Typewriter captions in Final Cut Pro, timed to the voice

9 October 2026 · 5 min read

Final Cut Pro ships with a Typewriter title. Drop it on a timeline, type a line, and it types itself out. What it does not do is know when anyone is speaking. Timing it to a voiceover means a title per line, each one trimmed by hand and its typing duration dragged until the last letter lands roughly with the last word.

The CaptionsThis typewriter export does that part for you. It writes one Typewriter title per caption line and sets each title's typing duration from the word timings, so every line finishes typing as its last word is spoken and then holds, complete, until the next line.

How the timing works

The Typewriter title types at an even pace, and its one timing control is how long the typing takes, counted from the title's first frame. So there is exactly one point per line worth aiming at: the end of its last word. The export measures that from the aligned transcript, converts it to frames at your project's rate, and sets the duration to land there.

• Typing can take at most 4.004 seconds, the title's own limit. A line whose last word ends later than that finishes typing early and sits complete while the rest is said. Splitting it in two fixes that.
• The letters between the first and last arrive evenly, not on the frame each word is spoken. On a line of normal length the difference is hard to see.
• If you edit or translate a line so its words no longer match the audio, it finishes at 80% of the line's length instead, so it is readable well before it leaves.

What it looks like

American Typewriter, the title's own face, in white with a black outline and soft shadow so it reads over picture. Because it is Final Cut's own title, everything else about it stays editable in the inspector after import: font, size, colour and position.

Limits worth knowing

• Final Cut Pro only. The file points at a title that ships inside Final Cut, so DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro cannot play it. Take the plain FCPXML or SRT for those.
• One title per line, so a long video is a long list of titles. Select them all in the timeline to restyle them together.
• The typing does not take a separate entrance. The typing is the movement.