OpenShot 4.0 has been tagged for release with a Qt 6 interface, colour grading tools and a new video and audio recording interface among its changes.
The Qt 6 migration has been in the works for a while and while it doesn’t directly alter the way OpenShot looks – more on other visual changes further down – the backend bump does bring improved Wayland support and reliable fractional scaling.
On the features front, OpenShot 4.0 debut with a new colour grading effect and a dedicated work view:
Color correction can now be done inside of OpenShot 4.0
This offers scopes for colour assessment, curve editing and colour wheels for corrections, etc, and resolves one of the editor’s biggest weakness prior to now: a lack of pro-level tools.
There’s also a new recording dock. This lets you manage input devices, monitor input levels live and record directly into an existing project from a microphone, screen or webcam. Clips appear on the timeline (you can define which track) while recording is active and import once complete.
Effects that use AI are ‘simpler’ to use
OpenShot has been embracing AI tooling for video editing over a couple of releases. This update delivers more improvements in that area.
As a reminder, OpenShot supports built-in AI/ML effects (like object detection) that use local models, as well as generative AI features that hook into a ComfyUI server you run separately, to which OpenShot passes files and pulls results back into your projects.
OpenShot 4.0 adds four new ComfyUI workflows for audio: de-noise (via ComfyUI_FLClearVoice), enhance voice, upscale audio resolution and basic repair for poor or damaged clips.
On the local side, the AI affects UI was made “simpler” as model download options and status appear in dialogs when you first try an effect that use a model. Adding and refining AI-powered Object Mask to clips now show a live mask preview, and can switch model and set quality.
Motion menu overhaul, plus audio visualisation effect
There are several new video effects in OpenShot 4.0 (see list below), but Audio Visualization (sic) is most interesting: it applies a configurable waveform, bars, spectrum and other animation patterns over the top of a clip – great for making audio-only sections interesting.
OpenShot’s interface looks a little cleaner thanks to assorted tweaks to the default Cosmic Dusk theme introduced in v3.3 in 2024, and the fact the developer has reorganised, relocated, renamed to, some some cases, removed menu items, docks, buttons, etc.
Simple, Colour and Recording views are easy to switch to using the View menu (or keyboard shortcuts). The Advanced view been retired since, new in OpenShot 4.0, you can create and save your own workspace layouts as views and quickly switch between them,
Other changes in OpenShot 4.0:
- New video effects: Shadow, Glow, Displacement Map, Film Grain
- Motion menu gained new camera and animation presets
- Various old and half-finished view options removed
- Better support for Wayland capture on Linux
- New export filters for social media, e.g., TikTok, Snapchat
- Better waveform display with peak and RMS density options
- Updated documentation
OpenShot 4.0 has been tagged for release on GitHub, with downloadable installers for Windows, macOS and Linux (an AppImage). I expect the OpenShot PPA will be updated once the announcement has gone live.
In all, a pretty stacked update that, for once, might just live up OpenShot’s lead developer, Jonathan Thomas’ tic for announcing each release (however small) as the most ground-shaking, game-changing one ever.
More important than that: this is the first version of OpenShot that hasn’t crashed during testing – and I’ve been covering its updates since 2009. I can’t say it’ll be more reliable for everyone, but it might just put an end to my childish nickname for it: ‘open-shut’.
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