Shotcut

Shotcut supports a wide range of formats and codecs thanks to FFmpeg. There's no import required meaning native timeline editing, Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring, and resolution support up to 4k.

Other features include screen, webcam and audio capture. Network stream playback. Supports capture from SDI, HDMI, webcam, JACK & Pulse audio, IP stream, X11 screen and Windows DirectShow devices. Multiple dockable and undockable panels, including detailed media properties, recent files with search, playlist with thumbnail view, filter panel, history view, encoding panel, jobs queue, and melted server and playlist. Also supports drag-n-drop of assets from file manager.

Can Shotcut handle high-resolution formats like 4K or 8K?

Yes. Shotcut supports editing and exporting in high resolutions, including 4K and even 8K, as long as your system hardware can handle the workload.

Does Shotcut support hardware acceleration for faster rendering?

Shotcut can use hardware acceleration through Intel Quick Sync, Nvidia NVENC, and AMD VCE/AMF on supported GPUs. This can significantly reduce export times compared to software-only encoding.

Can I use professional formats or codecs in Shotcut?

Yes. Since Shotcut relies on FFmpeg, it supports a wide variety of professional formats and codecs, including ProRes, DNxHD, and other intermediate formats often used in post-production.

Is it possible to do advanced editing like keyframes or masking?

Shotcut has support for keyframes in filters and transitions, as well as features like masking and chroma key (green screen). While not as extensive as other high-end editors, these tools cover many creative needs.

Is color grading possible in Shotcut?

Yes. Shotcut includes tools such as color wheels, curves, and scopes (like waveform and vectorscope) for color correction and grading. While not as advanced as dedicated grading suites, it provides enough control for most editing needs.

Can Shotcut run as a portable app?

On Windows and Linux, Shotcut can be used as a portable application without installation, making it convenient to run from an external drive or USB stick.

Features

Wide Format Support

• Support for the latest audio and video formats thanks to FFmpeg
• Supports popular image formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, TIFF, WebP as well as image sequences
• Lottie and rawr JSON animations
• No import required - native timeline editing
• Frame-accurate seeking for many formats
• Multi-format timeline: mix and match resolutions and frame rates within a project
• Webcam capture
• Audio capture
• Support for 4K resolutions
• Network stream playback (HTTP, HLS, RTMP, RTSP, MMS, UDP)
• Frei0r video generator plugins (e.g. color bars and plasma)
• Color, text, noise, and counter generators
• EDL (CMX3600 Edit Decision List) export
• Export single frame as image or video as image sequence
• Videos files with alpha channel - both reading and writing
• Tone mapping HDR to SDR
• Optional full range video input, processing, and export

Audio Features

• Audio scopes: loudness, peak meter, waveform, spectrum analyzer
• Volume control
• Audio filters:
• Balance, Band Pass, Compressor, Copy Channel, Delay, Downmix, Equalizer: 3-Band, Equalizer: 15-Band, Equalizer: Parametric, Expander, Gain, High Pass, Invert, Limiter, Low Pass, Noise Gate, Normalize: One Pass, Normalize: Two Pass, Notch, Pan, Pitch, Reverb, Stereo Enhancer, Swap Channels
• Audio mixing across all tracks
• Fade in and out audio and fade video from and to black with easy-to-use fader controls on timeline
• Cross-fade audio and video dissolve transitions easily by overlapping shots on the same track of the timeline
• JACK transport sync
• Tone generator
• Stereo, mono, and 5.1 surround
• Pitch compensation for video speed changes
• Record directly to timeline for voiceover, for example

