Titling software: the live titler explained

Two completely different tools are sold as titling software. One adds titles to a video you are editing; the other puts them on a picture that is going out right now and cannot be undone. This page is about the second one — the live titler.

Editor titles vs. live titles

In Premiere, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut you place a title on a timeline, adjust it until it is right, and render. Time is on your side: you can preview, undo and try again.

A live titler has none of that. The title has to be correct the first time, arrive within a second of being needed, and leave cleanly. There is no timeline — there is a list of prepared items and a key that plays them out. Everything about the interface follows from that difference.

What a live titler must do

Prepare ahead. Names typed during the pre-show, sitting in a list, ready to fire.
Play out instantly. One key, one graphic, no dialog boxes.
Update while on air. A score or a clock has to change without re-taking the graphic.
Fail visibly, not silently. If something is wrong, the operator must see it in the panel before the viewer sees it on screen.
Come back after a crash. Restart mid-show and the state should be where you left it.

Templates, not documents

Editor titles are documents: each one is its own object. Live titles are templates: one design, filled in hundreds of times over a season. That is why a live titler separates design from data — you build the strap once, then the show only ever supplies names.

It is also why consistency comes for free. Every guest gets the same strap, in the same place, with the same animation, because there is only one of it.

Where it sits in your setup

A live titler does not replace your switcher or your encoder. It produces a transparent layer and hands it over: OBS, vMix and Streamlabs all take it as a browser source and composite it over whatever is on air. The OBS setup →

That separation is deliberate. Your video path stays exactly as it is, and the graphics layer can be restarted, redesigned or replaced without touching it.

Prepare now, fire with one key That is the whole design brief for LowerThird Software. Ask for an early-access build and try it on a real show.

Get early access

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Premiere or DaVinci titles for a live stream?

Only by exporting them as video files with an alpha channel and playing them from a media source, which means the text is fixed at export time. For anything with names or numbers that change, you need a live titler.

What is the difference between a titler and a character generator?

None worth arguing about. “Titler” is the post-production word and “character generator” is the broadcast word; both describe software that puts text over a picture. Live titlers and broadcast CGs are the same category of tool.

Do I need a separate machine for live titling?

No. An HTML5 titler runs on the same PC as your encoder and adds very little load, because the graphics are composited by the GPU as part of your existing scene.