Fills, strokes, and shadows in titles using the Legacy Titler

Last updated on May 24, 2023

With this detailed, step-by-step reference, learn to create and customize fills, strokes, and shadows in the Premiere Pro Titler and Title Properties panel.

Set a fill for text and objects

An object’s fill property defines the area within the contours of the object. Fill specifies the space inside a graphic object, or within the outline of each character of a text object. You can fill an entire object or individual letters of type.

Note:

If you add a stroke to an object, the stroke also includes a fill (see Add a stroke to text or object).

Select the object you want to fill.
In the Title Properties panel, click the triangle next to the Fill category and select the box next to the Fill category to set an option. Some options include:

Fill Type

Specifies whether and how color is applied within the contours of text or graphic object.

Color

Determines the color of the fill. Click the color swatch to open a color picker, or click the eyedropper to sample a color from anywhere on the screen. Color options vary according to the Fill Type specified.

Opacity

Specifies the fill’s opacity, from 0% (transparent) to 100% (opaque). Set the opacity of an object’s fill color to set the opacity of individual objects in a title. To set the opacity of the title as a whole, add it to a track in the Timeline above another clip. Adjust opacity as you would for any other clip.

Fill type options

Solid

Creates a fill of uniform color. Set options as desired.

Linear Gradient or Radial Gradient

Linear Gradient creates a linear, two-color gradient fill. Radial Gradient creates a circular, two-color gradient fill.

The Color option specifies the beginning and ending gradient colors, which are displayed, respectively, in the left and right boxes, or color stops. Double-click a color stop to choose a color. Drag the color stops to adjust the transition smoothness between the colors.

The Color Stop Color option and the Color Stop Opacity option specify the color and opacity of the selected color stop. Click the triangle above the color stop you want to define and adjust as necessary. The Angle option (available for Linear Gradient only) specifies the angle of the gradient. The Repeat option specifies the number of times to repeat the gradient pattern.

4-Color Gradient

Creates a gradient fill composed of four colors, with a color emanating from each of the object’s corners.

The Color option specifies the color that emanates from each corner of the object. Double-click a box at any of the corners to choose a color for that corner.

The Color Stop Color option and the Color Stop Opacity option specify the color and opacity of the lower-right corner. To select a color, do one of the following:

Click the Color Stop Color palette to open the Color Picker. Then, select a color.
Click the Color Stop Color eyedropper, and click any color on the screen.

Bevel

Adds a beveled edge to the background. Balance option specifies the percentage of the bevel that the shadow color occupies.

Eliminate

Specifies that no fill or shadow is rendered.

Ghost

Specifies that the shadow is rendered, but not the fill.

Note:

Eliminate and Ghost work best with objects that have shadows and strokes.

Add a sheen

Add a sheen to any object’s fill or stroke. A sheen resembles a streak of colored light across the surface of an object. You can adjust a sheen’s color, size, angle, opacity, and position.

Select the object.
Select Sheen in the Title Properties panel.
Click the triangle next to Sheen and set its options.

Note:

If the object’s texture obscures the sheen, deselect the Texture option in the Title Properties panel.

Add a texture for text or object

You can map a texture to any object’s fill or stroke. To add a texture, specify a vector or bitmap file (for example, an Adobe Photoshop file), or use one of several textures included with Premiere Pro.

Select the object.
In the Title Properties panel, click the triangle next to Fill or Strokes, then click the triangle next to Texture to reveal the options.
Click the Texture box.
Do one of the following:
- Click the Texture swatch and select any image file on the hard disk.
- Browse to Program Files/Adobe/Premiere Pro [version]/Presets/Textures (Windows) or Applications/Adobe/Premiere Pro [version]/Presets/Textures (Mac OS) and select a texture. Then click Open (Windows) or Choose (Mac OS).
To specify how the texture scales, aligns, and blends with its associated object, set any of the remaining options:

Flip With Object

Flips the texture horizontally and vertically when the object is flipped (by dragging the object anchor points over each other).

Rotate With Object

Rotates the texture in sync with the object.

Scaling Object X, Scaling Object Y

Specifies how the texture is stretched along the x or y axis when applied to the object. The Texture option doesn’t stretch the texture but applies it to the face of the object from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. The Clipped Face option stretches the texture so that it fits the face, minus the area covered by any inner strokes. The Face option stretches the texture so that it fits the face exactly. The Extended Character option considers strokes when calculating the area over which the texture is stretched. For example, if you have a large, 20-pixel outer edge, the texture is stretched beyond the extents of the face. However, the texture is clipped to the face and only the extents are adjusted.

