Final Cut Pro titles: Bold font reverts to Regular on export

I have spent several hours on this matter. What I have tried...

1. Reset the font catalog
2. Validated all used fonts in Font Book (no problems found)
3. Reinstalled the fonts
4. Trashed Final Cut Pro preferences (hold Option+Command while launching)
5. Tested with default titles, not only custom ones
6. Copied the project into a brand new library
7. Opened the same library on a second Mac

(none of it fixed it)

The behavior is identical everywhere, including a freshly created Basic Title with system Helvetica Bold. So this is not a corrupt library, not a corrupt font, and not user error. It travels with the application and OS, not with the project.

What did work for me...

The bug is a commit problem. When you change only the font weight, Final Cut Pro does not register the change for the render path. Forcing any second change makes the weight stick. Two reliable methods:

1. After setting the weight, touch any other parameter in the Text inspector. For example, set Tracking to 1 and then back to 0. The value does not need to actually change, the parameter just needs to be touched.
2. Or click into the title text, type a random character, and delete it immediately.

For projects with many titles I select all title clips and the captions at once and nudge Tracking 1 then 0 for the whole selection in one go. After that the export renders the correct weights, and the fix survives quitting and relaunching Final Cut Pro.

Hope this saves someone else the headache.

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[Edited by Moderator]

Following up on my own post. For scope: I confirmed this identical on a second and 3rd Mac and across unrelated projects, so it is the application and OS, not a bad library or font.

The two methods I listed fix one title at a time, which is painful on a project full of titles (like subs). This one fixes them all in a single pass, and in my testing it held up 100 percent on export.

Save the styling as a custom Text Style preset, then apply that preset to your titles:

1. On one title, set your font and the weight you want, for example Helvetica Bold.
2. In the Text inspector, click the pop-up at the very top (it says "Normal") and choose Save Format Attributes. Give it a name.
3. Select all the titles you want to fix. The Timeline Index makes this easy: open it, click Clips at the top, then Titles at the bottom, and grab the lot.
4. With them selected, open that same pop-up and pick your saved style. Export now holds the weight.

The interesting part: applying the preset is itself the write that commits the weight to the render path, so you can skip the per-clip "touch a parameter" step entirely. I tested it without any commit step and it still came out correct every time.

Still a workaround, not a fix. The real bug is Apple's to solve, but until they do, this worked for me as the fastest reliable route for a project with a lot of titles.

Nope, it just works OK for me. I can't get it to misbehave.

I have also tried it in 11.2 and it works perfectly.

An AI search reveals this:-

It's a known bug.

• Delete Render Files: Select the Project in the browser, go to File > Delete Generated Project Files, and choose to delete all render files. This forces FCP to re-render the titles correctly upon export.
• Font Book Validation: Open the Font Book app, select the font, and ensure it is validated and not corrupted.
• Remove Title Styles: If using custom Motion templates, remove any specific "styles" applied within the text inspector, as these can conflict with formatting changes.
• Recreate Titles: If the title was copy-pasted, delete it and drag a fresh title from the titles browser, as copied titles can sometimes inherit bugs.
• Change Font Family: If the bold weight of a font (e.g., Avenir Next) is failing, try using a different, similar font, or select a font that has a built-in "Bold" version rather than using the generic styling button.
• Check for Duplicate Fonts: Ensure you do not have multiple versions of the same font (e.g., .ttf and .otf) installed, which can confuse the rendering engine.
• Update Software: Ensure both macOS and Final Cut Pro are updated to the latest versions, as this is a known bug that Apple has addressed in various updates. Apple Support Community

Well, what do you know...

I thought I had tried this before, but just now I tested and I CAN reproduce the same problem.

Basic Title, Helvetica font set to Bold Oblique, shows correctly in the Viewer, exports as Regular.

Saving a text preset and applying it, as suggested, works, but should not be necessary, of course.

Just ran into this today. Unbelievable.

Can confirm that switching the font weight, then immediately adjusting any parameter, will cause the weight change to stick (none of the parameters need to change, a parameter just needs to be touched).

