Starting with Premiere Pro (Beta) version 25.0, build 32, all clips in the timeline have rounded corners!
As part of the New Spectrum UI updates, we are now adding rounded corners to all of the clips in the timeline UI. Rounded corners are easier to look at all day long, require less cognitive load to parse and understand, make it easier to see the boundaries between clips, and are just plain friendlier! There is a lot of psychology behind rounded corners. Just look at any object within sight right now, and you will start to see rounded corners everywhere.
Here are a few interesting reads on Medium that explain the concept rather well.
Rounded edges are “friendlier”
The human brain is conditioned to process sharp objects as potentially harmful and dangerous. A human neuroimaging study has shown that it is natural behaviour to lean towards objects with curved contours compared to sharper objects.
(Benjamin Tey, The current obsession with rounded edges in user interfaces)
The Effect
A complete lack of sharp edges and sudden transitions eradicates the manufactured feel that we’re so used to in mass-produced goods. Instead of reminding us of industrial supply chains, automobile production, and chemical laboratories, these softer shapes evoke succulents, pine trees, and rocks that have tumbled through mountain streams. There’s an organic quality that just feels healthy and warm.
(Arthur Van Siclen, Rounded corners in the Apple Ecosystem)
The radius will reduce as the clip gets very small to avoid the timeline looking too “bubbly” and there is a threshold width below which clips will revert to 90° angles entirely. We have tested with very large timelines and we are confident in our settings, but we want to know what you think. We encourage you to post screenshots of your timeline if you wish.
We want to know what you think. Please join the conversation below.
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Has the radius of the rounded corners become much smaller in the latest release (Beta 25.1.0x18)?
Continuing on from the complaints about precise editing that some people are airing, what I find REALLY annoying is this:
I'm dragging the dark pink clip back to snap to the end of the blue clip, and the highlighing of the dark pink clip creates a dark line between the blue clip and the selected dark pink clip. This looks exactly the same as a single-frame gap if the timeline is zoomed out. Please get rid of this outline! I do not need a line around a clip I have selected; its darker colour already shows that it's selected (maybe not if you're using the weird and silly VERY dark labels theme that was introduced a few months ago - if this theme is enabled, then highlighting the selected clip by making it lighter would be far better than drawing a line around it).
Cut points between some label colours when a track is completely minimised seems to be next to impossible to see currently. (has been for a few builds but this is 25.1.0.55) (0x51B858 is the worst in my current setup).
I like the potential idea of clips next to each other not rounding, but we still need to be able to see where one clip ends and the next begins, and a faint white outline just isn't visable enough, especially once you zoom out a notch or two
as soon as you increase the track height it shows the cutpoint like normal
It does seem, that with each release of the beta version, the rounded corners get progressively smaller, so on this latest release, the "rounded corner problem" has almost gone away completely! It also looks like those massive "1 frame of misleading nothingness" gaps between clips that in reality have no gaps between them at all has been removed (see this monstrosity from Adobe's first version of this rounded corners version):
...so now we have this neat, almost-squared-corners, no-silly-gaps version (very similar to how it looked years before The Cornergate Debacle raised its ugly, rounded head!):
At last, some good news in this lunatic world!
Ditto @Tom_edit Tom_edit, when a track is fully minimized the edit points become near invisible. Not good. In fact, bad!
These two half pixel lines are supposed to represent an edit point and I have to get about 6 inches from my screen to see them.
When you nudge one level up the edit points come back.... need to be able to see edit points at all track height levels please.
Hello developers,
I'm posting again to make you aware that the current state is still suffering. I believe some changes have been made in attempt to make it more consistent and readable? But it's not there yet.
Premiere 24.5 (our working build)
Minimum zoom level.
Here I can clearly see all edit points with about equal distinction quality regardless of clip color.
Premiere 25.2beta36
Minimum zoom level.
All the video clips have near disappearing lines. The audio on the other hand almost looks like there are gaps.
Why are they different in the first place?
Jumping up 1 zoom level fixes the discrepancy. But still hard to distinguish gaps from edits.
I think part of the issue is that start / end indicators do not 'merge' when next to eachother in the new design so it's always looking like there are frames between. This could be improved.
See comparison between old (top) and new (bottom).
You seem to cares more about the presentation of the package than it's contents. Premiere Pro as software is in many ways much better than Avid but objectively lacks in many areas. Why defend something that is evidently worse than it's previous state. The idea that UI needs to be updated because it's year xxxx is silly. It should only ever be improved if the improvement is actually meaningful or equal at best.
You mention Resolve as 'new kid on the block' but it has been around for many years already and they are far from perfect on many fronts. Regarding the clip appearance what they at least nailed is adaptive states to improve readability. When clips are too short and close together the rounded corners are removed. The shading of the clips are also more readable than how Premiere shades the edges. What Resolve doesn't do at all is show if a clip's in or out point is the end which removes part of the visual clutter but also information.
"But if this makes your editing impossible, then maybe go to Avid or just give up."
Highly condescending at not neccesary. Without any honest feedback from users to a company, there can never be any meaningful improvement.
"... it's full of UI from the 80. You should love that. Such a PRO feeling!"
Perhaps you are not actually dealing with large timelines and multiple projects on a daily basis. Video-editors and other creative professionals should favor readability over appearance any day. Otherwise you're only spending more time to process information.
FWIW the whole issue imo is not even specifically having rounded corners or not. It's simple the actual design of it that is not working. I have never had an issue with the clip presentation in Resolve which also has rounded corners. Neither with FCP X or Logic Pro X.
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