Video editor OpenShot 3.2: Improved user interface and details
The open-source video editing program OpenShot improves the user interface, its timeline and the display on high-DPI monitors.
(Image: Screenshot / Tim Schürmann)
In his announcement, lead developer Jonathan Thomas goes into raptures: The new version of his video editing program OpenShot is a "game changer" and would revolutionize the video editing experience for users. However, a look at the new features quickly leads to disillusionment: As with previous versions, OpenShot 3.2 only brings small improvements, albeit ones that are consistently helpful in everyday editing.
The biggest visible change is the new Cosmic Dusk theme. If you switch to it in the basic settings, you get a user interface optimized for editing work. Among other things, it offers redesigned toolbars and a more compact-looking timeline, near which the undo/redo buttons have also been moved. However, Cosmic Dusk is currently only available as a preview version and may still change in the next OpenShot versions. At the same time, the OpenShot team is asking users for feedback. Also, new is the Retro theme, which is a light gray version of the old black design.
OpenShot: Functional improvements
Regardless of the theme, the timeline can now remove gaps between clips. All you need to do is right-click in the gap. The content of the track to the right of the gap then immediately closes flush with the previous clip. If required, the editing program can even remove all gaps in a track. In practice, this function makes work much easier, as it allows you to quickly remove individual clips in the middle of a project without having to manually adjust all the other clips. The timeline also offers improved snapping behavior and displays a new time pin as well as updated marker symbols.
Furthermore, OpenShot 3.2 copes better with high-resolution screens (High-DPI). Thanks to a suitable Windows manifest, this applies in particular to operating systems from Redmond. Linux users, on the other hand, can look forward to a revised AppImage, which now also feels at home on modern distributions. The title editor in the AppImage version of OpenShot also eliminates problems with the existing TrueType fonts.
Finally, the developers have also revised the documentation, the undo/redo function, the properties editor and the tracker and object detector effects. The latter not only offer more functions, but should also run more stably.
OpenShot 3.2 is available as a ready-to-use program for Windows, macOS, Linux and Chrome OS. Windows and macOS users install the editing software using an installation wizard. Linux and Chrome OS users can use the AppImage or tap into a PPA repository.
(dahe)