Publishing a web link is the easiest way to share your content created in Descript. You'll create a standalone page with its own unique URL, which you can share and even download the content up to 10x faster than exporting a video or audio local file. You can set privacy and other settings for the page (both from your Descript project and the actual published page) so people can view your work, download the content, and make comments.
Hobbyist and Free plans may publish videos up to 1 hour in length. Creator, Business, and Enterprise plans may publish videos up to 3 hours long. Compositions with video exceeding the length limitation will be published as audio-only.
To ensure a safe and engaging community, you need to log in or sign up to comment on publicly published pages. Creating an account is quick and easy; even a free account will allow you to comment.
Publishing a page
- Click the Publish button at the top-right corner of the editor window.
- Select Web link from the dropdown menu.
- Set your title, resolution(video-only), access permissions, and other settings.
- Select Publish.
Publishes are limited to a canvas size of 8192 pixels. You can either export your file or re-size your canvas to a smaller resolution through the Aspect ratio and video settings menu.
Updating a published page
You can make updates to content, re-publish it, and preserve the original URL in Descript . Simply follow the above steps for publishing a page after making your updates, and the page content will be re-rendered.
Re-publishing or removing a page will cause any published comments to be permanently removed. Users wishing to work collaboratively with other users during the editing phase will instead want to invite collaborators to comment directly within the project. You can learn more about project access.
Removing a page
If you need to remove a published page, open the share.descript.com page and select the Publish settings in the top right corner of the published webpage, and select Unpublish.
Publishing settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Resolution: | Set the video resolution to 480p, 720p, 1080p, or 4K. |
| Access: | |
| Public | Published pages are configured to allow search engines to list them in their results. This is good for people who use Descript web links as a public hosting platform. |
| Anyone with the link | Pages are configured to be excluded from search engine results. This is good for sharing links to pages without requiring Descript account access to view them. |
| Project access required | Pages are configured to be excluded from search engine results. Users must sign in with a Descript account and have authorization to view. |
| Settings: | |
| Show transcript | Display your composition’s transcript on the published web page. |
| Allow comments | Allow commenting on the published web page. |
| Show author | Display the project owner’s name on the web page. |
| Allow sharing from embeds | Add a share button on embedded video or audio players of your published page. |
| Custom branding | Enable/disable showing the drive’s icon on the published web page. |
The sign up button can't be removed, but it will disappear once viewers log into their Descript account.
Changing default publish permissions
Drive owners can change the default publish privacy setting for all projects on their drive. To do so, click on your profile image in the top right. Choose Settings. Click on the Subscription tab, locate the Default publish privacy field, and click the dropdown to change your drive-level default.
Adding a thumbnail
By default, your page's thumbnail will be the first frame of your video. You can customize the thumbnail by clicking on its preview image.
Use a frame from your video
- Click on the thumbnail in the publish panel.
- Select Change frame.
- Use the slider at the bottom of the preview to move through your video.
- Select Use frame once you find the frame you want to use.
Upload a custom thumbnail
- Click on the thumbnail in the publish panel.
- Select Upload.
- Choose the image you want to use.
Download, share, or view the page
Once you've published your content, you can Download the content,
Copy the page link, or
Open the page from the bottom of the publish panel.
Video watermark
Users on a Free drive or basic members of a Hobbyist or Creator drive will have a Descript watermark in the bottom right-hand corner of their exported videos. However, they can create one watermark-free video per month by toggling the option in the publish settings. Upgrading to a paid Hobbyist, Creator, or Business subscription will remove the watermark from all future exports.
Downloading a published page is faster than local exporting
One of the key benefits of publishing a web link and downloading your content is that it renders in the cloud. This rendering process allows you to download your content up to 10 times faster than exporting a local video or audio file. You can learn more about downloading a published page.