I’m a graphic designer and video producer, and a long-time Kdenlive user. I’m not a programmer, but with the help of AI I built a small tool I’d like to share with the community — and along the way I ran into some ideas about the title editor that I think are worth discussing here.
The tool: KTitle Studio
It’s a single-file, browser-based title designer that exports .kdenlive and .kdenlivetitle files. The idea was to make the design part of creating titles more comfortable than the current title editor allows, with real-time preview. It runs entirely in the browser (no install, no dependencies) and is open source under GPL v3.
Multiple layers: text, rectangles, ellipses, and images
Rich text styling: gradients, outlines, shadows with blur and offset, letter/line spacing, typewriter effect
A timeline with draggable in/body/out nodes per layer, plus fade/slide/scale animations with direction
Ready-made design templates and creative randomizers (fonts, colors, animations)
System font detection, undo/redo, light/dark theme, responsive layout
Import existing .kdenlivetitle / .kdenlive files to keep editing them
It’s not meant to replace anything — it’s a companion for the design stage that outputs files Kdenlive opens directly.
Where I hit Kdenlive’s limits (the proposal part)
While building this, I ran into a few things that I think would genuinely improve the native title editor, and I’d love to hear what the developers and community think:
Per-element entry/exit animations inside the title. Right now animations live as MLT filters on the timeline clip, not in the title itself. For motion-heavy titles, being able to define simple per-layer fade/slide/scale animations within the title (and have them survive as part of the .kdenlivetitle) would be a huge workflow improvement.
A more design-friendly styling panel. Gradients, shadows with X/Y offset, and live letter/line spacing are common needs for titles that currently take a lot of trial and error.
Design templates / presets. A small library of ready-made title compositions users can start from and customize would lower the barrier for newcomers.
I fully understand these touch the title/MLT architecture and aren’t trivial — I’m sharing them as a user’s perspective on where the friction is, not as a demand.
If anyone wants to try the tool, give feedback, or tell me whether any of this is already planned or technically feasible, I’d really appreciate it. And if it’s useful as a reference for what a more visual title workflow could feel like, even better.
Thanks for all the work on Kdenlive — it’s the reason I can do what I do.
Hello, remarkable work in his presentation. I didn’t find any major flaws and it’s a big improvement over what Kdenlive offers natively. However, it lacks the ability to position each element relative to the others. For example, if after creation, I want to place an object as a rectangle, it overlaps and I cannot find how to move it backwards.
I had thought of a slide in the lower area where the elements are located but nothing changes.
Otherwise hats off, it’s really superb and it gives a real facelift to Kdenlive.
Thank you for this work
PS: I use the translator because I don’t speak or write English correctly…I hope it’s not too “far-fetched”
Hi, thank you so much for your comments and feedback. If I understand correctly, you’re referring to changing the order of the elements from back to front on the canvas. The function exists, but it wasn’t entirely intuitive. You can select the layer in the timeline section and drag it up and down to change the order of the elements. I’ve added two buttons to make it visually easier. You can also reduce the frame size of the elements within the canvas using the edge points, and scale them using the corner points. The tool has been updated: KTitle Studio
Regards.
Hola, muchas gracias por tus comentarios y retroalimentación si no mal entiendo creo que te refieres a cambiar el orden de los elementos de atrás hacia adelante en el canvas. La función existe pero no era del todo intuitiva, se puede seleccionar la capa en la sección de timeline y arrastrarla hacia arriba y hacia abajo para cambiar el orden de los elementos, de todas formas agregué dos botones para que visualmente sea más fácil hacerlo. También puedes reducir el marco de los elementos dentro del canvas desde los puntos de los bordes, con los puntos de las esquinas puedes escalar. La herramienta ya está actualizada: KTitle Studio
This is exactly that, so it remains in the “logic” of Kdenlive: being able to move objects on the timeline. In the first version, the manipulation could be done but the program reacted like this: it moved the object and put it back in its initial place.
In this latest version, it’s perfect because there are also buttons allowing movement.
Really great job. Congratulation. I hope your work will be integrated into Kdenlive soon.
Nice layout and good controls. Took me a while to get used to it, honestly, but it works
The layering of the objects using an approach similar to a timeline is interesting but also works quite nicely. Only problem is that grabbing the layer title and moving it around doesn’t work, only the recently added buttons do.
I like the dope sheet approach to the animation but wished I could scrub the timeline. Right now grabbing the playhead doesn’t work (or is it Firefox?) as I can only click the new position and not drag it there watching the animation
Exporting the title as a project creates it twice
It’s great to have the option for a .kdenlive project file and a .kdenlivetitle file
The animation for the text is working (zoom in and fade) but not for the rectangle (it doesn’t have any even though the timeline shows animation areas (?) at the start and end, but in Kdenlive it is also zooming and fading).
Hi berndmj, thanks for your comments and feedback.
Regarding positioning layers on the timeline, I’ll review it again. In any case, the function with the icons is already available.
Regarding moving the playhead, it’s not yet implemented, but I’ll check it out, thanks.
I hadn’t noticed the double download; thanks for pointing it out.
Regarding WYSIWYG, it’s understandable. The tool loads fonts that are available online, and if you don’t have them installed on your computer, the display will change. In fact, Kdenlive usually displays a warning; this is to preserve the text editing.
There are some effects that do apply or manage to reach Kdenlive, but this is the part I’m proposing for native implementation in Kdenlive: being able to animate each object independently with its animation settings and not from an external tool. This tool is like a prototype.
Ok, fair enough. But the formatting shouldn’t change, right? For example centered vs left-aligned.
being able to animate each object independently with its animation settings
That’s perhaps where Glaxnimate can come in. If Glaxnimate had your title creation and animation features, that could be the future of title editing and animation for Kdenlive.
Interesting, that’s a good point. I’ll check if the ktitle tool can be adapted to Glaxnimate to incorporate these compositions into Kdenlive that way. Thanks!!
