Captions

Captions are time-synchronised on-screen text that represents spoken dialogue and non-speech audio information in a video. They differ from subtitles in an important way: subtitles translate dialogue for viewers who don't understand the spoken language and typically represent only dialogue; captions are designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and include additional information like speaker identification, sound effects ([music], [applause], [door slams]), tone indicators ([sarcastic], [whispered]), and off-screen sound cues. In practice, many creators use "subtitles" and "captions" interchangeably — especially in contexts like YouTube where the platform calls everything "captions" but most text content is dialogue-only. Captions come in two delivery formats: open captions (burned into the video, always visible, can't be turned off) and closed captions (stored as a separate track, toggleable by the viewer, displayed in the viewer's player). Standard caption file formats include SRT (simple timed text), VTT (web-standard), SCC (broadcast), and TTML (XML-based). Captions are legally required on much television and online video content in many jurisdictions, including the US (ADA) and UK (Equality Act).

How it works

Caption production workflows fall into three categories: human-transcribed (professional captioners produce captions from scratch, high accuracy but expensive — ~$1-3/minute of video), automated (speech recognition produces captions from audio, instant but accuracy varies by accent/language/audio quality), and hybrid (AI draft + human cleanup, balancing cost and quality — the 2026 default for professional creators). For Indian-language captions specifically, automated transcription quality varies sharply by language: Hindi and Bengali ASR is competent; Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam varies; less-common Indian languages often require human transcribing. Caption styling rules differ across platforms: YouTube allows standard fonts and colours in CC; Netflix has strict style guides; TV broadcast captions use white-on-black for maximum readability. For karaoke-style social media captions, the rules are looser — creators experiment with bold fonts, saturated colours, and aggressive animation.

Examples

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