported file formats for streamlined workflows.
Timeline Precision: Frame boundary support with alternating color bands ensures exact edits.

State of OpenShot

This has been a great year for OpenShot, with a tremendous amount of improvements shipping to all our platforms: Linux, Mac, Chome OS, Windows, and the Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP). Even though the economy has been brutal to many businesses, especially open-source projects, we have remained steadfast in our mission to create the best free & open-source video editor in the world! Looking back at 2024, Windows 11 brought many new challenges (such as laggy audio device playback), and Linux was not to be outdone, with Wayland disabling color pickers in the name of security, but we fought through those challenges, and are so proud to release OpenShot 3.3, the best version we've ever released! Please consider making a donation to your favorite open-source projects this holiday season, because we really need your support!

🛠️ Bug Fixes

Windows 11 Audio Compatibility: Fixed critical audio sync and preference issues caused by the Windows 11 24H2 update.
Color Picker Fix on Linux: "Pick Screen Color" now works reliably for effects like Chroma Key on Linux.
Export Profile Fixes: Dropdowns and preferences now behave consistently, fixing issues with improper selections.
Home & End Key Fixes: Navigation shortcuts now reliably move the playhead and show accurate positions on the Zoom slider.
Gap Prevention: Eliminated timeline gaps during snapping, profile changes, and exporting by enforcing precision alignment.
FFmpeg Compatibility: Upgraded support for newer FFmpeg versions ensures stability on modern systems.

Performance & Usability

Batch Updates: Mass updates, such as dragging hundreds of clips, are now significantly faster.
Undo/Redo Performance: Improved performance for undo and redo operations on large projects.
Select & Scroll to Imported Files: Imported files are auto-selected and centered in the Project Files view for quick access.
Copy-Paste Overhaul: Smarter effect copy-pasting preserves unique effects while merging duplicates.

Quality of Life Improvements

Tutorial Updates: Improved built-in tutorial for onboarding new users with ease.
Improved Keyboard Shortcuts: Fixed and standardized shortcuts for better usability and consistency.
Dock Widget Polish: Streamlined titles and tabs in Cosmic Dusk for a cleaner, more efficient UI.
Enhanced Export Screen: Start/End frame values refresh automatically, and Advanced settings retain user preferences.
Ripple & Snapping: Enhanced snapping for transitions and clips near the timeline start, ensuring precise placement.

Additional Highlights

New Audio Library: Upgraded to a more robust audio engine for improved performance and compatibility.
Massive Timeline Improvements: Dragging, snapping, and editing clips is faster and smoother than ever.
Gap-Free Editing: Auto-fixes for small gaps when changing profiles or exporting in different FPS settings.
Improved Focus: Mouse focus now behaves consistently across tabs, preventing unintended actions.

Please Consider Supporting OpenShot

Your support powers OpenShot’s growth and innovation. 🌟 By making a donation, you enable us to enhance features, improve performance, and keep OpenShot free for everyone. As a token of our gratitude, your name will be proudly displayed on our website and featured in the next version of OpenShot (About OpenShot → Credits). Together, we can shape the future of open-source video editing. Thank you for being a part of our journey!

Get Involved

Want to help take OpenShot to the next level? 🚀 Join us in crafting the world’s most user-friendly, free, open-source video editor! We welcome contributions of all kinds—whether it’s sharing ideas, testing features, helping with documentation, or creating tutorials. No experience? No problem. There’s a place for everyone in our community. Interested? Join our Discord today and connect with other OpenShot enthusiasts!

Special Thanks

We couldn’t do this without our incredible community. ❤️ A special shout-out to Raffi (as usual) for tirelessly engaging with our users and championing the resolution of key community-requested issues. Your dedication makes OpenShot better for everyone!

Full Changelogs:

openshot-qt Changelog (Version: 3.3.0)
libopenshot Changelog (Version: 0.4.0, SO: 27)
libopenshot-audio Changelog (Version: 0.4.0, SO: 10)
Trello Release Board (Additional details, discussions, and comments about 3.3 development)

OpenShot 3.2.1 Released | Enhanced Stability, Numerous Fixes, and Smoother Launches!

