Guides
Subtitling, explained.
Short, practical answers to the questions that come up when you put subtitles on a video — and when you translate them.
How to add subtitles to a TikTok video
Add readable subtitles to a TikTok video: where captions can safely sit in a 9:16 frame, how long each line should be, and when to burn them in instead of using TikTok's own captions.
5 min readHow to translate a YouTube video into another language
Translate your YouTube video into other languages: get the file, generate and translate the subtitles, then upload each language to YouTube Studio as its own subtitle track.
6 min readSRT vs VTT vs ASS: which subtitle format should you use?
The three subtitle formats you will meet most often, what each one is for, and which to pick for YouTube, the web, video editors or styled captions.
5 min readHardcoded vs soft subtitles: when to burn them in
The difference between burned-in (hardcoded) subtitles and separate subtitle tracks, the trade-offs of each, and how to choose for social video, YouTube and courses.
4 min readSubtitle reading speed and line length, by language
How fast subtitles can be read, how many characters fit on a line, and how long a caption should stay on screen — with the differences between Latin, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts.
6 min readTranslating between two specific languages? See the language pair guides →