In the world of video editors, it’s very easy to recommend premium options that require a significant investment, or alternatively, an annual subscription. However, the truth is that there are free tools with an ever-growing number of features, good online documentation, and tutorials for all levels. One of the most interesting is Shotcut, which has been with us for more than ten years, and is also both open source and cross-platform.
Video editing is one of those tasks that definitely generates love and hate among users. More than one professional YouTuber has admitted their disdain for video editing, while many people still fondly remember their sessions with the classic Windows Movie Maker. But the fundamental problem with video editors is that they are intimidating, almost as much as a programming language. In general, there are no shortcuts: mastering them requires hours of practice, a lot of patience, errors and retries.
For that reason, it’s so important to find an appropriate video editor, and many arrows point in the direction of Shotcut. Its origins date back to 2004, but the current version is based on a rewrite that saw the light in 2011, and since then it hasn’t stopped growing. The main advantage of Shotcut is that it delivers to the user an almost perfect combo: it’s free, open source, cross-platform and offline, so we can run it in almost any environment.
How to Edit Video for Free with Shotcut
The portable editing of Shotcut for Windows x64 requires about 100 megabytes of download, so you shouldn’t have to wait too long to start working. The first launch throws you directly to its interface... which is a bit overwhelming at first, but its translation to Spanish is excellent. Most likely you’ll want to start a project specifying its name and video mode. If you let Shotcut use the automatic option, the resolution and framerate will be based on the first video in the playlist. Loading is valid using the open commands in the interface, or if you prefer, you can add video, audio and image files with pure drag and drop.
The potential of Shotcut multiplies if we manage to master some of its keyboard shortcuts. For example, when trimming a video you need to mark the in and out points. This is relatively simple using the mouse, but you can press the i key for “input” and the “o” key for output at each position. Once the selection is made, click to drag it to the timeline, and repeat the same process on other clips.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in Shotcut. Tutorials are abundant, and I personally recommend the one published by Kevin Stratvert, which is very easy to follow despite the English language and lack of subtitles. The latest version of Shotcut (at the time of writing) is from April 2022, its hardware acceleration works very well, and we haven’t found any major problems. You’ll need to invest a lot of time in Shotcut to know it completely, but if you truly want a free and open source video editor, it’s definitely worth it.
Official website and downloads: Click here
