Is it possible to create just the titles in Kdenlive, export that video in a format that preserves transparency, then overlay those title videos in a Shotcut project? Then you get the best of both worlds.
Check my tutorial on making shadows, a little more work but no so hard
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If you want full control over your titles or other overlay graphic, then grap a frame from your video and use inkscape to make the overlay and save it as a .png or .svg and use that in your video.
It works great in both Linux and Windows.
Very true. However, the title component in Kdenlive offers a lot of animation features, which I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) would be in use. If animated titles are involved, then the Inkscape/GIMP/Krita overlay method turns into a lot of manual labor.
Hello @TimLau,
Very good, in your video is great to see that you can also make very good shadows with Shotcut. When you have learned how to do it, you need maybe 2-3 minutes, but with Kdenlive only 15 sec.
My question: If both programs are based on MLT and are very similar in many details, why can’t one take over from the other what works well? Or is it not so easy to integrate e.g. the text tool of Kdenlive?
It will not take you 2-3 minutes to copy and paste the text filter, change the color of the copied text font to black and offset the copied text filter a little to see the “shadow”.
I can do it in less than 15 seconds. 
And adding the blur part is optional but that wouldn’t even take 5 extra seconds.
They are not based on MLT. They use MLT. How one program decides to use MLT is different than the other. In any case, shadows being added inside the Text filters themselves is on the Shotcut roadmap. You can read the roadmap here.
Many people don’t like how text is done in Kdenlive. Not even Kdenlive. They’ve been working to revamp it.
Hello @Austin,
This certainly works well, but when I start with a program, then I would like to make my videos also preferably with this software to the end. Especially because I often need to make a small change at the end of the job, such as the color of the background or text - then, with an almost finished project, I’d have to change the text again in the other program, and somehow pick the color out of Shotcut’s video and paste it into the title in Kdenlive to then render the text as a video or PNG to paste it back into Shotcut. That’s certainly no fun.
For this reason, I also consider audio editing essential in the video editor, even if Audacity can do everything better. But one more adjustment just before the end? Crazy effort to insert the generated wav then again fit exactly…
I prefer to do without one or the other quality of a specialized program, but I have everything in one.
Just like I now redo all my 40 videos I made on Linux with Kdenlive, because I found a better EQ in Kdenlive and now adjust the correction by ear, thanks to you, dear Austin.
Even though I am very used to Kdenlive since 15 months, I find some things in Shotcut (Colour Correction, Compressor and EQ Parametirc) very attractive and especially the forum. I suspect I will find a way to do everything with the right software for me. Maybe Shotcut soon.
Hello @DRM
ok, text with shadow in 15 sec.
Oh, very good, I saw the roadmap and am very happy to see the improvements in the text.
An almost more important wish would be the possibility of “letter spacing”. This improves the effect of titles enormously.
I agree.
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Yes, those are all excellent points for doing the entire production inside a single program. I agree.
Some channels lock in specific colors for their text or titles just to enhance their branding and recognizability. If you had a color palette that identified your brand, then there is a chance there wouldn’t be so many last-minute color changes on titles. But if your videos are each unique creations not tied to the others, then yeah, being able to make last-minute changes easily is important.
Not sure what to tell you. It’s common for me to use six or seven tools in the creation of a video, simply because they’re each better at a specialized task. It’s inconvenient sometimes, but worth it to me. But I also have the luxury of working from storyboards and scripts, with a look and style that is defined before editing even starts. If I had to post a daily vlog, or if my clients were short-term contracts with wildly diverse styles, I would not be able to use this workflow.
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But the animation features in Kdenlive are limited, and Inkscape has no animation. Animation in GIMP and Krita are rather laborious. That is why I am excited about glaxnimate, which you will be hearing more about from me. Recently, I contributed a change, which is now in its “experimental” builds, to export as video with alpha channel if you enter a .webm filename extension. (Due to how it currently works, it does not pick a codec and lets FFmpeg libavformat choose the codec from the format based on the extension, and only WebM chooses a default codec with pixel format that includes alpha.) I am also sponsoring its development. Glaxnimate does not yet include support for shadow or blur. Otherwise, for animating text and shapes it is nice and simple. Now, let’s imagine if instead of a checkboard background to show transparency while in the tool there is the option to show your Shotcut video project… 
We can take a look at reading kdenlivetitle files, but not editing them. Its editor uses KDE libraries, and I will not add that dependency. Glaxnimate mostly uses the same libraries as Shotcut. 
A visual editor is the bigger problem in my opinion with any animation capability. For example, we used to have a HTML feature, and you can make text and even shapes in HTML, but how to make the animation in a manner that does not require a special engine that is not open source or has no seek API? I examined many tools over the years, and the only tool that came close (Tumult Hype) was macOS only and still required special manual steps to make it work in Shotcut.
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Any chance of a doing some sort of linking between the two programs? Something like how Adobe does with their programs or how like how Openshot links with Blender or Inkscape to create titles?
This looks cool! Is it pronounced the way it’s spelled, no silent letters? I checked the manual for a hint… nothing.
This sounds like a warm-up act for rotoscoping.
May you live forever.
Hello @TimLau,
yes, in fact I can now do shadows without having to watch your good tutorial again. The process is quite logical, and that’s what your very good video showed me.
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I haven’t forgotten about this. I’m looking at @DRM’s suggestion to include Audacity presets too.
I would like to test the presets on a wider range of voices before contributing them to the production build. I’ll release them soon on the forum for people to test, and maybe we can all finalize them by the release after this coming release. I don’t want to cram something into the beta window that has a high chance of changing again for the next release, especially if there are name changes that affect documentation and leave abandoned presets in a user’s preset folder.
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That sounds good. I am happy to add them whenever they come available.
Hello @TimLau,
now I made my first video with Shotcut and your description how to make a good shadow helped me a lot.
Thanks
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Glad, I could help, nice video and I understand some German (i’m Danish)
Hello Tim,
Even if I repeat myself, your video is a great help. I watched it twice, and then immediately followed the process with Shotcut. As a result, I completely understood the principle - for life! That took away my concerns that you can’t make usable titles with Shotcut. You can! The only thing missing is Letter Spacing.
I really enjoy working with Shotcut.
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Yes, Letter spacing would be a nice addition