What Is the Difference Between Subtitles and Captions?
Imagine you are at home, relaxing, about to watch a video on Youtube or a similar platform, and before you start, you want to turn on the subtitles on the screen. However, when you access the available settings for the video, you find two options that seem identical: Subtitles and captions. Which one do you need?
While they seem like interchangeable terms, as you might guess by now, they are not. Both of them refer to the idea of putting in text what happens in the audio of a video, but they serve distinct purposes.
To get a better idea of the differences between closed captions and subtitles, let us start by looking at the history of cinema and where these techniques came from. Because to understand our storytellers, we need to set the stage.
Before Subtitles and Captions Had a Name: The Intertitles
Subtitles are an essential element in the quest for inclusion across the world of cinema. It has always been about making it possible for more people to understand and enjoy the stories on the screen. And although a century ago, it was a resource with many limitations and started out being exclusive to the big screen, nowadays the reality is quite different.
Today we have professional subtitling services to ensure high-quality texts that comply with specific industry standards and are present everywhere, in all possible video platforms anywhere. But in the past, it was not so neat.
Title Cards
At the end of the 19th century, silent films introduced intertitles, the first on-screen texts that gave us a clue about what was going on in each scene.
And while they were far from being like today’s subtitles and captions, they briefly told us what the characters’ dialogue was about. They were texts— title cards—printed on paper, filmed and placed between the different scenes of the film. A bit rustic, huh?
The Game Changer
By 1901, several filmmakers and inventors had begun experimenting with new methods – among them Georges Méliès and Robert W. Paul, who succeeded in creating the Cinematograph Camera No. 1. This invention enabled something that revolutionised the cinematographic world and made a big step towards what we know today as closed captioning—do not hurry, we will get there soon.
In a nutshell, the device allowed the overlaying of text over the acted scenes. And voilà! The technique’s consolidation came with the film Scrooge (or Marley’s Ghost) and later, with Alice in Wonderland. The rest is—in all fairness—history.
#OptimationalTip: You can properly tackle your video content strategy by understanding the difference between closed captions and subtitles. Use the right tool for the right purpose.
We would love to keep talking about film history, but we are here to help you in your business growth. However, we recommend a blog about the history of cinema, in case you want to know more.
Subtitles and Captions: Pick Your Player
Similar but not the same. Enough suspense; let us clear up this mystery.
Closed Captioning
The implementation of this feature dates back to the 1970s when the aim was to enable deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers to enjoy TV programming. Closed captioning includes all the essential audio of a video; from lines of dialogue to sounds—which we normally can see in brackets.
After its adoption, captions could not be turned off and were part of the video itself (open captioning). Soon after, however, the technique of closed captions—or CC—emerged, allowing viewers to choose whether to display them on-screen or not.
Regarding how they look, we can distinguish between subtitles and captions as the latter consist of white letters superimposed on a black background.
Subtitling
The adoption of subtitles began in the 1930s when silent films transitioned to sound. This posed a new challenge: How to enable foreign viewers to understand the speeches?
Without altering the spoken language (which would be dubbing, a topic for another discussion), the translated speech is added in writing. The optimum solution here is to rely on professional subtitling services that guarantee the fidelity of the rendering, time synchronisation, and follow the best subtitling practices on the market.
As for how it works, there is a difference between subtitles and captions. The latter depends on an encoder chip installed in the TV set, while the former is usually burned into the video. It could also consist of a separate file that you run with the video file.
Concerning the look and feel, we mentioned the difference between closed captions and subtitles, yet we clarify that the latter can have different fonts and colours, but not a background.
#OptimationalTip: Professional subtitlers also focus on technical aspects, such as timing and synch, lip movement, localisation (when appropriate), length of phrases, etc. Check out some of the BBC’s subtitle guidelines.
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Final Thoughts: How Will You Tell Your Story?
Subtitles and captions, which ones do you need? You can examine what other companies are doing, especially the streaming platforms. Yet, the truth is that nobody knows your business needs better than you. We know that in the process of international expansion, it can be complex to find the right strategy: The one that best suits a specific need, at a given moment. For this reason, we want to help you at all times to see the big picture and what tools you can count on.
One last message: If you have ever seen sloppy subtitles, unclear phrases, and special characters interrupting the narrative flow, you will not want this to happen to your videos. Contact us today so we can help you.