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:40:42 +0000

Experience the smoothest video editing yet with OpenShot 3.2.1! This update focuses on improving stability, fixing numerous bugs, and ensuring a seamless launch every time. Dive into your video editing projects with a new confidence! Download OpenShot 3.2.1 Now!

Highlights & Features:

UI/UX Improvements
- Prevent freezes on Windows: switch video preview widget background color to use stylesheet and palette.
- Fixed background theme color on the preview/split clip dialog.
Theme and Window Management
- Refactored ThemeManager for improved thread safety and to fix Windows launch freezes.
- Delay showing the main window until all themes are fully applied.
- Restored geometry and window state twice to ensure proper functionality.
- Limited setContentsMargins to specific widgets to fix issues when changing themes.
- Prevented empty context menus from appearing on the property table view.
Sentry Bug Fixes
- Addressed multiple Sentry issues including:
  - list index out of range errors.
  - pop index out of range on Add to Timeline dialog.
  - Attribute and Type errors in various components.
- Implemented fixes for Sentry issues:
  - OPENSHOT-4D, OPENSHOT-YG, OPENSHOT-F2, OPENSHOT-5P6T, OPENSHOT-182J, OPENSHOT-22QG, OPENSHOT-1P, OPENSHOT-11T, and OPENSHOT-1V7C.
Deploy Script Enhancements
- Updated deploy script to allow for partial deployments based on repo changes.
Support and Documentation
- Updated supporters.json and donation files.
- Updated translations for the next release.
- Added a disclaimer and updated docs for the location of old/previous versions of OpenShot installers.

Please Consider Supporting OpenShot

Your support means the world to us. By making a donation, you help us continue to innovate and improve OpenShot. In appreciation, we'll proudly display your name on the OpenShot website and feature you in the next version of OpenShot (About OpenShot -> Credits). Join us in shaping the future of free, open-source video editing—every contribution makes a difference. Thank you for being a part of our journey!

Get Involved

Want to help make OpenShot even better? Join us in our mission to create the world's best, easiest-to-use, free, open-source video editor! We welcome all users, regardless of experience. Whether you can contribute ideas, test features, answer questions, share tutorials, or help with documentation, there's a place for you in our community. If you're interested, join our Discord and become a part of the OpenShot community!

Special Thanks

As always, a big thanks to everyone who helped, especially Raffi, who continues to be instrumental in communicating with our users and advocating for important community requested issues to be resolved. Also, a big thanks for everyone who helped troubleshoot the freeze in Windows 10/11, which was a very difficult issue to reproduce and fix.

Full Changelogs:

openshot-qt Changelog (Version: 3.2.1)
libopenshot Changelog (Version: 0.3.3, SO: 26 - unchanged from previous release)
libopenshot-audio Changelog (Version: 0.3.3, SO: 9 - unchanged from previous release)
Trello Release Board (Additional details, discussions, and comments about 3.2 development)

OpenShot 3.2.0 Released | New Themes, Enhanced Timeline, and Improved Performance!

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 22:22:02 +0000

Get ready to revolutionize your video editing experience with the most exciting OpenShot update yet! This release is packed with powerful new features, new themes, and significant performance enhancements. Say goodbye to limitations and hello to a whole new world of creative possibilities! Download OpenShot 3.2 Now!

TL;DR: OpenShot 3.2 is a game-changer with new themes, improved features, and enhanced performance to supercharge your free, open-source video editing on Linux, Mac, Windows, and Chrome OS! Also... please join our Discord!

I'm incredibly proud to share this latest release of OpenShot Video Editor. This update has been a labor of love, involving countless hours of hard work and dedication. From the brand-new Retro and Cosmic Dusk themes to major improvements in functionality and performance, every enhancement was designed with you, the user, in mind. This release isn't just about new features; it's about delivering a smoother, more enjoyable editing experience. Thank you for your continued support and patience, I can't wait for you to dive in and explore all the exciting new possibilities this update offers.

