iMovie '09 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Font, Size, and Style

iMovie's creators are rather fond of Gill Sans; that's the typeface used in most of the title styles. It looks great, but it also looks like everyone else's iMovie '09 videos.

Note

Unfortunately, some titles are impervious to font changes, thanks to the way they've been animated. You can tell if a title's font can be changed if the Show Fonts button appears in the top-left corner preview window (Figure 8-8). If there's no Show Fonts button, your title is a one-font pony.

Fortunately, for most titles you have a surprising amount of typographical flexibility at your command. That may come as a surprise, considering that no font, size, style, or justification controls are visible when you create a title.

The most basic style options are available in the Text menu.

Start by highlighting the text you want to change. That is, click the blue stripe of a title you've already placed. Then drag through some of the text in the text boxes in the Viewer.

Note

For most titles, iMovie '09 doesn't limit you to a single font and size. You can use different fonts within a single text block, if you must. You can even use a different font for every letter, if you so desire (or if you're making a ransom-note video).

Now you can choose a style from the Text menu. Your options include:

• Bold, Italic, Underline, Outline. Avoid Underline; it looks cheesy. In a document, Outline usually looks cheesy, too. But in iMovie, it's a terrific help. It means that each letter has a fine hairline around ...