A new version of open-source video editor OpenShot is available to download.
OpenShot 3.2 is the first update to the app since early last year, and the editor’s chief developer, Jonathan Thomas, describes this release as a “game-changer with new themes, improved features, and enhanced performance”.
Among the change and new features in OpenShot 3.2:
- New Retro and Cosmic Dusk themes
- Improved default theme and icons
- New Retro & Cosmic Dusk themes
- Improved timeline snapping
- New ‘Remove Gap’ feature (removes gaps between clips)
- Improved Split Clip and Preview dialogs
- Crop effect gains auto-resize option
- Effect Sequencing
- Blender 4.1 support
- Compatibility with FFMPEG 7.0
A slew of more generalised improvements, ranging from a ‘stable’ undo/redo experience, and UI tweaks to support high-dpi displays, through to a more reliable tracker/object detection effect (a really compelling features) are present.
Naturally, lots and lots of bug fixes are included too for all supported platforms, Windows, macOS, and Linux (including ChromeOS).
Of note, the official OpenShot AppImage picks up improvements to provide “better compatibility with modern distros”, while the macOS installer resolves (server-related) issues with notarisation.
Is this a “game-changer”?
OpenShot 3.2’s new themes (Cosmic Dusk pictured at the top of this article) help lend the app look a more polished and professional look (and in an era of mobile-first editing apps like Capcut raising the bar in what casual users expect from a UI, important).
But it’ll be the performance tweaks, crash fixes, and feature enhancements that matter most to video editors, both novice and proficient. From personal experience with older builds, OpenShot is too unstable, buggy, and prone to freezing to be reliable for my video edits.
If the ‘enhanced performance’ in those areas is as pronounced in practice as it in the release announcement, I’ll be pretty excited as it’s nice to have choices.
Not that we’re entirely short of Linux video editing software these days.
Alongside OpenShot, there’s Kdenlive, Flowblade, Shotcut, Blender (yes, it has a built-in video editor), plus industry-grade software like DaVinci Resolve and Lightworks. Cloud-based video editing software exists too, but usually requires subscriptions.
More details on this update to OpenShot can be found (where else) on the OpenShot blog.
Getting OpenShot 3.2
OpenShot 3.2 is free, open source software available to download on Windows, macOS, and Linux from the OpenShot website. Linux users can download OpenShot from the website as an AppImage, which will run on most Linux distributions.
Those using Ubuntu (or an Ubuntu-based Linux distro, such as Linux Mint) may prefer to install it from the official OpenShot PPA, which provides packages of the latest release for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS through 24.10 (nice and early, we love it): –
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
sudo apt update && sudo apt install openshot-qt python3-openshot
Once install is complete, launch OpenShot to use it.
h/t Marco