Highlights & Features:

Large Theme & User Experience refactor (Added new Retro & Cosmic Dusk theme)
Improved Timeline Snapping and behaviors
New Remove Gap feature (to remove unwanted gaps between clips)
Improved Split Clip and Preview dialog functionality
New Playhead and Marker icons (for all themes)
Support for Blender 4.1, and improved Blender animations
Use friendly name on timeline (i.e. when split clip or updating file names)
Improved Undo / Redo functionality (better transaction support, more stable)
Improved high DPI display support
Improved Tracker / Object Detection effects (more features, more stable)
Improved Parent property (for use with Tracker / Object Detection effects)
Improved Property Editor functionality
Improved font handling in Title editor (for AppImage)
Added new Not Found thumbnail image for missing or corrupt files
Updated scale x and y limits in property dialog (to prevent crashes due to large numbers)
Updated Help Menu Icons with new Discord option
Fixed top Sentry.io & Codacy issues
Fixed many keyboard bindings which did not work
Improvements to AppImage for better compatibility with modern distros
Added Windows Manifest to improve High DPI support on Windows
Moved Save Current Frame to file menu (no more button)
Adding Shear X and Shear Y to Copy menu and Copy All Keyframes menu
Fixed Mac OS notarization errors (build server)
Updated Translations & Supporters
Huge update to User Guide documentation (aimed at improving knowledge for RAG LLM support bot... and humans)
Experimental support for Java bindings added
Adding Effect Sequencing (Before or After keyframes are applied)
Compatibility with FFMPEG 7.0 improved
Improved FFmpegReader audio processing performance
Auto-resize capability added to Crop effect
Removed queuing and spooling in FFmpegWriter to reduce complexity
Fixed race condition in clip parenting
Lots of misc bug fixes

Cosmic Dusk Theme (preview)

One of the most exciting changes in OpenShot 3.2 is our new Cosmic Dusk theme (shown below). This theme is currently included as a "preview" to collect feedback and share our progress. We have invested a huge amount of time into this UI design and work-flow, but still have much work remaining. You can switch to this theme in the Preferences to give it a try! You will notice new toolbars, new icons, a more compressed and efficient timeline design, relocated undo/redo buttons closer to the timeline, and a host of new things to discover.

Remove That Gap!

Now you can right click on any gap between clips, and select Remove Gap. This is a huge time saver, as you can do this with a single click. All clips to the right will shift over by the amount of the gap. You can also right click on the Track, and select Remove All Gaps. Previous versions of OpenShot required users to manually select all clips to the right, and drag/snap them to the left, which is slow, and prone to inaccuracies.

Please Consider Supporting OpenShot

Your support means the world to us. By making a donation, you help us continue to innovate and improve OpenShot. In appreciation, we'll proudly display your name on the OpenShot website and feature you in the next version of OpenShot (About OpenShot -> Credits). Join us in shaping the future of free, open-source video editing—every contribution makes a difference. Thank you for being a part of our journey!

Get Involved

Want to help make OpenShot even better? Join us in our mission to create the world's best, easiest-to-use, free, open-source video editor! We welcome all users, regardless of experience. Whether you can contribute ideas, test features, answer questions, share tutorials, or help with documentation, there's a place for you in our community. If you're interested, join our Discord and become a part of the OpenShot community!

Special Thanks

A big thanks to everyone who helped, especially Raffi, who continues to be instrumental in communicating with our users and advocating for important community requested issues to be resolved.

Full Changelogs:

openshot-qt Changelog (Version: 3.2.0)
libopenshot Changelog (Version: 0.3.3, SO: 26)
libopenshot-audio Changelog (Version: 0.3.3, SO: 9)
Trello Release Board (Additional details, discussions, and comments about 3.2 development)

Unlock Your Creativity with OpenShot Video Editing Cloud API!

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:05:41 +0000

Welcome to a world where video editing meets automation and customization.

OpenShot Video Editing Cloud API offers an unparalleled opportunity to automate your video production, allowing you to create unique, user-specific videos with ease. Our REST API is designed for effortless integration into custom websites, applications, or scripts, making video editing more dynamic and accessible than ever.

Experience OpenShot Cloud API for Free

OpenShot Cloud API now offers a FREE demo server, allowing you to dive in, experiment, and build prototypes seamlessly. It's the perfect playground to unleash your creativity without any initial investment. You can access the demo server right away and start exploring the possibilities.

Jump-Start Your Project

To accelerate your journey, we're thrilled to share our open-source, MIT-licensed jump-starter project built in JavaScript. It's designed to help you quickly launch a web-based video editor that's robust and user-friendly. This resource is entirely free and can be the foundation of your unique video editing product: simple-editor.

