· text match cut

Make the text match cut without leaving your editor.

Type a phrase. Paperboy prints it on newspaper page after newspaper page, highlighted in the same spot every time, cuts between them to the sound of flicking paper, and ends on a headline you write. Press RENDER and the clip lands at the playhead in DaVinci Resolve Studio, or drag it onto a Premiere Pro timeline. No green screen to key, no website, no credits.

Paperboy: a model newspaper box with its door open and newspaper pages flying out, the same phrase highlighted in yellow on every page — Paperboy 1.0

A real render · straight out of the app

Your phrase, pinned in place.

This is the clip RENDER wrote, untouched. 24 pages on RAMP, starting slow and speeding up to 15 cuts a second, "Paperboy" at the same height on every one, then the last page holding on a headline typed into the app. Click it for the sound: it comes in the clip, so there is nothing to line up.

How it works

From a phrase to your timeline.

Type your phrase.
Write it the way it is said, "the algorithm" rather than "algorithm": every page uses it mid-sentence. RESHUFFLE deals a new set of pages.
Set the look while it plays.
The preview loops with its sound, so you see and hear the cut before you render. It shows the clip's length too, for cutting to a beat.
Press RENDER.
In Resolve Studio the clip lands at the playhead, above your footage, sound and all. In Premiere Pro, drag it from the app onto your timeline.

The whole app · one panel

What you can change.

Paperboy is a small app that sits beside your editor. Every control is on its front, and the preview shows each change as you make it. The defaults already look the part.

The Paperboy window: the preview on the left, showing a newspaper page with the algorithm highlighted, and the controls on the right — Paperboy 1.0, as it opens

Keyword: The phrase highlighted on every page. RESHUFFLE deals new pages, and a right-click goes back to the last deal.
Last card: The headline the clip ends on, with your phrase in it. The cuts are too fast to read; this page holds.
Cards: How many pages. 24 unless you change it.
Speed: How fast it cuts. The readout gives the cuts per second at your timeline's frame rate.
Word: How big the phrase stands in the frame.
Rhythm: Steady gives every page the same length. Ramp starts slow and speeds up into the last page.
Style and paper: A newspaper page or plain lines of big text, on light paper or a charcoal sheet.
Blur: How far the page blurs away from the phrase, up and down or all round. The phrase stays sharp.
Chromatic: Colour fringes growing out from the phrase, the way a lens makes them.
Highlight: The marker's colour, from the classic yellow to any hex code, a brand's included.
Sound: Five paper sounds, one on every cut, carried in the clip. Off until you pick one.
To Resolve playhead: Lit when Resolve Studio is answering: RENDER then puts the clip straight onto your timeline.

Set once, in the cog

The clip's size and frame rate when Resolve is not setting them: vertical out of the box, or 16:9, square, 4:5, 4K or a size you type. Where the phrase sits in the frame, so it stays clear of the Shorts and Reels captions. How long the last page holds. And a little camera life: jitter, drift, push-in and softness.

Specification

What you are installing.

Resolve: StudioPlaces the clip at the playhead. Set External scripting to Local, in Resolve's Preferences
Premiere: Drag inDrag the finished clip from the app onto a Premiere Pro timeline
Output: ProRes 4444A .mov at your timeline's size and frame rate, sound included
Shape: AnyVertical out of the box. 16:9, square, 4:5, 4K or a size you type
Install: Windows + MacA signed installer for Windows and a notarized app for Apple silicon Macs
Price: FreeAnd it stays free

Make the text match cut without leaving your editor.

Your phrase, pinned in place.

From a phrase to your timeline.

Type your phrase.

Set the look while it plays.

Press RENDER.

What you can change.

Set once, in the cog

What you are installing.

Get Paperboy 1.0.