A local-first, open-source desktop video editor for precise, multi-track editing.

FrameTrellis is a desktop video editor built with C++20, Qt 6/QML and the MLT multimedia framework (with FFmpeg underneath). Your footage never leaves your computer: there is no account, no cloud processing, no telemetry and no advertising.

Latest stable release: 1.2.2. Faster MP4 export includes Quick and Turbo H.264 profiles, optional no-upscale output and live render-speed feedback. Download released Windows installers and portable ZIPs from the releases page. On Linux, build from source. Keep backups of important projects.

Features

What works today (each item is implemented and covered by automated tests):

• Create, open and save projects in a versioned, validated JSON format (.ftproj), with atomic saves that never damage the previous file
• Import video, audio and still images (common formats FFmpeg can decode), probed in the background with real thumbnails; duplicate imports are detected
• Missing-media detection with offline placeholders and relinking; projects resolve media relative to a moved project folder
• Multi-track timeline with any number of video and audio tracks (up to 99)
• Drag media from the bin onto tracks, move clips (also between tracks), trim either edge, split at the playhead, delete and ripple delete — overlapping edits are refused, not destructive
• Duplicate one or many selected clips with Ctrl+D; multi-clip copies retain their gaps and relative video/audio alignment in one undoable operation
• Create transparent PNG title overlays with font size and colour choices, stored beside the saved project and editable on the timeline as ordinary image clips
• Snapping to clip edges and the playhead, zoom, frame-accurate timecode (including drop-frame for 29.97/59.94 fps)
• Real-time preview with audio (SDL2), seeking, frame stepping and edit-point navigation
• Track mute, hide and lock; clip volume, mute, fade in/out and opacity; batch mute/unmute, copy/paste clip attributes and reset picture adjustments for multi-selections
• Real audio waveforms on audio clips, computed in the background and cached
• Transitions between touching clips: a dissolve for the picture and a crossfade for the sound
• Brightness, contrast and saturation per clip (when the FFmpeg eq filter is available)
• Unlimited-style undo/redo (500 steps) for every edit, with slider drags merged into one step
• Export to MP4 (H.264 + AAC) with Quick and Turbo profiles, no-upscale controls, real-time render frames/s, quality and encoder-speed settings, in a separate process with progress, cancellation and verification of the result
• Autosave every minute and crash recovery
• Recent projects, dark and light themes, keyboard shortcuts, first-run guide

Planned (see the roadmap): editable title layers, subtitles, keyframes, proxy media, customisable shortcuts, more export formats, and Linux and macOS packages.

Platforms

Platform	Status
Windows 11 and Windows 10 1809 or later (x64)	Installer and portable ZIP. Before each release they are verified automatically on clean Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11 (ARM64, x64 emulation) machines
Linux (x86-64)	Build from source; builds and tests run in CI on Ubuntu 24.04. No package yet
macOS	Not supported yet (planned)

Building

FrameTrellis needs a C++20 compiler, CMake ≥ 3.21, Qt ≥ 6.5 (Core, Gui, Qml, Quick, Quick Controls, Svg, Concurrent, Test), MLT ≥ 7.14 with its FFmpeg (avformat) module, and optionally SDL 2 for audio playback. Full instructions for Windows 11, Linux and macOS are in docs/development/building.md.

Quick start on Windows 11 (in an MSYS2 UCRT64 shell):

pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-{cc,cmake,ninja,pkgconf,qt6-base,qt6-declarative,qt6-svg,qt6-imageformats,mlt,fftw,libebur128,ffmpeg,SDL2}
cmake --preset windows-msys2
cmake --build --preset windows-msys2
ctest --preset windows-msys2

Quick start on Ubuntu 24.04 (details in the building guide):

sudo apt install build-essential cmake ninja-build pkg-config git \
  libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libavfilter-dev libavdevice-dev \
  libswscale-dev libswresample-dev libsdl2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libxkbcommon-x11-0 libxcb-cursor0
pipx install aqtinstall                      # Ubuntu 24.04's Qt 6.4 is too old
aqt install-qt linux desktop 6.8.3 linux_gcc_64 -O "$HOME/Qt"
git clone https://github.com/sanskarIN/frametrellis.git && cd frametrellis
scripts/build-mlt.sh v7.22.0 "$HOME/.local/mlt"   # the MLT modules FrameTrellis needs
cmake --preset linux -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$HOME/Qt/6.8.3/gcc_64;$HOME/.local/mlt"
cmake --build --preset linux
ctest --preset linux
./build/linux/bin/frametrellis

Using FrameTrellis

1. Import media with File → Import Media… (Ctrl+I) or by dropping files onto the media bin.
2. Arrange clips by dragging them from the bin onto a track, or double-click a tile to append it.
3. Edit: drag clips to move them, drag their edges to trim, press S to split at the playhead, Delete to remove. Every edit can be undone with Ctrl+Z.
4. Adjust the selected clip's volume, fades and picture in the inspector.
5. Export with File → Export… (Ctrl+E). You can keep editing while it renders.

The faster export guide explains the new Quick and Turbo presets and how to measure improvements. The user guide explains every feature, and keyboard shortcuts are listed in the app under Help.

Current limitations

• Titles are PNG image overlays, not editable text layers; there are no keyframes yet and dissolve/crossfade is the only transition. Keep generated PNGs when moving the project.
• Only MP4 (H.264 + AAC) export; frame rate is fixed once clips are on the timeline.
• Very large timelines (thousands of clips) are not optimised yet.
• Picture adjustments need an FFmpeg/MLT build with a working eq filter; the inspector says when they are unavailable.
• The Windows packages are not code-signed, and their automatic checks run on clean virtual machines, not on physical PCs.
• There are no Linux or macOS packages yet.

Testing

ctest --preset linux                 # everything
ctest --preset linux -L unit         # fast unit tests
ctest --preset linux -L integration  # engine, rendering and playback with generated media
ctest --preset linux -L gui          # drives the real QML interface

Media fixtures are generated during the tests, so no sample footage is stored in the repository. See docs/testing.md.

Documentation

• Architecture · Project file format
• Building · Contributing · Testing
• User guide · Roadmap · Release notes
• Licensing · Third-party notices · Security

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — bug reports, documentation, tests and code. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Report bugs and request features in GitHub issues. Security problems: see SECURITY.md.

Releases and downloads

Download FrameTrellis from the releases page or the website. Each release provides:

• FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe: the installer (per user, no administrator rights needed);
• FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64.zip: the portable version;
• SHA256SUMS.txt: SHA-256 checksums of the files;
• FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64.spdx.json: a software bill of materials (SPDX 2.3);
• FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64-third-party-sources.tar: the source code of every bundled third-party component.

The installation guide explains each step, and the release notes list what is new and the known limitations.

To render FrameTrellis projects without a display (on a server or in CI), use the container image of the renderer from GitHub Packages, ghcr.io/sanskarin/frametrellis-render; see Rendering in a container.

License

FrameTrellis is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version. It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. See docs/LICENSING.md for why this license was chosen and how it relates to the licenses of Qt, MLT and FFmpeg.

Acknowledgements

FrameTrellis stands on the shoulders of Qt, the MLT Multimedia Framework, FFmpeg and SDL. Details are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Maintainer

FrameTrellis is maintained by Sanskar.

GitHub · Website · Blog · Contact · LinkedIn · dev.to · X · Instagram · Threads · Bluesky

FrameTrellis is free and always will be. If you would like to support its development, you can buy the maintainer a coffee or contribute via Razorpay — entirely optional.