Edit is self-explanatory and you’ll spend most of your time in this workspace. Log, for example, allows you to enter additional metadata, adjust timeline settings, work with cue markers and more. Each provides its own unique set of tools and options. It’s here that you create a new project, or open one you’ve already started.įour tabs at the top of the main window provide access to LWKS’ main workspaces: Log, Edit, VFX and Audio.

The software opens to a clean interface with a project browser - a grid of tiles that holds your projects.

It’s a non-intrusive process that only requires a name and a password. Installation is quick and easy, although you need to register to activate Lightworks. What's more, those experienced with non-linear video editing will find plenty of advanced features to produce a polished video, even in the free version reviewed here.

But don't go thinking that long list of award-winning film credits means it's for professionals only: the free version of Lightworks is generally consumer friendly and will be more than enough for most basic editing tasks. The software has a strong heritage in filmmaking, with Pulp Fiction, Jerry Maguire and The Wolf of Wall Street just a few of the many movies that have been edited on it. HDD space: 200MB for Lightworks installation Misc: Separate media and system drives (these can be internal or external as long as the the interface is suitably fast compatible sound card GPU: PCI Express graphics card (NVIDIA or AMD) with 1GB or higher and support for DirectX 9 OS: Windows 7/8/10 Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and higher Linux Supported RPM Distros: Fedora 30 and higher Linux Debian: Ubuntu/Lubuntu/Xubuntu 18.04 & higher, Mint 17 & higherĬPU: Intel i7 chipset or faster, fast AMD chipset

Best video editing software for dummies