#Export

Exporting makes new files from your edit exactly as it is now. Your original video doesn't change, and every result goes into the edit/ folder inside the folder that holds your video. Exporting runs only on this Mac and costs nothing.

You can edit without signing up, and you can export after a free sign-up. Signing up takes one sign-in, and it also gives you free transcription credits every month. Once you've signed up on a Mac, you can export on that Mac even without internet.

#Steps

1. Click Export.
2. Pick the quality.
3. Under Items to create, pick the files to make.
4. Click Start export. It saves your edit before it starts. If you haven't signed up, a sign-up window opens: new users sign up, and people who already signed up sign in. When you finish signing in, the sign-up window closes and the export starts with what you picked. If you closed the browser window, open it again with Reopen browser. To give up, click Cancel sign-in. Even if you close the sign-up window, the quality and items you picked stay.

If CutZal can't reach the account server, it exports without sign-up and asks you to sign up the next time it connects.

While it runs, you see the progress and the time left. A long 4K video can take tens of minutes, so don't close the window. If you cancel partway, the files it was making are deleted, and Back to settings lets you choose again from the start.

#Quality

• Original quality: for videos you'll upload or deliver. It keeps the original resolution, and the frame rate is the lower of the original and 60. A screen recorded at 120fps comes out at 60fps.
• Quick check (1080p): for quickly checking whether the cuts join well. It makes a light file at 1080p and lowers the frame rate to 30 or less, so it finishes fast.

File names start differently depending on the quality: Original quality files start with final and Quick check (1080p) files with preview. So a check file never overwrites the finished video. Exporting again at the same quality replaces the earlier files with the new result.

#Target loudness

Turn on Match target loudness to set the exported audio to the level many platforms such as YouTube use (-14 LUFS, maximum -1 dBTP). It's a project setting, so you can also turn it on or off in Properties › Audio, and it's the same setting as the checkbox in the export dialog. New projects start with it on.

While it's on, editing playback also sounds close to the export level. When you first turn it on, CutZal measures the whole original audio once and shows Measuring loudness for a moment. Until then, playback stays at the original level. Playback and the exported file come out at almost the same level.

It's available only when you create the finished video at Original quality. If you pick only a quick check or per-source files, the checkbox is off and disabled.

#Items to create

Each item shows the names of the files it will actually make.

At first, the composed file (or the per-source files) and subtitles are selected. You can't start with nothing selected.

Audio tracks you turned off on the timeline (muted, or silenced because another track is soloed) are silent in the exported files too, and their sound files aren't made. If A1 (voice) is off, this step warns you that the file will have no speech.

#Check the result

When it finishes, you see the result for each file.

• Matches the edit plan means the file's length and its video and audio streams match your edit. If they don't, it tells you what differs.
• Click Full playback check to read the file's video and audio all the way to the end. It takes a while, so run it once before you deliver.
• If the mix with sound effects is too loud, you get a warning that the sound may distort. Lower the sound effect volume and export again.
• If audio peaks in the final video go over the limit (-1 dBTP), only those moments are lowered. The loudness stays about the same.
• If you turned on the target loudness option and it can't fully meet the targets, the file is still kept. Check the measured values in the result.
• Click Show in folder to see the file in Finder.

#Continue in another editor

You can finish the cuts in CutZal and do the finishing touches, such as captions, color and music, in another editor.

• If you also finished the layout, take the 1 composed file and the Subtitles. Put the video in CapCut or Premiere and import the SRT as captions.
• If you'd rather arrange the camera and the screen recording yourself in that editor, take the per-source files. The per-source files and the sound effect track file are all as long as the final video, so they line up when you place them side by side at 0 seconds on the timeline.

FCP7 XML and EDL export for Premiere and DaVinci Resolve is turned off in the app for now. Instead of handing over the cuts in an editable form, CutZal hands over files with the cuts applied.

#Exports requested by an agent

When an external agent asks for an export, the same window opens with a note about the request. The export only starts when you click Start export, and closing the window declines the request. Chat and your agent has the details.