Subtitles as editable Text+ titles in DaVinci Resolve

20 September 2026 · 5 min read

Resolve's subtitle track is fine for a deliverable and limited for anything designed. Text+ is the Fusion title that gives you real typographic control, and it is what people actually want when they say they want styled captions.

The gap is that Resolve has no command to turn a subtitle track into Text+ titles. Search for it and the answers are a paid plugin, a Python script driving the scripting API, or a third-party website. As of Resolve 20 there is still no menu item for it.

The route that is already there

Resolve reads FCPXML, and an FCPXML full of title clips imports as a timeline of Text+ titles at the right timecodes. So a transcript exported as FCPXML gives you one editable Text+ title per caption line, in a single import, with nothing installed and nothing scripted. It works on the free edition.

The file is the same FCPXML that Final Cut Pro reads. Final Cut treats each cue as a Basic Title; Resolve translates the same thing into Text+ on import.

Set the frame rate before you export

Every time in an FCPXML is written as an exact multiple of the frame duration, which is what keeps captions from drifting at 23.976 and 29.97. The consequence is that the rate is baked into the file. Match the picker to your Resolve project's rate before exporting, or Resolve conforms the timeline on import and the titles move.

Once they are on the timeline

• Each cue is its own title clip, so you can restyle one line without touching the rest, or select them all and restyle together.
• Font, size, color, position, outline, shadow and background are all live in the Inspector, unlike a subtitle track where you are working with track-level styling.
• The timings came from forced alignment, so a title starts on the frame its first word starts, not at the nearest round number.

When to use the subtitle track instead

Text+ titles render into the picture. If you need a separate caption stream in the delivery, or you are uploading somewhere that wants an SRT sidecar, the subtitle track is the right target and SRT is the right import. Use Text+ when the captions are part of the design rather than an accessibility track.