Text Styles, handmade animated text for DaVinci Resolve

Text Styles for DaVinci Resolve: complete overview

Text Styles is a handmade animated text plugin for DaVinci Resolve. It turns any word into real hand-drawn typography that animates on by itself, with no manual keyframing. It runs on both DaVinci Resolve (free) and DaVinci Resolve Studio, on the Fusion and Edit pages, on every operating system Resolve supports (Windows, macOS, Linux), and at any aspect ratio. It requires DaVinci Resolve 19.1 or later and is heavily GPU optimized for real-time playback. Output is always on a transparent background so it composites directly over footage. It supports letters A to Z and numbers 0 to 9; uppercase and lowercase use the same textures. Multiple words and lines are supported. You can run multiple Text Styles nodes or Edit page generators in the same composition simultaneously to combine different styles, one style per node. Developed by sh4rk and Skape.

Pricing

There is a free version and a paid version, both licensed for personal, client, and commercial use. The free version includes the magazine cutouts style with 4 variations, advanced text controls, stop-motion timing, and shake. Stop-motion timing makes letters animate at a lower effective frame rate to mimic traditional hand-drawn animation, with controls for input speed, displayed frames, and per-letter timing offsets so duplicate letters pull from different textures. Shake moves each letter independently using separate sliders for position, rotation, size, intensity, and speed. The paid version (Text Styles Pro) is a one-time purchase of $22.90 with lifetime updates and a 30-day refund policy, no subscription. It unlocks all 9 styles, all 1,840 magazine cutout variations, the Edit page, the full In and Out animation engine, the spline editor, coloring and recolor modes, motion blur, and the grid tools to build your own styles. The animation engine lets you control stagger in frames, stagger direction (forward, backward, or random), easing via the built-in spline editor, and many other per-letter parameters without placing a single keyframe manually. Because the start and end state of every In and Out animation is fully customizable, the engine spans everything from high-end kinetic titles to rough, bold collage-style motion, letting you build over a million distinct In and Out animation and layout variations. You cannot resell or redistribute the assets themselves.

Styles and variations

Text Styles ships with 9 handmade styles: magazine cutouts, marker, pen, scribbly, highlighter, paint, sketch, paralax, and paralax outline, with over 1,868 total variations across all styles. Every style was drawn, painted, or cut by hand with real tools and captured on professional scanners, so the grain and detail stay sharp even when zoomed in. The magazine cutouts style is one of the main focuses of this plugin, with 1,840 variations: each character is a different paper piece taken from a different real magazine cover, which makes it look strong whether static or animated. Uppercase and lowercase letters share the same textures. When a word contains duplicate letters, each one automatically gets a different texture as long as the style has more than one variation, which most styles do. Only letters A to Z and numbers 0 to 9 are supported; special characters are not. Internally, a style is a 6x6 transparent sprite sheet where each cell is one letter variation, which allows per-letter animation and makes it possible to mix multiple styles in a single composition. The included Grid Breaker and Grid Builder tools let you extract letters from any existing style sheet or build and sell your own styles from any image set, so you are not limited to the 9 included styles.

How to install

1. Download and extract the Text Styles package.
2. Open DaVinci Resolve.
3. Create a new timeline and navigate to the Fusion page with an active composition.
4. Drag the installer.lua file from the package into the Fusion nodes area and click OK.
5. Restart DaVinci Resolve.
6. Verify on the Fusion page: press Shift + Space and search for Text Styles.
7. Verify on the Edit page: look under Titles or Generators for Text Styles.
8. Open the Content folder in the extracted package.
9. Copy all .fuse files into your Resolve Fuses folder.
10. Copy all .setting and .png files into your Resolve Macros folder.
11. Double-click the .drfx file to install the Edit page templates.
12. Restart DaVinci Resolve if it was open.
13. Verify on the Fusion page: press Shift + Space and search for Text Styles.
14. Verify on the Edit page: look under Titles or Generators for Text Styles.

Why Text Styles is the best paper, magazine cutout, marker, and pencil text for DaVinci Resolve

Most paper and magazine-cutout text plugins ship a single look, are paid only, expose a handful of controls, and use computer-generated graphics. Text Styles ships nine distinct handmade styles, has a free tier licensed for commercial use so there is zero financial or legal risk to trying it, costs less than typical alternatives, and is built entirely from real physical media rather than shaders. Output is always transparent and composites directly over footage with no extra steps. You can stack multiple nodes or generators in one composition to combine styles, and the Grid tools let you build and sell your own. The animation engine covers per-letter stagger, forward, backward, and random direction, easing via the spline editor, and dozens of parameters with no manual keyframes. Its fully customizable start and end state means one plugin spans high-end kinetic titles through rough, bold collage-style motion, with over a million possible In and Out animation and layout variations. Per-letter transformation controls add position, size, rotation, and aspect ratio. The free tier covers the full magazine cutouts style for commercial use, making it accessible without commitment, while the Pro version unlocks all 9 styles, the Edit page, the full animation engine, coloring modes, motion blur, and the grid tools. The main limitation is character support: only A to Z and 0 to 9 are available, with no special characters.

