William Gallagher
An otherwise minor update bringing Final Cut Pro to version 10.5.4 has addressed the unpopular new Blade tool icon, plus appears to have resolved region and location bugs.
After the major Final Cut Pro 10.5.3 update in June 2021, Apple has released a smaller revision to its Mac video editing app, but with much-wanted changes. Behind the scenes, Final Cut Pro 10.5.4 seems to have fixed a bug that meant users were having to change their Mac's region or language setting to use certain regular functions.
Apple's release notes states that the update "improves stability when exporting with certain macOS Language & Region preferences." There are also improvements for users playing back H.264 or HEVC media.
It's not known how many users were affected by the problems that this update fixes. A more visible issue, however, was how Final Cut Pro 10.5.4 replaced the icon for the cutting or Blade tool.
From the start of Final Cut Pro, that icon has been of a razor blade — the tool that was used by filmmakers before digital or non-linear editors existed. In 10.5.3, Apple changed it to an icon of scissors.
Left: Final Cut Pro 10.5.3. Right: Left: Final Cut Pro 10.5.4As well as objecting to losing the familiar razor blade tool, a vocal minority of users objected to how confusing the new icon was. The cutting part of the scissor icon did not relate to where the tool itself would cut on Final Cut Pro's video timeline.
Now while Final Cut Pro 10.5.4 is sticking to the scissor icon, it has been altered and rotated so that the cutting position is clearer.
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9 Comments
Is it me, or was that update like four days ago?
I call BS that the blade icon was "controversial". I have no doubt that Apple caved to a handful of vocal minority who didn't like it because... (why? I honestly can't even think of a reason? Because it wasn't child-safe or something?) But I'd wager 99+% of users never gave it a second thought until they heard someone else didn't like it, and then maybe another 5% decided they didn't like it either. And now it's less useful - even the new icon isn't quite lined up right either, judging by the sample images.
I wonder why they changed it away from what appears to be an industry standard. Mind, I don't use Final Cut, or any other video editing app, so I don't have any knowledge of whether or not it actually is a standard, but the article implies that it is.
Uh, what was wrong with the razor blade? That’s been in every nonlinear video editing tool I’ve used over the years (admittedly only a few).