We're Here to Support You

Got questions? Need guidance? Our support team is just an email away. Reach out to us at cloud-support@openshot.org for FREE support. We are eager to hear about your projects, answer your questions, and help tailor OpenShot Cloud API to your specific workflows.

Trusted by Millions

Remember, OpenShot is an award-winning video editing framework used by millions globally. It's stable, fast, and flexible – designed to fit into your unique workflows with ease.

Take the Next Step

If you're considering spinning up a server on AWS, Azure, or GCP, there's no better time than now. Get started with OpenShot Cloud API and bring your video editing capabilities to the next level. We're excited to see what you'll create!

OpenShot 3.1.1 Released | Improved Tracker & Object Detection, Bug Fixes & Quality-of-Life Improvements

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 22:04:46 +0000

Download OpenShot Video Editor 3.1.1 - now with improved stability and quality-of-life improvements!

Highlights & Features:

Fixes and Improvements to Tracker and Object Detection effects (fix property editing, prevent crashes, removed black background)
Fixes to Parent property (simplify context menus, a single None option, include thumbnail images)
Prevent freeze on launch (when OpenShot's sample rate does not match the default Windows sample rate)
Adding Profile Search button to Preferences (for easier filtering and searching for a default profile)
Fix duplicate Profile name bug (causing an issue when exporting and re-opening a project with certain duplicate profile names)
Protect timeline (webview) from receiving lots of unneeded messages from libopenshot (prevents crash in certain cases)
Improved caching logic around Property Editor (better performance while adjusting clip properties)
Fix large memory leak in Clip::Close() method (not correctly clearing Clip cache)
Prevent crash on timeline::SetCache (adding thread lock)
Adding additional logging around audio device detection and initialization
Allow audio-only clips to be transparent (revealing the video/image of clips below them)
Multiple fixes for WebM decoding (preventing freezes and crashes)
Fix divide by zero error in AudioWaveformer (if no amplitude was found)
Fix GitHub actions to remove Ubuntu 18.04 builder and some additional tweaks to build scripts
Many small code refactors and fixes to prevent noisy errors (reported by Sentry.io)
Minimum libopenshot C++ dependency set to 0.3.2
Updated language translations
Updated credits and donors

Quality-of-Life Improvements

Our goal for the 3.1.1 release of OpenShot was to listen very closely to our user community and their feedback from the 3.1.0 release, and quickly follow-up with a new release of OpenShot. We prioritized this feedback based on how many users each issue affected, and also considered many automated bug reports from Sentry.io.

We fixed many major issues, including crashes, freezes, video compatibility, and broken functionality with our user interface. This entire release cycle took around 14 days, and our entire team worked very hard to make this happen so fast! A big thanks to everyone who helped, especially Raffi, who was instrumental in communicating with our users and advocating for important issues to be resolved.

How to Install OpenShot

Download OpenShot 3.1.1 and follow our step-by-step installation guide.

Your Name in the OpenShot Credits

We would be honored for any donation you can send our way, and in return we will proudly display your name on the openshot.org website and feature your name in the next version of OpenShot (About OpenShot->Credits).

Get Involved

Want to make OpenShot even better? Please consider joining us on our mission, to create the world's best, easiest-to-use, open-source video editor! All volunteers are welcome to join, no coding experience needed. If you are interested, please introduce yourself: hello@openshot.org.

Full Changelogs:

libopenshot-audio Changelog (Version: 0.3.2, SO: 9)
libopenshot Changelog (Version: 0.3.2, SO: 25)
openshot-qt Changelog (Version: 3.1.1)
Trello Release Board (Additional details, discussions, and comments about 3.1.1 development)

OpenShot 3.1 Released | 400+ Video Profiles, Time Remapping, Improved Undo/Redo

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 22:28:45 +0000

Download OpenShot Video Editor 3.1 - now with 400+ video profiles, improved features, bug fixes, and faster performance!

