Overview

Warning: Some of the information below is highly technical — but many users appreciate understanding the science behind why certain colors work better than others when using the Screen Recording method.

In many videos, white text is used because it contrasts well against darker backgrounds.

In Anitype, the default text color is white, and the default background color is 50% gray.
This combination is intentional: When using the Screen Recording workflow, it makes it easy to remove the background in Shotcut with the Blend Mode filter (set to Hard Light).

You can also remove the background using a Chroma Key: Simple filter, but this method produces rougher edges and lower‑quality results.

Blend Mode is strongly preferred because you get excellent results with:

• White text on a 50% gray background.
• Black text on a 50% gray background.
• White text with a black outline or black drop shadow on a 50% gray background.

But what if you want colored text?

Using Colored Text with the Screen Recording method

Safe Colors

If you want to remove the background from text of the following solid colors:

…then you’re in luck. As with black and white, these colors can also be isolated cleanly using the Hard Light blend mode — as long as they are the exact “pure” versions of those colors.

Any other shade (even slightly off) will introduce transparency into the text.

To understand why, we need to look at how digital color works.

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Why Only Certain Colors Work Perfectly

There are eight colors that behave differently from all others in digital color science:

These are known as 100% colors or the 3‑bit palette.

Your eyes can see millions of colors, but these eight are special because they are created using a simple all‑or‑nothing rule.

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The Light Switch Analogy

Imagine three light bulbs:

• Red
• Green
• Blue

These are the three primary channels of light.

Most colors — lavender, teal, forest green — are created by dimming these bulbs to different percentages.

For example:

• 40% Red + 0% Green + 60% Blue = a shade of purple
• 100% Red + 65% Green + 0% Blue = orange

But the eight special colors are created using only full ON (100%) or full OFF (0%).
No dimming. No mixing percentages.

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The Eight Combinations (3‑Bit Palette)

With three switches (Red, Green, Blue), each either ON or OFF, there are only eight possible combinations:

These colors appear “electric” or “neon” because they are displayed at full digital intensity.

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RGB Values

In computer graphics, colors are defined using RGB values (Red, Green, Blue), each ranging from 0 to 255.

Here are the RGB values for the eight 100% colors:

These are the exact values you must use in the Fonts Color Picker if you want colored text to remain fully opaque when removing the background using the Screen Recording method.

About the Gray Background

The Mystery of 50% Gray

50% gray, also called Half gray is made up of 50% red, 50% Green, and 50% Blue.
Its RGB values are:

When you apply the Hard Light blend mode in Shotcut, the software uses a mathematical formula that treats 50% gray as a Hard Light.

• If the top layer is darker than 50% gray → the blend darkens
• If the top layer is lighter than 50% gray → the blend lightens
• If the top layer is 50% gray → it becomes invisible

This is why Anitype uses 50% gray as the default background:
It is mathematically guaranteed to disappear cleanly when using the Hard Light blend mode.

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Practical Result

If you use:

• A 100% color for your text
• A 50% gray background
• The Hard Light blend mode in Shotcut

...then:

• Black text stays black
• White text stays white
• 100% colored text stays fully opaque
• The gray background becomes perfectly transparent

This is the ideal setup for the Screen Recording method.

Conclusion

What If You Don’t Use Pure 100% Colors?

If your text color is any shade other than the eight 100% colors, then:

• The text will not remain fully opaque
• Some transparency will appear
• The background video will show through the text

This is unavoidable when using the Screen Recording method.

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Summary

If you want to use solid colored text with the Screen Recording method, you must:

• Use one of the height 100% colors:
  Black, White, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Magenta, or Cyan
  Any other shade will introduce transparency
• Use a 50% gray background
• Use Blend Mode → Hard Light in Shotcut

If you want to use any color — soft pastels, dark tones, gradients, anything — without transparency issues, then use MOV Download method.

PNG files always have a true transparent background, regardless of the colors chosen for the text.