Adjust titles in Final Cut Pro
You can edit text in the viewer or in the Text inspector, and you can adjust a title’s appearance using the Title and Video inspectors. For example, you can adjust a title’s opacity or modify the text’s font, alignment, color, glow, and drop shadow.
Edit title text
In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:
Select a title clip in the timeline, then move the playhead over the selected title clip.
Double-click a title clip in the timeline.
The title appears in the viewer, and the text in the first text object in the title clip is selected. The playhead moves to the point in the timeline where the first text object is fully visible in the viewer. (For example, to make the animated text you’re editing visible in the viewer, you may need to move the playhead to a different point in the animation.)
Do one of the following:
Double-click a text object in the viewer.
Select the text in the Text inspector.
Edit the text.
To exit text editing, press Command-Return.
Adjust a title’s position onscreen
Adjust a title clip’s opacity
You can adjust a title clip’s opacity to make the title more transparent.
Double-click a title clip in the Final Cut Pro timeline.
If the inspector isn’t already shown, do one of the following:
Choose Window > Show in Workspace > Inspector (or press Command-4).
Click the Inspector button on the right side of the toolbar.
Click the Video button at the top of the inspector.
Tip: Double-click the top bar of the inspector to switch between half-height view and full-height view.
In the Compositing section, adjust the opacity settings.
Note: Some titles allow you to adjust the text opacity separately from the opacity of the rest of the title graphics. See Modify a title’s text style, below.
To exit text editing, press Command-Return.
Note: You can also keyframe a title’s opacity setting.
Adjust a title’s settings
You can modify a title’s settings in the Title inspector.
You can build and modify titles in Motion 5 for use in Final Cut Pro. When you save a title template in Motion, you can choose which parameters to publish in the Title inspector in Final Cut Pro. For this reason, the parameters that you can adjust in the Title inspector vary from title to title.
See the information about Final Cut Pro X templates in the Motion User Guide.
Select a title clip in the Final Cut Pro timeline.
If the inspector isn’t already shown, do one of the following:
Choose Window > Show in Workspace > Inspector (or press Command-4).
Click the Inspector button on the right side of the toolbar.
Click the Title button at the top of the inspector.
Tip: Double-click the top bar of the inspector to switch between half-height view and full-height view.
Adjust the available settings as needed.
Note: You can also animate some titles by keyframing settings in the Title inspector. For more information about animating effects using keyframes, see Add video effect keyframes in Final Cut Pro.
Modify a title’s text style
Double-click a title clip in the Final Cut Pro timeline.
The title appears in the viewer, and the text in the first text object in the title clip is selected.
Note: To modify a different text object in the same title, select it in the viewer.
If the inspector isn’t already shown, do one of the following:
Choose Window > Show in Workspace > Inspector (or press Command-4).
Click the Inspector button on the right side of the toolbar.
Click the Text button at the top of the inspector.
Tip: Double-click the top bar of the inspector to switch between half-height view and full-height view.
Adjust the available settings as needed.
Note: To reveal the controls in each of the sections, you may need to scroll down in the Text inspector and double-click each section name. For a complete list of available controls, see Text inspector controls in Final Cut Pro.
Basic: Sets the basic text settings such as font, size, alignment, tracking, and line spacing.
3D Text: Sets the depth, depth direction, weight, front edge type, front edge size, back edge type, and inside corner type for 3D text objects. See Intro to 3D titles in Final Cut Pro.
Face: Sets the type of color fill, the fill color, opacity, and blur.
Outline: Sets the type of color fill, the fill color, opacity, blur, and width.
Glow: Sets the type of color fill, the fill color, opacity, blur, and radius.
Drop Shadow: Sets the type of color fill, the fill color, opacity, distance, and angle.
To exit text editing, press Command-Return.
Adjust the timing of an animated title
Many of the titles that come with Final Cut Pro include animations. Depending on the specific title, there are two main ways to adjust the speed of the animation.
In Final Cut Pro, do any of the following:
Change the duration of the clip: The animation timing in some titles depends on the duration of the clip. For example, to slow down the Scrolling title, extend the duration of the title clip in the timeline.
Adjust the timing in Motion: Open the Titles and Generators sidebar, select Titles in the sidebar, then Control-click a title in the browser and choose “Open a copy in Motion.”
The title opens in Motion as a Motion project.
For information about adjusting titles in Motion, see the Motion User Guide.
Adjust multiple text objects in a title at once
You can adjust the settings of more than one text object at once.
Select a title clip in the Final Cut Pro timeline.
Move the playhead over the selected title clip.
In the viewer, do one of the following:
Holding down the Command key, select the text objects you want to modify.
Drag to select the text objects you want to modify.
If the inspector isn’t already shown, do one of the following:
Choose Window > Show in Workspace > Inspector (or press Command-4).
Click the Inspector button on the right side of the toolbar.
In the Text inspector, adjust the available settings as needed.
Use the ruler to align paragraph text objects
Text created in Motion and some titles included with Final Cut Pro contain paragraph text. You can use a ruler and tabs to control the layout of paragraph text. See the Motion User Guide.
In Final Cut Pro, double-click a paragraph text object in the viewer.
In the viewer, click the Show Ruler button.
Note: The Show Ruler button appears only when you edit a paragraph text object.
A ruler appears above the paragraph text object in the viewer. Tabs in the ruler show how tabbed text will be aligned in the selected text.
Do any of the following:
Add a tab: Click in the ruler.
Add a specific tab type when you click in the ruler: Control-click in the ruler and choose a tab type.
This also changes the type of tab added to the ruler when you click in it.
Move a tab: Drag it to another position on the ruler.
Delete a tab: Drag it out of the ruler.
Change a tab to another tab type: Control-click the tab and choose a tab type.