Highlights & Features:

Free & Open-Source Video Editor
Improved Profiles (400+ Export Profiles, New Profile UI, and more)
Huge Time Remapping update (improved audio resampling, support for backwards audio, bezier curve support)
Improved Undo / Redo system, includes grouping actions (i.e. single undo for split-clips and similar multi-step edits)
Improved Preview & Split Clip dialog (correct aspect ratio, correct sample rate)
Improved Caption Effect (high DPI support, improved VTT support)
Memory leak fixes (clip caching, memory leak fixes, prevent zombie threads)
Improved Performance (FrameMapper & Clip objects now include extra caching and optimizations)
Improved Keyboard Bindings (arrow keys)
Bug fix for Blender Animated Titles using high FPS (incorrect duration)
Bug fix for Mac Chroma Key effect (babl color methods)
Bug fix for video preview widget resizing, to correctly clear cache
Bug fix for Automatic Transition Direction logic (i.e. correctly fade in/out based on where the transition is dropped)
Fixed issue with AppImage to support newer distros (related to glibc compatibility)
Improved About dialog (release notes link, remove "candidate" for official releases)
Expanded default Emojis (adding in Arrows, Shapes, and Brands)
Improved File Properties Dialog, to handle replacing files and thumbnails, and better support for changing FPS
Updated language translations
Updated supporters and donors
Updated docs / user-guide

How to Install OpenShot

Download OpenShot 3.1 and follow our step-by-step installation guide.

400+ Video Profiles

OpenShot now includes more than 400 video profiles, which are fully searchable. The research into this feature was very interesting, and included building a large metadata database of known video resolutions, frame rates, aspect ratios, devices, and pixel ratios - and a new management script which can validate, dedupe, and generate/update our existing profiles. Moving forward it will be extremely easy to add new resolutions, new frame rates, and new ratios. For more information on video profiles, check out our User Guide.

Time Remapping Improvements

While OpenShot has included some basic time remapping features for a while, they were quite limited, and would often crash when speeding up or slowing down videos. These crashes have been eliminated, and a much more robust time remapping implementation has been added. This includes vastly superior audio resampling support for backward and forward videos. It also now supports time keyframes using Bezier curves to incrementally speed up / slow down video and audio.

Undo / Redo Transactions

One of the most requested features in OpenShot is for better Undo / Redo support, especially for multi-step edits, such as slicing a clip into 2 clips or removing a track (i.e. which moves many clips at the same time). All multi-step edits now support a transaction system behind the scenes, which groups these multi-step edits together. All operations in OpenShot now take a single click to undo.

Captions & Audio-Only Waveforms

The Caption effect has gotten some much needed love, and has improved support for VTT/Subrip syntax, including a new set of default keyframe properties, which correctly scale to different resolutions, including High DPI screens. Also, OpenShot now supports waveform visualizations for audio-only files (prior to effects being rendered), which now allows effects, such as the Caption effect, to be added to audio-only files. This is a very effective way to make audio-only edits much more interesting (waveforms + colors + caption text).

Memory Leaks & Bug Fixes

We have identified and fixed ALL known memory leaks in OpenShot's source code, including killing zombie threads, making OpenShot much better at maintaining and reclaiming memory usage. For example, after a video render, your memory will now be reclaimed and threads properly destroyed. This allows for OpenShot to run for very long periods of time without any restarts, and is especially nice for batch renders, long renders, Cloud API renders, and other scripting usages which has OpenShot rendering videos for days without stopping.

Improved Performance

Many of the changes to OpenShot 3.1 improve CPU performance, especially around Frame Mapping (which happens anytime your source video FPS does not match your video profile), and Clip performance (when effects or expensive processing is needed, such as time remapping). Additional cache is used with Clips to prevent duplicate rendering efforts, and Frame mappers are much more optimized, to also prevent duplicate processing of the same frame.

A HUGE Thanks

I would like to thank all of the volunteers, translators, software developers, testers, users, donors, and everyone who contributed to OpenShot 3.1! I would also like to give a special thanks to Shawn (and Denise), and Raffi for their efforts and personal sacrifices to make OpenShot the best free video editor in the world!

Your Name in the OpenShot Credits

Get Involved

Full Changelogs:

libopenshot-audio Changelog (Version: 0.3.1, SO: 9)
libopenshot Changelog (Version: 0.3.1, SO: 24)
openshot-qt Changelog (Version: 3.1.0)
Trello Release Board (Additional details, discussions, and comments about 3.1 development)

OpenShot 3.0 Released | Stability, Performance , & Usability

jonathan@openshot.org (Jonathan) — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 21:15:25 +0000

Download OpenShot Video Editor 3.0 - the latest & greatest version of our FREE, open-source video editor! Over 12 months in the making and more than 1000 improvements!

