I cannot believe I am having so much trouble with this, but some help would sure be appreciated. I am new to KdenLive and am running the latest version just downloaded last night.

I CANNOT make a simple text caption with a transparent background to overlay my video track. This is such an important part of video editing that I know I must be missing something very simple because sometimes I do unexplainable things.

Since there is no dedicated "Caption" tool, I open the "Add Title" tool. I create my text box(s) and have no problem with that. I push the "Background" slider all the way over to zero. Then save.

When I put the resulting title clip in a video track above the track needing captions, the thing has a black background.

The MOST infuriating thing is that if I click the little "Show Background" box in the text editing window, the caption displays EXACTLY like I want... nice transparent background. Yet when the edited clip is run, there is that black background again. It's like the program is laughing at me.

Any help here would be great. If you can give me some guidance, please explain the process as if you were talking to a 5 year old idiot.

Thanks,

Tom

Emergency help: Make a transparent .png with text with some opacity in Gimp.

In Gimp I made white a 1920x1080 white background image. I added text (grey medium dark) and and some opacity to it. Merge down text layer. Then Colors -> Color to alpha: white. Save .png.
And I have a good image with background totally transparent & text nicely enough transparent.

Ah, but there is also alpha channel color on Kdenlive. Click color when making the title and color alpha channel some 50 - 60...

Hmmm. I read slower your problem. My title clip has from start transparent backgr. I don't have to move the slider. I have got some strange problems like this if I change project properties on the fly. Did you click project monitor? Clip monitor shows black?

Um, not sure what you are referring to when you say click "project monitor"???

I dropped the text on a new layer above the one needing the caption, then play back the modified timeline... and have a black bacground where the transparent caption is supposed to be.

Tom

I got same problem. Some bugs? If I add composite transition between the tracks the texts start to show. Bottom track: the image. 2nd: the text. I thought, and first it worked without composite? Uj, Now it works again without the the composite trans.,,,? Some random bugs? If I restart the bug appears again. But If I remove and add the text again it's there?

tomeara wrote:Um, not sure what you are referring to when you say click "project monitor"???

I dropped the text on a new layer above the one needing the caption, then play back the modified timeline... and have a black bacground where the transparent caption is supposed to be.

Tom

I am on Win10 and KDEnlive 19.04. I can easily create a caption that overlays nicely with the main video. When playing back (either by scrubbing or via the play button below the monitor) make sure the monitor shows the project and not the clip (assuming in your project bin the recently added title clip is still selected).
I created the title very simply: Click on Project > Add Title Clip, added a simple text (adjusted for color, size and position), clicked save, dragged it from the project bin to the timeline into the V2 track (is on top of the V1 track with the main video). Just as I expect that function to work.
I know this does not solve your problem right away but perhaps you double-check your settings and tabs in KDEnlive or re-install or use the app-image of KDEnlive.