Subtitles
What are subtitles?
Subtitles are a textual version of the dialogues within audiovisual productions, such as movies, series, television programs or videos. Subtitles are usually shown at the bottom of the screen. In most cases, subtitles are added because a foreign language or dialect is spoken in the production in question. Subtitling is also desirable when dialogue is poorly audible or unintelligible, making the speaker difficult to understand. Scribit.Pro focuses on a third reason for subtitling audiovisual productions: making video content accessible to everyone. Added subtitles enable people with a hearing impairment to better understand the video. In addition to the deaf and hard of hearing, non-native speakers, people with autism, viewers with learning or reading difficulties or people with a cognitive disability also benefit from subtitling.
To make sure subtitles are accessible to this group of people, it is important to display additional sound information. The subtitles preferably mention all environmental sounds that are relevant in the story being told. That means that it also names background music and speakers who talk outside the screen.
At Scribit.Pro we are pros in subtitling online video. Our foolproof software enables you to easily add subtitles to your video’s. In the user-friendly Scribit.Pro editor you can create subtitles that you can time exactly.
Example
By clicking the ‘CC’ button, you will see subtitles in the lower bottom third of the video screen. These subtitles help people with a hearing impairment to properly understand the video. But also functionally illiterates or people with dyslexia can better comprehend videos with subtitles. In fact it can be practical for anyone, in situations where a video is preferably being played without the audio. In public transport or in the gym subtitles might just come in handy.
Adding subtitles to your video using the Scribit.Pro editor
Upload the video you want to add subtitles to, to your ‘dashboard’. This way the video will open in the Scribit.Pro editor. This online software enables you to create subtitles in ‘CC’ blocks in specific parts of the video where someone is talking or where relevant sounds can be heard. Make sure that the subtitles appear the moment just before the speaker starts to talk and end when the speaker is done talking. The timing can be done by adjusting the starting time and ending time.
When uploading a video in a .mp4 format, it is also possible to start with automatically generated subtitles. This way you can use the automatically generated subtitles as a starting point and that might save you some time.
Keep the following things in mind while creating subtitles:
- Use correct spelling and grammar.
- Make sure a ‘CC’ block consists of no more than two lines, with a maximum of 45 characters.
- In case of longer-lasting dialogue, divide the text into multiple segments.
Once you are done subtitling your video, you can download the files. You will receive two files: a .srt file and a .vtt file. It is also possible to edit these files in your own video or to upload them in for instance YouTube.