Free video editing software OpenShot has issued its yearly update, and it’s packing a pretty sizeable changelog.
OpenShot 3.4 brings new effects, long-awaited colour grading options and a slew of speed ups (up to 32%) and core tuneups that ought to bolster the non-linear video editor’s credibility with creatives, despite the crash-prone reputation.
Developer Jonathan Thomas calls this “one of our largest updates we’ve ever done” (but as seemingly every update to this particular app gets billed as the biggest/best/most stable they’ve ever done, you’ll forgive me for rolling my eyes).
Except…
There is more than hot air inflating the hyperbole this time around.
OpenShot 3.4: What’s New?
Thomas claims OpenShot 3.4 delivers an “overall 32% speed up in performance”, along with lower memory utilisation and “many bugs and crashes fixed”.
Improvements to the libopenshot core are said to deliver improvements across the app.Masking performance, Thomas says, is over 60% faster than OpenShot 3.3 (released December 2024), while cropping and rendering clips in the preview also see boosts.
Exporting video is also faster in OpenShot 3.4, with benchmarks showing 23% boost following some low-level tweaks to make better use of caching.
There’s also faster waveform rendering on the timeline and, with buffer alignment, faster FFmpeg decoding too. To help folks measure the software’s performance, a new Benchmark tool is included in the developer tools area.
New effects & support for LUTs
New effects in OpenShot 3.4.0 include Sharpen (with High Pass mode to pull out more detail); Lens Flare (albeit a rather dated effect); Outline; and Spherical Protection for working with 360°/180° footage or creating a fake fisheye lens style.
This update also adds a new Colour Map effect. This allows you to colour grade using LUTs (.cube) files, with support for 1D and 3D versions. LUT support in OpenShot is a big deal for those who want to use the software for more creative workflows.
Other changes include:
- On-canvas cropping using handles in video preview
- New retime toggle on timeline to retime by dragging clip edges
- Draggable keyframes on the timeline, plus keyframe snapping
- Loop/Boomerang options added to the Time context menu
- Apply transforms to multiple clips – if selected, of course
- Clipboard integration to copy/paste files to/from projects
- Animated GIF import via FFmpeg
- Better handling of Final Cut Pro XML importing
- AppImage improvements for better compatibility
Finally, for the brave, there’s an experimental timeline option. Though considered unstable and buggy, it provides a glimpse at the future direction of OpenShot. It offers, among other things, in-timeline keyframe editing, more track visuals and greater zooming.
To try it (keeping the caveats in mind) enable it from the Preferences > Experimental panel inside the latest OpenShot 3.4 builds (not present in earlier versions).
Who’s OpenShot For?
Video editing on Linux has never been more viable than it is today, with software options catering to all levels. OpenShot leans more towards the Windows Movie Maker-esque side, ideal for simple UI, basic cuts and applying unfussy transitions.
Meanwhile, editing workflows have shifted a lot. Video editing used to require a “proper computer” and power software to do even basic things, whereas now it’s convenient to do it on a smartphone or tablet, leaving OpenShot awkwardly positioned.
Linux users wanting to cut a basic slideshow, trim some clips or add music to something will find OpenShot ideal.
But for doing anything longer, creative or more complex, there’s more to gain more from using Kdenlive or Shotcut given they handle the basics and more. That results in using/learning features, skills and concepts which are universal amongst big-name software.
Get OpenShot 3.4 on Ubuntu
OpenShot is free, open-source software available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It’s built using Qt, powered by libopenshot (a C++ library) and the MLT multimedia framework (as other Linux video editing software such as Kdenlive, Flowblade and Shotcut do).
Installers for Windows, macOS, as well a standalone AppImage runtime that will work on most major Linux distributions (including Ubuntu) can be downloaded from the OpenShot website.
If you’re not in a rush and you use Ubuntu or an Ubuntu-based Linux distro like Linux Mint or Pop!_OS, you may find adding the OpenShot PPA is more convenient.
Note: OpenShot PPA does not — as of December 18 — have v3.4, but the team’s other PPAs are active. The update will likely land in the PPA in the coming days.
To add the PPA, open a terminal and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
Then refresh and install it by running this command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install openshot-qt python3-openshot
After installation finishes up, launch OpenShot from your preferred app launcher or menu to check out the new (and existing) features.
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