Highlights & Features:

Free & Open-Source Video Editor
More than 1000 improvements & fixes
Improved stability & memory usage
Enhanced real-time video playback performance
Timeline & usability improvements (snapping, keyframes, waveforms, default folders, and more)
Ability to export multiple clips and videos at the same time
Improved User-Guide / Documentation / Help Manual
Updated Language Translations & Translation System
Expanded video formats supported
Support for Blender 3.3
4K display | monitor support (High DPI)

How to Install OpenShot

Download OpenShot 3.0 and follow our step-by-step installation guide.

Improved Stability

We have worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to identify and fix as many stability issues as possible in OpenShot. This was a unique challenge, both in finding clever ways to identify and reproduce crashes, and finding solutions that don't impact the performance of OpenShot. A few notable improvements are related to thread safety (during timeline changes and video playback caching), multi-threaded unit tests designed to flush out race conditions and concurrency issues, safer object clean-up and deletion, and updates to the Undo/Redo system to prevent crashes (for example, when spamming undo).

Enhanced Real-Time Video Playback Performance

One of the largest and most noticeable changes to OpenShot 3.0 is our improved video preview, resulting in smoother video preview and fewer freezes and pauses during previewing. But to understand why things are so much smoother, we need to look deeper into our decoding engine. We have rearchitected our decoder to be much more resilient to missing packets, missing timestamps, and better understanding when we are missing video or audio data, so we can move on without pausing.

Dozens of bug fixes and related improvements have also helped OpenShot 3.0 expand compatibility to more video formats and codecs, especially newer ones, which tend to be more reliant on multi-threaded decoding, such as AV1. Also, many improvements related to EOF (end of file) detection and file duration detection have further expanded the compatibility, even for badly encoded files with missing timestamps, and incorrect durations (which is very common in JavaScript encoded videos, and certain types of video capture files).

Video caching has also been heavily refactored and improved, to offer new functionality and more optimizations. OpenShot utilizes a caching background thread, which prepares upcoming frames before they are needed. This caching algorithm has been improved to operate at different speeds (1X, 2X, 4X) and in both forward and backwards directions. It also now includes a pre-roll to build up video frames before playback starts, offering a smoother playback experience. Many new caching related settings can be set in the OpenShot Preferences, and the user can now clear the cache any time, by right clicking on the playhead and clicking "Cache->Clear All".

Timeline Improvements

The timeline has seen lots of love as well in OpenShot 3.0, and includes some great quality of life improvements, making OpenShot even easier to use. Snapping accuracy has been dramatically improved (while trimming and moving clips / transitions). Holding SHIFT will cause the playhead line to snap to the edges of clips. Slicing clips with our razor tool is now faster (requiring less CPU). Keyframe icons have gotten a much needed face lift, and are also more accurate (i.e. position). Keyframe icons now represent the interpolation mode (circle for bézier, diamond for linear, square for constant), and are clickable and filterable. Video effects now have unique colors for each effect. Transitions now set their own direction (i.e. fade-in vs fade-out), depending on where they are dropped.

For those users who enjoy working with audio waveforms, this feature has also been heavily expanded and optimized in OpenShot 3.0. We now cache waveform data per file, and store this inside the OpenShot project file. This allows for persistent waveform caching across editing sessions, and fast waveform rendering when slicing and adding the same file to the timeline multiple times. We also have a more accurate waveform algorithm utilizing RMS (root mean square), and our timeline zoom slider allows the user to zoom down to frame accuracy on a clip, for perfect alignment with waveforms.

Reduced Memory Footprint

Among the many improvements in stability, we also worked very hard on reducing the memory footprint of OpenShot 3.0, and fixed many memory leaks and threading issues in the process. One of the primary goals of this work was to support extremely long renders (multiple hours), for processing really long recorded streams, security camera footage, and other long format recordings. In our tests, we achieved sustained encoding for more than 12 hours with essentially the same memory utilization the entire time... which is a huge improvement from previous versions of OpenShot.

