Installing FrameTrellis

FrameTrellis is published for Windows (x64). On Linux you can build it from source; macOS is not supported yet.

• Windows
• Linux
• macOS
• Where FrameTrellis keeps its data

Windows

Requirements

• Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1809 or later, 64-bit.
• A graphics adapter with Direct3D 11. Without a suitable driver, Windows' built-in software renderer is used, which works but is slower.
• No other software is needed: the packages contain Qt, MLT, FFmpeg and everything else the editor uses.

Each release package is checked automatically before it is published. The check runs the installer and the portable version on clean Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11 (ARM64, using x64 emulation) machines that have only Windows on the PATH. It runs the engine self-test, starts the editor and checks that every library is loaded from the package or from Windows itself, then installs and uninstalls the program.

Download

Get the files from the download page or the GitHub releases page:

To check a download, open PowerShell in the download folder and compare the output with the matching line in SHA256SUMS.txt:

Get-FileHash .\FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Installer

1. Run FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe.
2. The packages are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may show Windows protected your PC. If the checksum matches, choose More info → Run anyway.
3. Choose whether to install for yourself only (the default, no administrator rights needed; the program goes to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\FrameTrellis) or for all users (needs administrator rights; the program goes to C:\Program Files\FrameTrellis).
4. Accept the license (GPL-3.0-or-later) and pick the optional desktop shortcut and the .ftproj file association.
5. Start FrameTrellis from the Start menu.

Installing a newer version over an older one updates it in place. Your projects and settings are kept.

For unattended installation, the installer accepts the standard Inno Setup options, for example:

.\FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe /VERYSILENT /CURRENTUSER /NORESTART

To uninstall, open Settings → Apps → Installed apps, select FrameTrellis and choose Uninstall. Uninstalling removes the program and its shortcuts but not your projects, media, settings or logs.

Portable ZIP

1. Extract FrameTrellis-<version>-windows-x64.zip to a folder you can write to (for example Documents\FrameTrellis). Do not run it from inside the ZIP.
2. Run frametrellis.exe from the extracted folder.

The portable version makes no changes to Windows apart from your user settings (see below). To remove it, delete the folder.

Checking an installation

If FrameTrellis does not start or exports fail, run the built-in self-test from a command prompt in the program folder:

frametrellis-render.exe --self-test "%TEMP%\frametrellis-self-test"

It checks the media engine, writes sample media, builds and saves a small project, exports it to MP4 and verifies the result, printing PASS or FAIL for each step. Please include its output when you report a problem.

Linux

There is no Linux package yet. FrameTrellis builds and passes its tests on Ubuntu 24.04; follow the building guide. A self-contained package (AppImage or Flatpak) is planned and will be published once it has been verified.

macOS

macOS is not supported yet. The code base is portable, and a macOS build is planned; see the roadmap.

Where FrameTrellis keeps its data

The caches can be deleted at any time; FrameTrellis recreates them when needed. Projects (.ftproj) and exported videos are saved wherever you choose. FrameTrellis never moves, changes or deletes your media files.

This page is generated from docs/user-guide/installation.md in the repository. Found a mistake? Open an issue.