I did a second test: without doing anything else, I changed the Alignment to Right, and then immediately back to Center; then I exported again. This time it exported correctly. This is in line with previous tests.

Also: the problem is present also in FCP 11.1.1, and in FCP 10.8.1, which are the other two versions I could run on my mac.

Which font is this, and most importantly: which Title is this?

Some titles have rigged parameters in Motion; these parameters cannot be changed independently.

If you tell us exactly, we can check if that is what is happening in this case.

Doug Metz wrote:

None of these AI 'solutions' alleviate this problem. In fact, I tried all of these and more before I found this thread and one other on Reddit.

Tahoe 26.4.1 (the problem started for me after this update, but not immediately after)

FCP 12.2 perpetual / non-subscription

Did you try the workaround that I posted above? It works for me every time.

After selecting the variant (e.g. Bold), change some other parameter and change it back, and it retains the selected variant.

fox_m wrote:

One *last* experiment would be to go into Motion and uncheck Editable in FCP, although I doubt it would make a difference. I can't believe Apple would let this problem run so long... (sometimes I'm glad I'm stuck in 10.4.10 :D)

I opened the "Basic Text Effect" in Motion, turned "Editable in FCP" OFF;

this way, the problem does not seem to occur!

It is mysterious to me what this checkbox even means... inside FCP, it appears that I can edit the text as well as any of its settings, with the exception that now it works. Small consolation, as 1) many people don't have Motion; and 2) applying this "fix" to many different titles (and causing a panoplia of copies of the default ones) is unwieldy.

Yes, I encountered the same issue. The response I received from Apple Support was to select a font, adjust the font size, or switch the alignment method to update the font style. Currently, the engineers are investigating the cause. I hope it can be resolved soon!

Can confirm the issue still exists as of FCP perpetual 12.3. I tried solution #2 in the post I replied to (type+delete random character) which fixed it. Reported issue here and I advise others also report; I assume the more who report, the likelier/sooner it will be fixed: Feedback - Final Cut Pro - Apple

You actually don't need to render it out to a file; you can see the effect immediately by selecting the title/subtitle and pressing Option+G to create a Compound Clip—or simply press Ctrl+R. I happen to be working on a project right now that requires fonts of varying weights, and this issue was really frustrating me during the delivery phase—especially since the preview looked perfectly normal!

soumendra wrote:

Which work around do you mean it has again started working for you what is the OS version

I think that the workaround is to adjust some other parameter in the Text Inspector. It does not have to be actually changed, for example, if you select Bold Italic, then make a change to Alignment, say, click to align right, then change it back to center, it will then keep and honor the Bold Italic.

I'm surprised about the Compound clip situation.

Here's Basic Text Effect OSC (has some modifications)

https://fcpxtemplates.com/sdm_downloads/basic-title-effect-osc/

Editable in FCP is turned off.

Ability to position in the viewer now relies on an OSC. This changes the values visible for the parameters (decimal fractions).

All Caps and All Caps Size added.

To make adapting this effect to a project in progress, it can be applied to the actual Title. Select the text of the original Title's text and paste it into the Text parameter of the effect. [Replace the original text with a **space** character... just in case.] Be sure to align the Effect's text to the original before "disappearing" it.

It will help speed things up in projects with a lot of titles to change if you take the time to format the (effect) text font, size, alignment, etc... and save an Effects Preset (OR, you can ⌘C copy the effect when it is selected for the clip, then for subsequent clips, ⌘-shift-V to paste the effect, already formatted, to the new text/title.

HTH

Hopefully, Apple will fix this issue post haste!

This is really frustrating. Similarly, I had my font as Semi-Bold and it would revert to Regular when I exported the project. This happened in brand new libraries with simple Arial Bold text and on different machines I have with FCP 12.2.

My workaround was to delete all the fonts in the family of fonts I was using except for the bold one. And FCP exported correctly.

However, this is not sustainable. I hope this bugs is fixed.

I will try deleting FCP preferences but it's really a pain to have to reset everything on several machines... hopefully not to discover the problem is still there.

I'll do that when I get the chance.