How Do I Make Subtitles And Closed Captions?
by Tat Banerjee| Jun 17, 2019
How Do I Make Subtitles And Closed Captions?

Many clients ask how us about subtitles. Generally, this is the first question a prospect asks us about our platform. In practise, they mean a few different things.

  • We want subtitles for our audio/video content.
  • We have subtitles, but want to make changes to the timing.
  • We want to embed our subtitles into our video file, for use in Social Media.

Let us look at these questions in detail.

What Are Subtitles or Closed Captions?

Subtitles are text derived from either a transcript or screenplay of the dialogue or commentary in films, television programs, video games, and the like, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen.

One of a series of subtitles, accessible through a decoder, is known as a ‘closed caption’. The term ‘closed’ is because the captions are not visible until activated by the viewer. On the other hand, ‘open’, ‘burned-in’, or ‘hard-coded’ captions are visible to all viewers.

What Subtitle File Formats Exist?

The most common subtitle/closed caption file format used is *.srt. An SRT file (otherwise known as a SubRip Subtitle file) is a plain-text file that contains critical information regarding subtitles, including the start and end timecodes of your text to ensure your subtitles match your audio, and the sequential number of subtitles.

There are a large number of subtitles or closed captions formats available, see here and here for details.

Sample Subtitle File

We use the video translator to produce a subtitles file. The following image is what a subtitle file, a *.srt looks like, click here to download the sample SRT file.

Example of an SRT file

How Do I Make My Own Subtitles?

  1. (Manual) Using a notepad tool, such as Notepad++, Sublime Text or your own computers default text editor, you can create your own SRT files.
  2. (Automatic) Use a video translator to transcribe your content using a Speech-To-Text AI which (a) automatically works out your captions, and (b) create the SRT file.

Remember: If you are using the AI, please check/edit the transcript after usage. Both text and timestamps can be edited in the platform.

Use a Speech-To-Text AI to automatically create a SRT file

How Can I Add Subtitles To A Video File? How Can I Add Subtitles To A Video File For Free?

If you are looking to do an ‘open caption’, or embed/burn the captions into your asset, use the Auto-Overlay function in your video translator.

  1. Once you have the captions, click on the Action button and select the Auto-Overlay.
    Action -> Auto-Overlay
  2. Select the asset. Then choose a font, font-size and font-colour. In the below, we use Noto Sans, 30 and a strong blue. Click Next.
    Auto-Overlay -> Font, Font-Size and Colour
  3. In the below, we choose a Highlight, and a yellow for the colour of the highlight. Click Confirm.
    Auto-Overlay -> Highlight
  4. The final asset with the Auto-Overlay. Change the styling on your own video to make it look nice!

Conclusion

Making subtitles is straightforward. First, get the transcript of your video. Second, make the SRT file, and once this is ready (a) embed the SRT into your asset, or (b) manually upload the SRT into the social media service you are using.

Please connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook for any comments, questions, or just to keep up to date with the work we do!

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