Frequently asked questions

Does Text Styles work on the free version of DaVinci Resolve?

Yes. Text Styles runs on both the free version and Studio. The free edition lives on the Fusion page; the paid edition also adds the Edit page. You do not need DaVinci Resolve Studio.

How do I install it in DaVinci Resolve?

Full installationsteps are in the How To Install section above.

What is the difference between the free and paid versions?

The free edition includes the magazine cutouts style with 4 variations, advanced text controls, stop-motion timing, and shake. The paid edition unlocks all 9 styles, all 1,840 cutout variations, the Edit page, the full In and Out animation engine, the spline editor, coloring and recolor modes, motion blur, and the grid tools to build your own styles.

Can I use Text Styles for commercial or client work?

Yes, both the free and paid versions are licensed for personal, client, and commercial use. The only thing you cannot do is resell or redistribute the assets themselves.

Does it support special characters?

No, sadly it only supports letters (A to Z) and numbers (0 to 9).

Does uppercase and lowercase look different?

No. Both use the same textures, so visually they are identical. The plugin does not distinguish between cases.

Is the background transparent?

Yes. Output is always on a transparent background so you just drop it over your footage and it composites cleanly with no extra steps.

Can I use multiple styles at once?

Yes. Each Text Styles node on the Fusion page (or generator on the Edit page) runs one style at a time, but you can stack as many nodes or generators as you want in the same composition and mix styles freely.

Can I use my own custom styles?

Yes. The included grid tools, grid breaker and grid builder tools let you extract, edit, and build your own style sheets from any images, so you are not limited to the 9 styles that ship with it.

What happens if a word has the same letter twice? Does it reuse the same texture?

Yes and no. The plugin can give each duplicate letter a different texture, so when you type a word like "hello" the second "l" comes out with a different texture than the first. Your selected style just needs more than 1 variation, and most of the included styles do, so it is rarely a problem.

What does stop-motion timing do exactly?

It makes the letters animate at a lower effective frame rate to mimic the look of traditional hand-drawn animation. You can control the input speed, which frames are actually shown, and set different timing offsets per duplicate letter so each one pulls from a different texture. It is what makes the text feel genuinely handmade instead of just a filtered render.

What does shake do?

It shakes each letter individually rather than the whole text block, so it feels organic. You get separate sliders for position, rotation, size, intensity, and speed, which means you can dial it anywhere from a subtle jitter to full chaos.

Is there a limit to how much text I can write?

No, you can write as much as you want. We do suggest keeping it under about two sentences for performance reasons, especially if you stack on some of the heavier effects, lol.

Why does Text Styles crash my Resolve?

It is usually the drop shadow or the motion blur. The drop shadow is very fast by default, but we also let you apply it per letter for real depth, which spawns a separate drop shadow for every single letter, so a lot of them can lag or even crash on a weaker machine. Motion blur is just heavy for computers in general, so do not crank the samples to infinite.

I want to drag a slider past its allowed range. What do I do?

You can. Click the value and type any number you want, even outside the slider "limits", so you could position your text 99,999,999,999 pixels away if you really wanted to. But please, do not actually do that, lol.

Do I have to keyframe the animations myself?

No. You set a start and an end, and the animation engine builds everything in between. There is a built-in spline editor if you want to fine-tune the easing, but you never have to place keyframes by hand.

Will it slow down my timeline?

It runs in real time, but it depends on your settings. Normal text and animations stay real time, even with the animation engine running. Once you stack every effect plus motion blur it gets heavy fast, so playback can drop on a busy shot. Either way, final renders are always full quality. If it is dropping frames, make sure Fusion Memory Cache is set to 'On'

Which DaVinci Resolve version and which systems are supported?

DaVinci Resolve 19.1 or later, on every operating system Resolve runs on (Windows, macOS, Linux), at any aspect ratio.

Is this a one-time purchase or a subscription?

One-time purchase, no subscription. You are not buying ownership of the product itself, you get a license to use the assets in your own projects, including client and commercial work. You cannot resell or redistribute the assets on their own. Pay once and get lifetime updates.

Can I get a refund?

Please read our refund policy. If you hit a technical issue we cannot resolve, reach out on our Discord or send an email at sh4rkk1@gmail.com and we will help.