Video Effects

• Video compositing across video tracks
• 3-way (shadows, mids, highlights) color wheels for color correction and grading
• Eye dropper tool to pick neutral color for white balancing
• Deinterlacing
• Auto-rotate with manual override
• Fade in/out audio and fade video with easy-to-use fader controls on timeline
• Video wipe transitions:
• bar, barn door, box, clock (radial), diagonal, iris, matrix, and custom gradient image
• Track compositing/blending modes:
• None, Over, Add, Saturate, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Darken, Dodge, Burn, Hard Light, Soft Light, Difference, Exclusion, HSL Hue, HSL Saturation, HSL Color, HSL Luminosity.
• Video Filters:
• Alpha Channel: Adjust, Alpha Channel: View, Audio Dance Visualization, Audio Level Visualization, Audio Light Visualization, Audio Spectrum Visualization, Audio Waveform Visualization, Blend Mode, Blur: Box, Blur: Exponential, Blur: Gaussian, Blur: Low Pass, Blur: Pad, Brightness, Choppy, Chroma Hold, Chroma Key: Advanced, Chroma Key: Simple, Contrast, Color Grading, Corner Pin, Crop: Source, Crop: Circle, Crop: Rectangle, Deband, Distort, Dither, Elastic Scale, Flip, Glitch, Glow, GPS Text, Gradient, Grid, Halftone, Hue/Lightness/Saturation, Invert Colors, Key Spill: Advanced, Key Spill: Simple, Lens Correction, Levels, 3D LUT, Mask: Apply, Mask: Chroma Key, Mask: From File, Mask: Simple Shape, Mirror, Mosaic, Nervous, No Sync, Noise: Fast, Noise: Keyframes, Old Film: Dust, Old Film: Grain, Old Film: Projector, Old Film: Scratches, Old Film: Technocolor, Opacity, Posterize, Reduce Noise: HQ3DN, Reduce Noise: Quantization, Reduce Noise: Smart Blur, Reduce Noise: Wavelet, Reflect, RGB Shift, Rotate and Scale, Saturation, Scan Lines, Sepia Tone, Sharpen, Size and Position, Sketch, Spot Remover, Stabilize, Text: Rich, Text: Simple, Threshold, Time Remap, Timer, Trails, Vertigo, Vignette, Unpremultiply Alpha, Wave, White Balance
• 360° Video Filters:
• Equirectangular Mask, 360: Equirectangular to Rectilinear, 360: Equirectangular to Stereographic, 360: Hemispherical to Equirectangular, 360: Rectilinear to Equirectangular, 360: Stabilize, 360: Transform
• Speed effect for audio/video clips
• Reverse a clip
• Video scopes: Histogram, RGB Parade, RGB Waveform, Waveform, Vectorscope and Zoom

Editing Features

• Trimming on source clip player or timeline with ripple option
• Easy-to-use cut, copy, and paste operations
• Append, insert, overwrite, lift, and ripple delete editing on the timeline
• 3-point editing
• Hide, mute, and lock track controls
• Multitrack timeline with thumbnails and waveforms
• Unlimited undo and redo for playlist edits including a history view
• Create, play, edit, save, load, and export (render) MLT XML projects (with auto-save)
• Save and load trimmed clip as MLT XML file
• Load and play complex MLT XML file as a clip
• Drag-n-drop files from file manager
• Scrubbing and transport control
• Keyframes for filter parameters
• Detach audio from video clip
• Presets for most filters and Export - both supplied and user-created
• Sort playlist by name or creation/recording date
• Multi-select items in the playlist and timeline
• Create custom name for clips and enter comments about it
• Low resolution proxy editing to improve speed of seeking and eliminate or minimize scaling
• Timeline markers and ranges, including export from a range and exporting as text chapters
• A Notes panel to keep notes about your project or contain text to reaad for voiceover
• Flexibly insert and reorder tracks
• Edit Lottie and rawr JSON animations with [Glaxnimate](https://glaxnimate.mattbas.org/) vector animation tool (included in our Shotcut downloads)

Cross Platform & Codec Independent

• Cross platform support: available on Windows, Linux, and macOS)
• Codec independent so does not rely on system codecs
• Can run as a portable app from external drive
• UI translations: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan, Polish, Portugese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Taiwanese, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian (not all 100%, but you can help
• Batch encoding with job control
• Encode/transcode to a variety of formats and codecs thanks to FFmpeg
• Stream (encode to IP) files and any capture source
• Video quality measurement (PSNR and SSIM)
• Perform integrity check of an audio/video file
• View detailed information about an audio/video file

Display and Monitoring

• External monitoring via Blackmagic Decklink card on NTSC monitor
• External monitoring on an extra system display/monitor
• UI themes/skins: native-OS look and custom dark and light
• Control video zoom in the player: fit viewable area (default), 10%, 25%, 50%, original (100%), and 200%
• Flexible UI through dock-able panels
• Detailed media properties panel
• Recent files panel with search
• Thumbnail and waveform caching between sessions
• Save and switch between multiple UI layouts.
• On-screen grid and safe areas with snapping.
• Low resolution preview (Preview Scaling) to improve speed of realtime effects.
• Preview the Shotuct timeline as a background within Glaxnimate

