JayChantell

Q: the show fonts icon is missing

I am using iMovie 11 and have watched several tutorials on changing the font size, color etc when adding or editing titles. The tutorials all say to click on "show fonts" after highlighting the text I want to change. Problem is, there is no show fonts icon available anywhere. Is there something special I need to do to see this option?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 16, 2014 12:14 AM

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Q: the show fonts icon is missing

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  • by John Cogdell,

    John Cogdell John Cogdell Jan 16, 2014 12:27 AM in response to JayChantell
    Level 5 (4,605 points)
    Jan 16, 2014 12:27 AM in response to JayChantell

    Some of the Titles in iMovie '11 can't be altered as to fonts, font sizes etc. One that comes to mind is the Lens Flare title.  What titles are you wanting to change?

     

    John

  • by JayChantell,

    JayChantell JayChantell Jan 16, 2014 8:35 AM in response to John Cogdell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2014 8:35 AM in response to John Cogdell

    So far it doesn't matter which one I select, none give me the "show fonts" option to change fonts. And when I select the text so I can type in my own where it says Title Text Here, there is a dropdown area where you could potentially change the font plus the size and color, but that dropdown will not highlight for me. Its there just for looks right now and not clickable. I just don't get it....

     

    Jocelyn

  • by John Cogdell,

    John Cogdell John Cogdell Jan 17, 2014 3:58 AM in response to JayChantell
    Level 5 (4,605 points)
    Jan 17, 2014 3:58 AM in response to JayChantell

    Hi Jocelyn,

     

    Not sure why you are seeing that behaviour. As I mentioned, some (many) of the titles can't be modified. Two I've looked at are Lens Flare (as previously mentioned) and Boogie Lights - neither show the "Show Fonts" button. However, others such as Centered and Vertical Drift, do show this button. When the button is clicked a panel opens allowing changes to font colour and size. You can also access the System Font Panel (bottom left of the pop-up window).

     

    From what you are describing, it appears that you can see the Font Panel for some titles but can't click on any of the items listed. Strange!

     

    You may need to trash iMovie's preference file. For iMovie '11 (version 9.0.9) it is named "com.apple.iMovieApp.plist" and is located in the Preferences folder in your Home Library folder. Here is a User Tip by AppleMan1958 which describes the procedure:

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4061

     

    Trashing the preference file will not harm your existing Events or Projects. When next opened, iMovie will automatically create a fresh preference file with the default settings. As mentioned in the User Tip, you can change these to your preferred settings in the menu item iMovie > Preferences.

     

    John

  • by Patrick Taylor1,

    Patrick Taylor1 Patrick Taylor1 Jan 17, 2014 11:14 AM in response to JayChantell
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Jan 17, 2014 11:14 AM in response to JayChantell

    I found the answer in another thread - so I get no credit for this. I too could not get to the Fonts Menu. I wanted to use Standard Lower Third but change the font. Could not do that. So I put the "Centered" title someplace else in the timeline and with the "Centered" title selected I was able to go to Font drop down and see the listing for Fonts and Show All. That enabled the full fonts window. From there I could no go back to the Standard Lower Third title that I placed and change the font, size, etc from the floating Font dialog box. The Font info above the preview window still won't work though.

     

    Pat

  • by John Cogdell,

    John Cogdell John Cogdell Jan 19, 2014 12:12 AM in response to Patrick Taylor1
    Level 5 (4,605 points)
    Jan 19, 2014 12:12 AM in response to Patrick Taylor1

    Thanks Pat for that information!

     

    I haven't tested it yet in iMovie '11 (version 9.0.9), but it doesn't appear to work in iMovie 10 (2013 version). In iMovie 10 you can access the Font Panel by clicking on Show Fonts when using a Title such as Centered. The Font Panel remains on screen and can be accessed when using other Titles that don't normally allow font changes. In the Viewer, any changes to the font can be viewed, but after clicking on the Tick button to save the changes, the title reverts to the original font (it doesn't "stick").

     

    John