Over a month after its previous 24.08.3 release, Kdenlive has just rolled out version 24.12, focused intensely on stability, reliability, and user-friendly improvements.
In particular, numerous crashes and glitches have been fixed, covering everything from audio capture troubles to effect zones, high-DPI display rendering issues, and even subtle hiccups in subtitle editing.
Moreover, the updated version refines proxy handling, rotoscoping functionality, and project management workflows, addressing lingering lags, tricky EXIF orientation problems, and archiving difficulties that users have previously encountered.
As a little bonus, you can now resize multiple timeline items at once, take advantage of a handy “Shift + Del” shortcut to extract clips directly from the timeline, and quickly add markers or guides by category. On top of that, the improved handling of mixes (same-track transitions) now allows for transitions as short as a single frame.
Under the hood, Kdenlive 24.12 has embraced modern standards by dropping support for Qt5 and fully moving to Qt6 while also updating dependencies to MLT 7.28 and KF 6.3.
Alongside these changes, the code has been thoroughly cleaned, Whisper settings refactored, and threading and memory management optimized to streamline performance. Additional fail-safe measures have also been implemented to prevent invalid project profiles and script naming mishaps.
Subtitling gets a major facelift in this release with full support for Advanced SubStation Alpha (ASS), a format well-known for enabling rich and visually appealing subtitle styles. You can fine-tune font family, size, color, outlines, shadows, alignment, positioning, scaling, rotation, margins, spacing, and even special effects like masking.
The new Subtitle Manager neatly organizes these capabilities into four distinct sectionsโFiles, Layers and Content, Style, and Infoโmaking it easy to create, import, export, and manage multiple subtitle tracks, all while applying your preferred styling.
The revamped Subtitle Style Editor, in turn, allows fine-grained control over all ASS styling options, so you can craft professional-looking captions that truly complement your videoโs narrative.
For those looking to add movement to their text, the introduction of animated subtitles is sure to impress. ASS format offers three main effects: Banner, Scroll, and Karaoke.
Currently, Banner and Scroll effects are accessible right from the user interface, allowing text to glide across the screen horizontally or vertically gracefully. More advanced styling options, including Karaoke effects, remain available through ASS tags for those who want to take their subtitles to the next level.
The text-to-speech features have also received a generous share of attention. Seamless installation, GPU translation enhancements, and improved threading help guarantee smoother performance. Compatibility issues and model folder display sizes for Vosk, Whisper, and Seamless on Windows have been resolved.
Additionally, you can now conveniently update all virtual environment packages to the latest Whisper version. The result is a more intuitive and reliable TTS setup, ensuring that Kdenlive remains a top choice for users who rely on audio narration. But there’s more!
Kdenlive 24.12 proudly checks off the final task of the recent fundraiser: introducing built-in effects and a redesigned effects interface. Users will notice improvements to keyframe type renderingโBounce, Circular, and Exponentialโalong with fixes for zone-based effects, lag-free rotoscoping, more accurate shape filter rendering, and enhanced time remapping precision.
Motion tracker models are now more efficient, and you can navigate easily between keyframes in the monitor. The icing on the cake is the ability to create single-frame mixes for seamless same-track transitions.
The new Effect Stack interface redesign adds clarity and consistency, making it effortless to differentiate between keyframeable and non-keyframeable parameters. The reorganized layout is more compact and informative, and handy โinfoโ buttons in the effect headers allow for quick access to documentation.
Built-in effects like Transform and Flip (for video) and Volume (for audio) bring commonly used functionalities closer to your fingertips. Users can enable or disable these built-in effects as needed, ensuring a flexible editing environment that adapts to a wide range of creative workflows.
In addition to these enhancements, Kdenlive 24.12 introduces new color correction effectsโHSL Primaries and HSL Rangeโalong with GPS effects that let you display values such as distance, altitude, and speed.
Rounding out the release, several smaller improvements and fixes enhance the user experience:
- Audio capture issues have been resolved.
- The new Shift + Del shortcut lets you easily extract clips from the timeline.
- The clip monitor history menu now properly displays audio clips.
- The spacer tool no longer leaves unwanted frames at the end of your sequence.
- Multiple timeline items can be resized simultaneously, streamlining adjustments.
- The Pexels Videos provider has been fixed.
- Alt+click now loops between clips using an effect in the project monitor.
- The Titler ensures only plain text can be pasted while adding support for tabulations.
- Quick actions are now available to add Markers/Guides by category.
Refer to theย release announcementย for detailed information about all changes in Kdenlive 24.12.
Upgrading is straightforward. Visit the official Kdenlive download page and select the version that is suitable for your operating system. As always, the developers recommend backing up your projects before upgrading to prevent any potential data loss.
