You might call the text at the bottom of the screen during a TV show or movie something like “subtitles” or “closed captions.”
While many people use these two terms interchangeably, subtitles and closed captioning are two very different things.
Like dubbing, subtitles are associated with translated content.
On the other hand, closed captions are generally used to make content accessible for viewers who have trouble hearing.
It’s important to understand the difference when working on video localization.
In this article, we’ll explain the distinction between subtitles and closed captioning and why it matters for creative production.
What Are Closed Captions?
The phrase “closed captions” typically refers to captions that are posted in the same language as the video.
They’re often intended for viewers who speak the same language, but are unable to follow the content using normal audio.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires creators to offer closed captioning (along with other services) so that their content is accessible to all viewers.
These kinds of captions are often typed live and included with the television signal itself.
Accessibility for disabled viewers is a key motivation for closed captioning, but it can also make content easier to follow for all viewers.
In fact, more than 80% of all viewers who turn captions on don’t actually require captions for a disability-related reason.
While closed captions include dialogue, you’ll also find sound effects, the names of speakers, and other elements that aren’t present in subtitles.
For example, there might be a caption for a ringing phone so that viewers who have trouble hearing will still understand what’s going on.
The difference between closed captions and open captions is that closed captions can be turned off.
In contrast, open captions are embedded in the video itself and can’t be removed.
If you’re watching a movie on Netflix, you can typically select either foreign-language subtitles or closed captions in the same language as the film.
What Are Subtitles?
While closed captions are primarily intended for viewers who have trouble hearing, subtitles are designed for viewers who can hear the content normally.
With that in mind, subtitles are usually limited to spoken dialogue, excluding other sounds like ringing phones, ambient music, or traffic noises.
These sounds are generally easy for foreign viewers to understand, so there’s no need to explain them through subtitles.
Of course, creators may still decide that some additional notes are necessary to provide cultural context or other relevant information.
What About Open Captions?
Along with subtitles and closed captions, you may have also heard the term “open captions.”
As mentioned above, the distinction is that open captions are tied to the video.
If a video has open captions, there’s no way to turn them off or remove them from the screen.
Open captions are often used in situations where a movie or show contains short sections in a foreign language.
Since the creators don’t expect viewers to understand this language, they’ll burn captions into the video directly.
This strategy ensures that viewers won’t inadvertently remove captions that they need to understand the content.
The video below reinforces the difference between subtitles, closed captions, and open captions with examples of each.
Which One Should I Use?
Now that you know the differences between subtitles, closed captions, and open captions, the next step is determining which one to use.
You should use captions rather than subtitles when you want to make content accessible for viewers who are hard of hearing.
This audience may not be able to fully understand your content if you only provide subtitles for dialogue.
On the other hand, subtitles are better for situations where you want to make dialogue easier to understand.
Foreign-language content is the most common use case, but subtitles are also used in many other contexts.
Even native speakers often use subtitles so that they can follow the dialogue more easily.
It often makes sense to produce captions and subtitles so that viewers can access both.
For example, an English-language movie might include captions in English as well as subtitles in other languages.
How Do You Add Captions or Subtitles to a Video?
The right way to add text to a video depends on the kind of project you’re working on.
Adding captions to a live event?
You’ll need to work with professionals who can type quickly and accurately enough to keep up with the action.
Otherwise, you’ll be able to transcribe the necessary text and then embed it in the video through an SRT file.
SRT files are time-coded, which means they tell the video player exactly when to display each line.
These kinds of captions tend to be much more accurate than a live transcription.
With that in mind, adding captions is more complicated than simply transcribing dialogue.
At Voice Crafters, we offer translation as well as embedding and other relevant services.
Check out our video translation services page to learn how we can help embed captions or subtitles in your video.
If you have accurate subtitles in the native language, you should be able to translate them while using the same SRT format for the target language.
That makes it easy to embed translated subtitles without restarting the process from scratch.
Final Thoughts
You may have thought that subtitles and closed captions are the same, but it’s important to use these terms precisely in a video production setting.
This will help you avoid ambiguities when communicating with your team.
At this point, you’re ready to start developing whatever text makes sense for the work you’re creating.
However, you may still need help translating your video into other languages for foreign-language subtitles.
Here at Voice Crafters, we translate videos between more than 80 different languages.
We also transcribe and embed subtitles to help our clients localize projects for different audiences.
Check out our website to learn more about our video translation services.
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