Hardware Support

• Blackmagic Design SDI and HDMI for input and preview monitoring
• Leap Motion and Contour Design Shuttle PRO for jog/shuttle control
• Webcam capture
• Audio capture from system device (microphone, line in)
• Capture (record) SDI, HDMI, webcam (V4L2), JACK audio, PulseAudio, IP stream, and Windows DirectShow devices
• Multi-core parallel image processing (when not using GPU and frame-dropping is disabled)
• OpenGL GPU-based image processing with 16-bit floating point linear per color component
• AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA hardware encoding

Replace the Mask video filter with 3 new filters:

• Mask: Simple Shape
• Mask: From File
• Mask: Apply

The new Mask: Apply filter makes it possible to mask filters without using multiple tracks! Use Mask: Simple Shape or Mask: From File to start the filter mask followed the video filters to be masked followed by Mask: Apply to apply the mask to the filters in between. Filters before or after the mask filters affect the entire video frame. One can still use Mask: Simple Shape or Mask: From File to affect the alpha channel for multitrack compositing as before. This makes them compatible with existing information and tutorials that suggest using multiple tracks as well as enabling collage/montage or transition effects when the tracks do not use the same clip.

The new Mask: From File is a powerful new video filter offering 3 modes:

• Wipe transition (stock or custom)
• Channel > Brightness from a video or image file (File > Custom...)
• Channel > Alpha from a video or image file. Moreover, Threshold can be animated with simple or keyframes, which is especially nice when used with luma-wipe image files (stock or custom). Not only can you wipe on a masked filter but also you can use this as an alternative way to make a wipe transition using multiple tracks (instead of same track transition).

What's New

Timeline Improvements

• Added symmetric resize of a timeline transition using its trim handles.
• Added drag-n-drop from Recent to Timeline.
• Improved Timeline and Keyframes zoom to be less erratic and more focused.
• Reduced memory usage for timeline waveforms.
• Changed Timeline > Set Current Track Above and Set Current Track Below to use the bare Up and Down keys.
• Speech to Text
• Added Vulkan GPU support to Speech to Text on Windows and Linux.
• Added a Use GPU checkbox to the Speech to Text dialog.
• Other New Features
• Added Export > Metadata including Cover art.
• Added a Typewriter group of options to the Burn In Subtitle filter.
• Added job progress and status on the taskbar or dock icon where supported.
• Added Properties > LUT file for video clips, primarily for the Linear 10-bit processing mode.
• Added aspect ratio grid options to the player grid button:
• 1:1 Frame
• 16:9 Frame
• 4:3 Frame
• 9:16 Frame
• Added 10-bit VP9 MP4 (E-AC-3) and 10-bit VP9 WebM (Opus) export presets.
• Added launching Glaxnimate from the Microsoft Store on Windows if available.

Changes

• Stopped bundling Glaxnimate except in the Linux Flatpak.
• Changed audio transition to a constant power crossfade.
• Changed multi-select for Subtitles to use the Shift key.
• Changed Properties timeline duration to be editable.
• Changed opening an image to not start playback.
• Changed Export to default to 10-bit HEVC export in the 10-bit processing modes.
• Changed Timeline > Record Audio to use FLAC instead of Opus for improved quality and tool compatibility.
• Reorganized the Video Mode menu with new categories:
• Social Media
• Other
• Legacy
• Reduced the thickness of the panel splitters and made them brighter.

Fixes

• Fixed intermittent audio waveform sync or blank waveforms (broke in v26.2).
• Fixed incorrect last frame in Glaxnimate animations.
• Fixed Font style other than weight and italics/oblique in the font dialog.
• Fixed accepting file names with special characters in Playlist > Add Files.
• Fixed markers disappearing after undo moving clips.
• Fixed hourly backup not working when saving frequently.
• Fixed opening a project starts the player at the second frame.
• Fixed seeking with keyboard in Timeline sometimes not working.
• Fixed Settings > Time Format not immediately updating the Timeline and Keyframes rulers.
• Fixed Timeline > Copy, Cut, Paste, and Overwrite breaking grouped clips.
• Fixed keyframes after undoing a trim in.
• Fixed changing Properties > Duration dropping time filters.
• Fixed Edit Marker duration and Ripple Markers off by one frame.
• Fixed the Nervous video filter doing a 2 frame fade-in from black.
• Fixed undo history for lock, mute, and hide track.
• Fixed button menus not opening reliably on Wayland on Linux.
• Fixed a possible crash during voice preview in the Text to Speech dialog.
• Upgraded FFmpeg to version 8.1.
• Upgraded x265 to version 4.1.
• Upgraded whisper.cpp to version 1.8.3.
• Upgraded MLT to version 7.38.0.
• Upgraded Qt to version 6.10.3 on Linux. peg).