Animated GIF & MP3

OpenShot 3.0 comes with many new export presets, including Animated Gif, MP3 (audio only), YouTube 2K, YouTube 4K, MKV, and more. We also have better support for anamorphic video profiles (i.e. videos with rectangular pixels)... perfect for working with old home videos.

Export Clips Feature

An exciting new feature in OpenShot 3.0 is the ability to split files into many clips, and then export all these clips at the same time, and in their original profile and format. For example, you can now quickly cut out highlights from your family home video files, select them all, and right click "Export Clips", select a folder, and click "Export". This will generate a unique video file for each clip, and makes it easy to upload to a file sharing site for your entire family.

Blender 3.3 Support

Keeping up with Blender's rapid development is always a challenge (they are super fast). We have updated our animated title templates to work with the latest version of Blender, including fixing various scripting errors which have changed since the last release of OpenShot. Also, we now set Blender to use the current project frame rate (FPS), so your new animated title perfectly matches it, and in high frame rate projects, this can have a huge impact by creating much smoother animations.

Improved Location Preferences

OpenShot 3.0 includes a new preference that affects the default folders used for operations (importing files, saving / opening projects, and exporting). You can choose to either use the current project's folder, or the most recent folder chosen (for that specific operation). In practice, this saves the user time by defaulting to better and more sane default folders, but with this new preference, the user can quickly customize the behavior for their unique workflow.

Sorting + Translation Improvements

While OpenShot has always sorted things in alphabetical order, such as effects, transitions, emojis, animated titles, and titles, this was only for English, and when using OpenShot with a non-English language, all our lists were still in English order, and "chaos" is the best word to describe the user interface in that state. So, we have refactored and improved our sorting at runtime, to be language independent. We have also fixed many other issues with our translation system, and we are happy to now report that using OpenShot in non-English languages is vastly improved and feels native! Also, the user can now manually change the sort columns on many views, and toggle the sort direction when needed.

New High DPI Support

OpenShot 3.0 now fully supports high DPI displays and monitors, such as 4K monitors. Many of the assets used in OpenShot, such as icons, cursors, and logos have been swapped out for vector or higher resolution images. Also, the maths used in determining many custom widget sizes, such as our video preview widget, have been updated to be aware of high DPI and scale up the pixels when needed. The end result is a beautiful, HD user interface that is crisp and fully supported on newer, high pixel count displays.

Improved User-Guide / Documentation

A very common complaint from OpenShot users (and prospective users) has always been our user guide. Old and outdated, with screenshots that no longer seem to match our descriptions, and many topics missing. Well, we decided it was time to invest heavily in our user-guide, and we are very proud of the outcome! We now have coverage of all OpenShot features, screens, effects, profiles, presets, titles, and more! We have updated all the screenshots (utilizing higher DPI images). We have over 110 pages of topics, descriptions, and information about how to use OpenShot, and a detailed glossary of video editing terminology. We also added PDF output to our documentation pipeline, and now any changes to our RST documentation files, automatically update our user-guide (and PDF) on openshot.org. It has never been a better time to learn OpenShot!

A Huge Thanks

I would like to sincerely thank all of the volunteers, translators, software developers, testers, users, donors, and everyone who contributed to OpenShot 3.0! I would also like to give a special thanks to Shawn (and Denise), Jackson, Raffi, Brenno, Frank, and Justin for the extra effort, and really helping to make this release possible. Lastly, I would like to thank all of the shoulders we are standing on: FFmpeg, Blender, Inkscape, ReSVG, Python, Django, JavaScript, Qt, and the many other great libraries and projects we depend on.

Your Name in the OpenShot Credits

We would be honored for any donation you can send our way, and in return we will proudly display your name on the openshot.org website and feature your name in the next version of OpenShot (About OpenShot->Credits).

Get Involved

What's Next for OpenShot

I am so excited about the future of OpenShot, and we have some really epic plans in motion! Without spoiling all the fun, you can definitely expect to see improvements in the following areas. If any of these sound exciting to you too, please consider joining the OpenShot team!

More dynamic title templates
Text & text effects
Improved timeline performance
Updated user interface
General usability improvements
and more...

Full Changelogs:

libopenshot-audio Changelog (Version: 0.3.0, SO: 9)
libopenshot Changelog (Version: 0.3.0, SO: 23)
openshot-qt Changelog (Version: 3.0.0)