Final Cut FXScript text markup plugin

Download it: textmarkup.txt

Yup, it's just a .txt file. See below for installation instructions.

Here's a plugin written in FXScript for Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express. The core text drawing part is copied from the Final Cut built-in Text plugin. It adds the ability to format text as bold, italic, bold italic, _subscript, and ^superscript using backslash control characters in the text input. It also adds a Vertical Alignment option to control whether the bottom or top line stays in place as lines are added.

Formatting commands

Control sequence	Formatting
\b	bold
\i	italic
\B	*bold italic*
\I	*bold italic* (note: capital i, not lowercase L)
\p	plain (neither bold nor italic)
\^	^superscript
\_	_subscript
\-	normal script (neither superscript nor subscript)

Note that there are no grouping operators. The plugin will print any text that follows a command with the same formatting until it finds another command.

Example input and output

Input text	Formatted output
\By\b\_0\- = \Bx\b\^2\- + 5 \Bx	y₀ = x² + 5 x
Carbon compounds:\b CO\_2\-\p (\icarbon dioxide\p) and \bCH\_3\-\p (\imethane\p)	Carbon compounds: CO₂ (carbon dioxide) and CH₃ (methane)
Use \\b to make text \bbold\p.	Use \b to make text bold.
\ix\p\_5\_max\-\^2\^3\- might not look very pretty	x_{5_max}^2³ might not look very pretty

Installation

To install the plugin copy it into /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Final\ Cut\ Pro\ User\ Data/Plugins (for Final Cut Pro) or /Library/Application\ Support/Final\ Cut\ Express\ System\ Support/Plugins (untested, but this location should work for Final Cut Express according to the FCE 4 manual). Then restart Final Cut. The plugin will appear as "Text with Markup" in the Text generator effects bin. You can also try it without installing it by pasting the source into the FXBuilder window in Final Cut Pro.

Caveats

Superscripts and subscripts can be nested, but the line spacing does not automatically change to accommodate this.
FXScript has been discontinued as of Final Cut X, and Apple have removed the documentation for FXScript from their servers (http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/Using_FXScript/UsingFXScript.pdf). You can still search for the documentation elsewhere.
I have not compared render times of this plugin versus the built-in Text plugin. It might take noticeably longer.

Updates

2012 Jun 15	Indicate the download link more clearly. Add links to more FXScript pages.
2012 Jan 01	clean up the source file a little
2011 Dec 18	posted