Blog · 5 posts

Subtitles and transcripts

Transcripts and subtitles, from the rules that make captions readable to the file formats each platform takes and the workflow from video to a finished SRT.

Subtitle being edited in the player, with a character counter on each line

Transcript with SRT, VTT, TXT and JSON export

Subtitles and transcripts

Subtitle guidelines: the numbers that make subtitles readable

Characters per line, reading speed, time on screen, shot changes and line breaks. The numbers subtitlers work to, where they come from and why each one exists, plus what changes for vertical video.

Samuel Silva · Oct 15, 2026 · 8 min read

Subtitle over an event video, with the CC button on in the player

Subtitles and transcripts

Closed captions vs subtitles: what's the difference and what to deliver

Subtitles carry the dialogue. Closed captions add who is speaking and the sounds that matter, and open captions are burned into the picture. Who each one is for and what to deliver for social, websites, YouTube and broadcast.

Samuel Silva · Oct 8, 2026 · 8 min read

Transcript searched for a word, with speaker and timecode on each result

Subtitle built from the transcript over the video in the player

Subtitles and transcripts

How to transcribe a video and check it before anyone else reads it

Manual, automatic or automatic with a human pass. When each one makes sense, what trips up automatic transcription, what to check before the text becomes subtitles, and how to use it to find quotes and build a paper edit.

Samuel Silva · Oct 7, 2026 · 8 min read

Subtitle being fixed in the player, with a character counter on each line

Subtitles and transcripts

How to make an SRT file, from the finished cut to a .srt that works

What goes inside an SRT file, a copy-ready example and three ways to make one: typed by hand, exported from Premiere or Resolve, or built from a transcript. Then how to check it and upload it to YouTube.

Samuel Silva · Oct 1, 2026 · 8 min read

Transcript download menu with SRT, VTT, TXT and JSON

Subtitles and transcripts

SRT vs VTT: which subtitle file to send, and where

SRT and VTT hold the same subtitles with a different header, a different decimal mark and a few extras. What each file looks like, where each one is expected and the mistakes that get a file rejected.

Samuel Silva · Sep 30, 2026 · 8 min read