# What Kutly does

> The two modes, what you set, the receipt that spends the credits, and what comes back.

Source: https://docs.kutly.io/

Kutly makes a narrated video from one input: a topic you type, or narration you
recorded yourself.

All of it happens on one screen. The composer is headed **Editron 1.1**, and the
line under that heading is the per-minute rate for the mode you are in.

## Idea and Voiceover

The two mode buttons sit above the input box, and the box changes with them.

[**Idea**](https://docs.kutly.io/writing/idea/) takes a topic you type. Kutly writes the script and
reads it aloud in a voice you pick.

[**Voiceover**](https://docs.kutly.io/writing/voiceover/) takes an audio file — MP3, M4A or WAV, 8 to
31 minutes, up to 100 MB. That file is the narration, whether you read it aloud
or a text-to-speech tool did, so Kutly synthesises nothing.

## Concepts

**Credits** are what a render spends. One balance belongs to your workspace and
every render in it draws on the same figure; a plan is what puts credits there,
and the foot of the sidebar prints what is left. A video is priced by the minute,
so what a render costs follows from how long it is.
[Length and credits](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/length-and-credits/) has the arithmetic.

**A length band** is what **Length** offers instead of an exact runtime: two ends,
like **14 – 16 min**, with the render aimed at a target between them. The bottom
is the shortest that band is expected to produce and the top is the figure
credits are held against. Neither is a runtime you are promised.

**A style pack** is the visual treatment a video inherits — its colour, its type
and its motion. One pack rides with a render and applies to the whole video.
Three of the six carry a surcharge, and it is charged by the minute rather than
once. [Visual style](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/visual-style/) has all six.

## What you set

Four settings sit in a row under the box, each already holding a value, so a
topic on its own is enough to press **Generate**, the arrow button at the end of
that row.

- [**Length**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/length-and-credits/) — a band rather than an exact
  runtime, printed as its two ends.
- [**Voice**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/voice/) — who reads the script. **Idea** only.
- [**Style pack**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/visual-style/) — the visual treatment. One pack
  rides with the render and applies to the whole video.
- [**Music**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/music/) — **None**, a **Music pack**, or **Your own
  bed**.

In **Voiceover** there is no **Voice** at all, and **Length** is on the row but
cannot be changed. The file you upload is the narration, so it has already
fixed both.

A second row sits under **Generate**, for the two things a render makes besides
the video. Clicking either one opens its panel and does nothing else: what you
pick inside is what turns it on, and the **×** that appears beside it turns it
off again.

- [**Thumbnails**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/thumbnails/) — off until you pick a look. The chip
  prints what turning them on costs.
- [**Subtitles**](https://docs.kutly.io/settings/subtitles/) — off until you pick a caption style.
  They cost nothing.

## The receipt

**Generate** spends nothing: it opens a receipt, and the **Generate video**
button on the receipt is what spends the credits. It carries a line for the
video at its per-minute rate, a line for a style pack that charges a per-minute
surcharge, and a flat line for **Thumbnails** when they are on. The total reads
**Held now** in **Idea**, where the top of the band is held and the difference
comes back if the video runs shorter, and **Charged now** in **Voiceover**,
where your narration has already fixed the length.

## What comes back

One MP4, 16:9 at 1920 × 1080 and 30 frames a second. It plays in the browser and
saves from **Download MP4**. That is the only shape a render produces: nothing
on the composer sets an aspect ratio, so there is no vertical cut to ask for.

Every voice you can pick is English, in an American, British or Australian
accent. Nothing on the screen sets a language.

A **Title** comes with every render.

Kutly publishes the narration **Script** as its own file next to the MP4, and
the **Script** panel shows it as text you can read and copy. A finished video
can arrive without one.

Thumbnails arrive when you picked a look for them. Three come back however many
looks you picked: pick one and you get three takes on it, pick two and the third
repeats the first.

A render takes tens of minutes, and a longer video takes longer. The screen
that opens reads **In queue** until the render starts. From then on it prints
the range for the video you asked for — **Usually takes 40-50 min** on a
**20 – 22 min** render — and you can close the tab while it runs.

> **Caution — Finished videos are deleted after 30 days**
>
> Kutly stores a finished video for 30 days from the moment the render completes,
> then deletes the file. Download anything you want to keep.