Edit vertical video for TikTok, Reels and Shorts in DepCut

DepCut picks a starting frame from the first video you add to an untouched project. Landscape footage starts a 16:9 project, and portrait footage starts a 9:16 one. If you choose the frame yourself first, DepCut keeps your choice. That one decision shapes the rest of a vertical edit, so make it before you import anything.

Choose the frame first

Open the Aspect ratio tab in the left panel's tab list. The list offers these shapes:

• Widescreen · 16:9, labeled YouTube
• Vertical · 9:16, labeled TikTok, Reels, Shorts
• Classic · 4:3
• Cinematic · 2:1
• Square · 1:1
• Portrait · 3:4
• Custom… for a width and height of your own

Pick Vertical · 9:16. You can change the shape later, but titles and captions sit on the frame you see, so every choice after this one is easier on the real shape.

Fill the frame with landscape footage

A landscape clip in a vertical project shows whole, with bars above and below. That is Fit. To crop the clip so it covers the frame:

1. Select the clip on the timeline.
2. Open the Framing tab in the right panel.
3. Next to Framing, click Fill.
4. Drag the video in the preview to choose which part stays in view.

The Zoom slider moves in closer, and Center puts the crop back in the middle after you have moved it. If the subject travels across the shot, use the diamond in the Keyframes row to save the clip's pose at the playhead. Move to another moment, change Position or Scale, and the picture moves between the two poses.

Share the frame between two clips

The Layout menu in the same tab gives a clip the Top, Bottom, Left or Right part of the frame, or a small PiP box. Two clips can then share one vertical frame, for example a reaction on the bottom half and the source video on the top half. Full returns a clip to the whole frame.

Keep text clear of the platform's buttons

Short-form apps lay their own buttons, names and captions over the video. To see where, export the project, open the Exports list under Media, and click the export to open Preview as a post. It opens on Original, which plays the file at its own shape. The TikTok, Instagram and YouTube tabs put your video in a phone-shaped frame. Each tab draws a mock-up of that app's overlays and fills in the caption, tags and sound title from your Details tab.

Keep titles and faces out of the areas those overlays cover. To move subtitles, drag the caption in the preview. The Options tab in Subtitles has a Reset under Position if you want the style's default spot back.

Frame for a small screen

A vertical video is usually watched on a phone held in one hand, so details shrink. Make the subject large in the frame and keep one idea in each shot. Fill with a small Zoom brings a talking subject closer to the lens, and the crop removes the empty space around them. Check each shot by pausing the preview and asking what a viewer would see in one glance.

Give it a go

Open DepCut, start a project, choose Vertical · 9:16, and then import your footage.