Drop shadow for Captions? (Premiere Pro 14.9 and earlier)

[michaelp12134904]

Hey all,

Super stumped with this but is it possible to add a drop shadow for captions? I know it's possible to add an edge, but a client of mine is specifically requesting a drop shadow.

[Richard van den Boogaard]

Simple answer is no, you cannot add drop shadows to captions within the Captions option in Premiere Pro.

You can manually create titles with that effect and use them as subtitles in your footage. However, you cannot export captions as separate text files (srt), as drop shadow is not part of any text format: it's a design choice.

The only way to export the titles separately would be to export them out as a separate layer (on a transparent canvas) with transparancy enabled. Either as a complete video that matches the length of your destination sequence or as separate images files. With the latter, you would need some form of guidance to tell the player when which image should be displayed. This is typical for .idx and .sub formatting.

[M_O_R_G_A_N · Accepted solution]

You can apply a drop shadow effect to open captions from the effects menu.

[danielc53885310]

Morgan, were you really able to do that? How did you do it? Every time I drag the Drop Shadow effect to the captions it won't let me.

[Stan Jones]

danielc53885310  wrote

Morgan, were you really able to do that? How did you do it? Every time I drag the Drop Shadow effect to the captions it won't let me.

You drag from the Effects panel to the Captions stream in the Timeline (not in the Captions panel).

It creates a drop shadow on the background box.

[GuyUK]

Can I suggest a simple work-around.  Select the text that you wish to add the drop-shadow and in essential graphics edit panel, create a duplicate entry by right clicking/duplicate.  Select the lower copy and change the colour to black, then in Align and Transform offset the black caption position right and down.

It is relatively quick to do and gives the desired effect. 

I hope this helps.

[cocoamossUS]

Thanks! I'll definitely try that next time.

[Stan Jones]

I thought Guy' suggestion would mean doing that for every caption. Adding one effect to the whole stream would be easier.

[cocoamossUS]

I perceived it as making an extra layer with all the effects applied. Then I could just copy and paste the layer above onto all my other sequences‘ captions.

I have to try it first though.

[Stan Jones]

I applied the effect to the caption stream layer in the timeline. You could copy/paste attributes if you have many streams.

[cocoamossUS]

Thanks! I had srt files and hated to manually create another title layer. It would've been such a hassle.

Not I just have to apply the effect and adjust the details. It makes my life so much easier!

[AJV Media]

THANK YOU!!! I've been struggling with making subtitles for a movie and I was about to lose all hope and make the titles the old-fashiones way (with the Type Tool and Essential Graphics) but now I can just add a drop shadow to the open captions SRT file and do it all instantly! Veyr much appreciated.

[LeMarkD]

Highlight all the captions in the timeline, go to the essential graphics tab, look for background, then select both the color and opaque, translucent, or transparent at the bottom of the drop menu. You have to select both for a shadow box to show up! I apologize for the poor quality of photos as they were taken of the computer screen with my phone