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How to create subtitles easily and edit them correctly

Which parameters need to be observed when creating subtitles, and how can you check them? Subtitles can have different purposes, depending on their target audience.

  • They can help break down barriers to allow the deaf and hard of hearing to appreciate the spoken and other acoustic content of a video.
  • They can make videos accessible to a broader audience by conveying the spoken and acoustic content in another language.
  • They can make it easier to watch videos in noisy surroundings or situations where speakers cannot be used, and there are no headphones available.

Subtitles are also important for search engine optimisation, can help people learn languages and can even improve viewer loyalty to ensure that viewers engage more with content not only acoustically but also visually. However, subtitles can also have the exact opposite effect: if they are ‘bad’, people might not watch a video or a film any further.

‘Bad’ might mean that there are linguistic errors with the subtitles or that more text is shown on screen than can be read in the time allowed. It could mean exactly the opposite: if subtitles are overlaid for too long, maybe even during a scene change, they can be confused if people read them twice over or if they no longer have anything to do with what is happening on-screen. I am sure that we have all got annoyed at least once by a situation like this.

So, how do you create ‘good’ subtitles? There are various tools available for creating and editing subtitles that offer a larger or smaller range of functions and integrated checking mechanisms. One of these tools is Subtitle Edit.

Subtitle Edit is a free, open-source subtitle editor that lets you create, edit and synchronise subtitles in over 300 formats. With functions like audio visualisation, scene change markers, a spell checker and various quality assurance features, this tool offers a comprehensive selection of instruments for precise timing and flawless subtitles.

Let’s take a look at the basic functions of Subtitle Edit.

The Subtitle Edit working environment

Subtitle Edit’s interface is divided into three main areas:

  1. the list of subtitles and the subtitle editor;
  2. the video player, and
  3. the waveform of the soundtrack.

The video player

In order to prepare our subtitles, the first thing we need – just like for translation – is a source file, i.e. the video file for which the spoken text needs to be overlaid as subtitles. The video is shown on the right-hand side of the Subtitle Edit window; optionally, for example, if you work with multiple screens, it can also be shown in a separate window. The control buttons underneath are used to play or stop the video or audio track and to adjust the volume.

The waveform of the soundtrack

This section may initially not appear important, but it is indispensable when creating subtitles. It lets you visualise the soundtrack. In other words, it allows you to determine exactly when, on a timeline representing the length of the video, a specific sound – the spoken text – ‘occurs’. The louder the sound, the higher the peak. This means it acts as a landmark for where a subtitle should begin and end. You can mark an area on the soundtrack directly and create a subtitle from it.

As soon as a subtitle has been created, you can extend it, shorten it or shift it entirely on the timeline to make sure it corresponds with the timing of the spoken text.

The subtitle list and the subtitle editor

This is where the subtitles are listed as and when they are created, and you can also add or split subtitles. For every subtitle, the exact start and end time is recorded down to the nearest hundredth of a second. This information tells the video player the duration for which the subtitles have to be displayed.

Under the subtitle list is a small editor window where subtitles can be created and edited, and to the left of that, the start time and duration of the subtitle currently being edited are shown. This section can also be used to adjust the times.

Intuitive and easy.

Yes, creating subtitle boxes is easy and intuitive. The more complicated part is transcription, or converting spoken text into written material. This is where we have to get our gymnastics costume ready, as we often have to engage in a balancing act between:

  • Speech speed:
    Someone who speaks very quickly will occasionally say more words within the period for which the subtitles can be overlaid. Their dialogue, thus, often needs to be shortened.
  • Being faithful to the speaker:
    If a speaker says more than there is room to record in the subtitles, their speech must be shortened, albeit in a manner that ensures the content still reflects what the person speaking wanted to express.
  • Sentence structure:
    If we are working with videos in Swiss German that need to be subtitled in standard German, the sequence of the sentences needs to be reworked in order to be linguistically correct, which means it may no longer reflect the speaking style of the person concerned.
  • Display:
    Subtitles are usually two lines long and contain a maximum of 40-43 characters (including spaces and punctuation marks). Ideally, the subtitles for a video should all be approximately the same length, and you should try to avoid too many switches between one-line and two-line subtitles, as switching constantly like this is tiring for the eyes. At the same time, units of meaning should not be broken up. Combined with German’s fondness for long words and word structures, as compared with French or Italian, for example, this part of translating subtitles can often prove a headache. The additional fact that you should ideally always work in a pyramid structure, i.e. the second line should be longer than the first, does not make the whole undertaking any easier.
  • Predefined duration and minimum intervals:
    When subtitling, you will often receive instructions on the minimum time for which a subtitle must be overlaid and the maximum time it can be overlaid. There will also be rules on the minimum interval required between subtitles. If the speakers speak quickly and there are many scene changes, as is very popular in social media videos, following these instructions can often be tricky.

And these are only some of the instructions you might receive. Anything that can be established technically can be entered in Subtitle Edit as a preset. The technical instructions for Netflix subtitles, for example, are shown in the screenshot below:

How the checking routine in Subtitle Edit helps

If we break one or more of the rules when subtitling, Subtitle Edit will show this by marking the text in red:

Here, the display time is too long or too short:

Here, the maximum number of characters has been exceeded:

Here, the speaking speed has been exceeded (too many characters for the specified display time):

For some clients, there should no longer be any notifications visible from the checking routine. For others, you may have one or two characters’ leeway in the maximum number of characters or a couple of seconds’ leeway with regard to the minimum display time.

Do you need language professionals when creating subtitles?

Yes, you still need language professionals. Although many parameters can be checked automatically and by machine, the errors reported still need to be corrected by someone who has a flawless command of the language in question. Spoken text will often not follow the rules of written language, or will make use of idioms or be accompanied by distracting background noise or by heavy accents or dialects. This is why a professional subtitling expert, working in their native language, must review the video at one-quarter speed or even slower to make sure that every word has been understood correctly and is displayed accurately. Fortunately, Subtitle Edit comes in handy for that as well.

Checking the spelling is a must.

When you have to pay attention to such a series of parameters, typos and careless mistakes are easily missed. We, therefore, recommend that you follow at least the four-eyes principle when creating subtitles and ensure that you run the spell checker. Subtitle Edit comes with the Hunspell spell checker as standard. You can also install a plugin to use the MS Word spell checker for any other languages you may have installed on your computer.

Subtitling services from SwissGlobal

Do you need subtitles for an audio or video file? Or have you already created your subtitles (by machine) and would like to have them checked and reviewed for common linguistic and technical parameters? At SwissGlobal, your project is in safe hands. SwissGlobal is more than just a translation company: alongside translations, we also offer subtitling services. Contact us, and we will send you a quote today.