Tools (What's New in 2026)

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Burn-In Metadata

Use the Hardware and Software Anti-Aliasing parameters in the Node Prefs menu to improve the quality of the burned-in text in renders and on media export.

Note: Anti-aliasing is not applied to the Metadata Overlay displayed outside of its editor, like in the Timeline Player or a Batch viewport.

Lens Distortion

Use numeric fields inside the FOV tab to modify its Top, Bottom, Left, and Right parameters.

These values are read from an imported 3DEqualizer setup.

Matchbox

These Matchbox shaders have been added to the application:

Grey To White: Use this shader to convert the pixels of the clip connected to the Matte input of an Inference node running a model like LaMa from grey to white.
PreBRN: Apply this shader to the clip connected to the Front input of an Inference node running a model like BiRefNet. The shader scales and offsets pixels to match what the model is expecting.
PostBRN: Apply this shader to the Result output of an Inference node running a model like BiRefNet. It uses a sigmoid function to adjust the image's contrast.

OpenFX

Support for Tokens has been added to the Effect File Path user interface element of the OpenFX Timeline FX and Batch node. Enable Dynamic to use the metadata like Shot Name to load the desired file.

Note: In the Create Batch Group workflow, the Shot Name of the content is used to name the Batch Group.

The Shot Name information of an OpenFX is resolved in the Shot Name layer of the Metadata Overlay.

Shot Name has been added to the Paste Special options of an OpenFX node.

Support for Metal Extension

Support for the OpenFX Metal extension has been implemented. Plugins designed to use this extension should continue to work flawlessly.

Pybox

Support for Tokens has been added to the Effect File Path user interface element of the Pybox Timeline FX and Batch node. Enable Dynamic to use the metadata like Shot Name to load the desired file.

Note: In the Create Batch Group workflow, the Shot Name of the content is used to name the Batch Group.

The Shot Name information of a Pybox is resolved in the Shot Name layer of the Metadata Overlay.

Shot Name has been added to Paste Special options of a Pybox node.

Subtitles

Use the Hardware and Software Anti-Aliasing parameters in the Node Prefs menu to improve the quality of the subtitles in renders and on media export.

Note: Anti-aliasing is not applied to the subtitles from a Subtitles track displayed in a Player within the Timeline environment.

Text

The Text tool is now considered a legacy tool; however, a few changes have been made to it.

Availability

The Text node is available in the All Nodes tab of Batch and Batch FX when the Show Legacy Nodes option is enabled from the Gear drop-down.

The Text Timeline FX can no longer be manually added; however, it is automatically added when a Subtitle XML file is imported.

The Text module is no longer accessible from the Tools environment.

Setup Compatibility

The legacy Text node and Text Timeline FX are loaded when a setup or a sequence from a previous version is loaded or restored. There is no conversion from a Text setup to a Type setup, and their setups are incompatible.

Improvements

Even though the Text tool is now considered a legacy node, several improvements have been made to it.

Integration in Batch and Batch FX

The Text node now behaves like a regular node, meaning that you no longer need to click the Edit button to access its menu. This comes with the following changes:

The options to select a Resolution and a Tagged Colour Space are now available from the Node Prefs menu.
The Multiview layout is available, making it possible to select a Viewing Transform.
Batch and Batch FX Context Views can be displayed while the node is selected.
Viewports can be set to the Interactive or Live Preview mode. This is the equivalent of the 3D and Live Preview modes available in the Action tool.
- In Interactive mode, the display and behaviour is the same as in previous versions.
- In Live Preview mode, the output of the node is displayed, including the anti-aliasing.
The Text Mode drop-down (Edit, Move, ReKern, etc.) has been moved from the left of the Multiview toolbar to the right, next to the Tools drop-down.
The Push / Pop, Delete, Delete All, and Group buttons are now available from the Text Menu on the right of the interface.
The Load Logo function is available from Batch and Batch FX.

Rendering

The rendering is now performed solely using the GPU.

It is recommended to favour Hardware Anti-Aliasing (HWAA) over Software Anti-Aliasing (SWAA) since HWAA is faster and slightly more accurate on both Rocky Linux and macOS. If increasing the HWAA does not provide a good enough result, then increase the SWAA to get the expected result. Enabling HWAA has no effect when SWAA is set to Auto-Softness. This mode adds softness around the letters to simulate anti-aliasing. It is the fastest mode and is used to display text in the Interactive view.

Note: Using a high SWAA level will deteriorate interactivity in a viewport set to Live Preview, depending on the node resolution, amount of layers, usage of shadows, etc.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Since the Text tool is integrated into Batch, some keyboard shortcuts for functions that were previously available in the Text tool have been modified to avoid conflicts. Please consult the Keyboard Shortcut Editor while the Text tool is focused for the complete list of keyboard shortcuts.

Note: The keyboard shortcuts listing is different whether the selected layer is in Move or Edit mode.

Features Deprecation

The following features have been removed:

The Revert button, making it impossible to revert a setup.
The Pre-Render button, making it impossible to pre-render a Text Roll.
The Anim Update button, making it impossible to disable the channel's animation during playback.
The Play Lock button. The same functionality can be achieved using the Play Real-Time / Play All Frames options from the Play button's drop-down menu.
The Back Clip button, making it impossible to disable the image from the Back input.

The following behaviours have been changed:

It is no longer possible to load more than one Text setup from the same file browser. To do so, you can load the setups one at a time, using the Append Layers option in the file browser.
The Reset button resets the entire node. To reset only the layers, click Select All and use the Reset Layer option.
It is no longer possible to abort the loading of a setup.