Scaling Horizontal, Scaling Vertical

Stretches the texture to the specified percentage. A single value can produce different results depending upon other scaling choices you make. The range is from 1% to 500%; the default is 100%.

Scaling Tile X, Scaling Tile Y

Tiles the texture. If the object is not tiled in a given direction, blank (alpha = 0) is used.

Alignment Object X, Alignment Object Y

Specifies to which part of the object the texture aligns. Screen aligns the texture to the title and not the object, letting you move the object without moving the texture. Clipped Face aligns the texture to the clipped area face (face minus the inner strokes). Face aligns the texture to the regular face and does not consider the strokes in the extent calculation. Extended Character aligns the texture to the extended face (face plus the outer strokes).

Alignment Rule X, Alignment Rule Y

Aligns the texture to the top left, center, or bottom right of the object specified by Object X and Object Y.

Alignment X Offset, Alignment Y Offset

Specifies the horizontal and vertical offsets (in pixels) for the texture from the calculated application point. This application point is calculated based on the Object X/Y and Rule X/Y settings. The range is –1000 to 1000, with a default of 0.

Blending Mix

Specifies the ratio of texture to regular fill that is rendered. The control’s range is –100 to 100. A value of –100 indicates that no texture is used and the gradient dominates. A value of 100 uses only the texture. A value of 0 uses both aspects of the object equally. Blending Mix also determines how the key of the ramp (set with the Fill Key option) and texture (set with the Texture Key option) are used.

Alpha Scale

Readjusts the alpha value for the texture as a whole. This option allows you to easily make the object transparent. If the alpha channel is properly ranged, this option acts like a transparency slider.

Composite Rule

Specifies which channel of an incoming texture is used to determine the transparency. In most cases, the alpha channel is used. However, if you use a black-and-red texture, you could impose transparency in the red areas by specifying the red channel

Invert Composite

Inverts the incoming alpha values. Some textures have the alpha range inverted. Try this option if the area that is supposed to appear solid is transparent.

Note:

To remove a selected object’s texture, deselect Texture in the Title Properties panel.

Add a stroke to text or object

You can add an outline, or stroke, to your objects. You can add both inner strokes and outer strokes. Inner strokes are outlines along the inner edge of your objects, and outer strokes are outlines along the outer edge. You can add up to 12 strokes to each object. After you add the stroke, you can adjust its color, fill type, opacity, sheen, and texture. By default, strokes are listed and rendered in the order you create them; however, you can easily change that order.

Select the object.
In the Properties section of the Title Properties panel, expand the Strokes category.
Click Add next to either Inner Stroke or Outer Stroke.
Set any of the following options:

Type

Specifies the type of stroke you apply. Depth creates a stroke that makes the object appear to extrude. Edge creates a stroke that encompasses the entire inner or outer edge of the object. Drop Face creates a copy of the object, which you can later offset and apply values to.

Size

Specifies the size of the stroke, in scan lines. This option is not available for the Drop Face stroke type.

Angle

Specifies the offset angle of the stroke, in degrees. This option is not available for the Edge stroke type.

Magnitude

Specifies the height of the stroke. This option is available only for the Drop Face stroke type.

Fill Type

Specifies the type of fill for the stroke. All the fill types, including Sheen and Texture, work exactly like the Fill options.

Note:

Select and deselect stroke options to experiment with various combinations.

Change the listing order of strokes

Select an object containing multiple strokes.
In the Title Properties panel, select the stroke you want to move.
Choose Move Up to move up the selected stroke one level in the list, or choose Move Down to move the selected stroke one level down in the list.

Delete strokes from an object or text

Select an object containing one or more strokes.
In the Titler, do one of the following:
- To delete strokes from an object, select the object.
- To delete strokes from text, click the Type Tool , and then drag to select the text.
In the Title Properties panel, click the triangle next to Strokes to expand the category.
Expand Inner Strokes, Outer Strokes, or both.
Select either Inner Stroke or Outer Stroke.
Click Delete.

Create a drop shadow

Add drop shadows to any object you create in the Titler. The various shadow options give you full control over color, opacity, angle, distance, size, and spread.

Select an object.
In the Title Properties panel, select Shadow.
Click the arrow next to the Shadow option to set any of the values including:

Distance

Specifies the number of pixels that the shadow is offset from the object.

Size

Specifies the size of the shadow.

Spread

Specifies how far the alpha channel boundaries of the object are extended before blurring. Spread is useful on small, thin features such as cursive descenders or ascenders on typeface, which tend to disappear if you apply a significant blur.

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