- When a subtitle is longer than 42 characters, break it into two lines.
- Never use more than two lines per subtitle.
- Keep broken lines as close in length as possible.
- Try to preserve as much meaning as possible.
- One line can't be shorter than 50% of the other.
- Line splits should be made on a linguistic basis
- One-word lines should be avoided.
- Subtitles should ideally start in sync with the start of dialogue and never before.
- subtitles should be removed from the screen immediately as speech finishes.
- line breaks should follow the rhythm of speech for readability
- Where foreign speech occurs, indicate language within square brackets. E.g. [spanish]
- Speaker identifications should be in capitals with a colon before speech. E.g. HARRY: Men and women can never be friends
- Double quote marks should be used when dialogue refers to speech
- Musical notes at the beginning and end of a line, and italics should be used for song lyrics or to indicate music
- Italics, Dialogue from devices including radios, televisions, computers or telephones.
- Italics, when dialogue originates offscreen, such as out-of-scene speakers or narrators.
- Italics, Where emphasis is required to convey intonation or meaning
- For commonly known foreign words, transcribe with correct spelling and punctuation, in italics. E.g. Bonjour!
- Numerals 1-10 should be written out in full. All other numbers should be portrayed as digits.
- Subtitles should appear and disappear exactly when the words are spoken. However, ensure captions appear on-screen long enough to be read.
- Set the minimum time of display to 1.5 seconds for very short dialogue (such as an answer to a question, “Okay”). These minimums do not apply in some cases with rapid dialogue.
- When speech is inaudible, put up a label explaining the cause, e.g., (traffic drowns speech)
- Show sound effect captions in lowercase italics enclosed in brackets, e.g., (dog barking) (child screaming)
- If there are multiple people talking, or the film cuts between people speaking, consider using the names of the people in the subtitles to identify the different speakers, e.g.,
- (John) What did you say?
- (Sarah) I think this is great
- One method to indicate singing in a video is to have a space inserted after the beginning music icon (♪) and before the ending music icon(s), e.g., ♪ Buffalo soldier, in the heart of America ♪
- Another method used for music captioning is using a hashtag (#) at the beginning of each line to denote lyrics, e.g., # Buffalo soldier, in the heart of America #
- When people are seen talking, but there is no audio, caption as [no audio] or [silence].
- When a speaker is interrupted and another speaker finishes the sentence, the interruption should be conveyed by double hyphens (–) or a single long dash (—).
- Use an ellipsis (…) when there is a significant pause within a caption. However, do not use an ellipsis to indicate that the sentence continues into the next caption.
- Use quotation marks for on-screen readings from a poem, book, play, journal, or letter. Also use quotation marks and italics for off-screen readings or voice-overs.
- Always start sentences in capital letters.
- Do not emphasize a word using all capital letters, except to indicate screaming.
- Use numerals when referring to technical and athletic terms. He scored 3 goals in today’s game!
- A decade should be captioned as “the 1980s” (not “the 1980’s”).
- Do not add space if a subtitle line finishes with a colon, semi-colon, comma or full-stop because the space will show in the subtitle display.
Do not break a line between:
Pronouns and verbs:
Mom said I could have gone to the movies,
however I did not have enough money.
Mom said I could have gone to the movies,
however I did not have enough money.
Articles and their nouns:
He said it would increase the
number of shareholders.
He said it would increase
the number of shareholders
A person’s full name:
Bob and Susan
Miller are at the theatre.
Bob and Susan Miller
are at the theatre.
Conjunctions / Preposition and the following sentence:
This table is delivered in
several parts.
This table is delivered
in several parts
A complex verbs’ parts:
If you came, you would
have enjoyed the party.
If you came, you would have enjoyed
the party.
You do not need to add a coma at the end of several subtitles forming a sentence if the person speaks
in a natural flow.
1 I knew,
2 that she would go there,
3 on purpose.
1 I knew
2 that she would go there
3 on purpose.
Numerals:
We’ve told them 1000s of times!
We’ve told them thousands of times!
”eight or nine hundred” -> “800 or 900”.