How to create subtitles for a video
They made a great video, the soundtrack is right, there is also background music and transitions. Ready to publish, right? Not quite: You should definitely add subtitles to your video.
Why add subtitles to videos?
Nowadays, subtitles are not only used to translate dialogue in foreign language films. Text in the original language is also increasingly displayed as subtitles. First Videos can then be viewed in a noisy environment or without sound. This is increasingly important as we watch more and more videos, e.g. E.g. on mobile social media platforms and in public spaces. A video that cannot be listened to because it would disturb others will usually not be watched. But if the video has subtitles, the viewer can understand the content and watch it even without audio.
Secondly Subtitles in videos are important for accessibility. If you add subtitles to your video, even people with hearing impairments can follow the content because dialogue and comments are displayed as text. It is even better for barrier-free use to include audio descriptions in the subtitles. In it you describe acoustic content such as door creaking, background music or street noise. To meet accessibility standards, captions must include these elements.
Video with subtitles and audio description
For better understanding, audio descriptions and subtitles must be visually different from each other. For example, audio descriptions can be in [eckige Klammern] or *star sign*. If there are several speakers, the comments should also differ in color.
Insert subtitles with Camtasia
Camtasia is a powerful video tool that is easy to use. You can add subtitles to your videos in just a few steps.
Download free trial
Instructions: Add subtitles to a video
You can add subtitles to a video using most video editing programs. This is very easy with Camtasia:
Preparation: Write a script
This step saves you a lot of time – not only in subtitling, but also in video production. If the speakers know their dialogues in advance or the spoken commentary is read out from a script, many errors and thus correction loops are avoided. The script also allows you to import the spoken text into the video editor as subtitles. If there is no script, go to step 1.
Step 1: Transcribe your video
If there is no script, you can transcribe what is said. Use one for this Transcription tool like Audiate. You just need to upload the video or audio track to Audiate and the automatic speech recognition will do the rest.
TIPP:
If you want to edit audio and video simultaneously, use Audiate together with Camtasia. Send the video file from Camtasia to Audiate for audio and text editing, then back to Camtasia, where the audio and video will automatically sync in the timeline.
All-rounder for audio: transcribing, recording, editing
Get your free Audiate trial today! Convert audio files to text, create your first voice-over or subtitles for your videos.
Download free trial
All-rounder for audio: transcribing, recording, editing
Get your free Audiate trial today! Convert audio files to text, create your first voice-over or subtitles for your videos.
Download free trial
Alternatively you can:
transcribe the video manually, i.e. watch the video and write down what is said. This works for short videos, but especially for longer videos you have to stop again and again to keep up and write down the text correctly.
have the video transcribed. There are many companies that specialize in video transcription.
Use the speech-to-text function in the video editor. Many video editing programs (including Camtasia for Windows) can automatically convert the audio in a video to text. Accuracy is influenced by various factors. Most of the time small corrections are necessary, but this feature still saves you a lot of time.
Use automatic transcription on YouTube. You can upload your video to YouTube and download the automatically generated transcription text and carefully read and correct it.
Step 2: Add a track for subtitles
In Camtasia, you can find the Captions feature in the left menu at the bottom. Click Add Subtitles. Camtasia will now automatically create a new track for your subtitles.
Step 3: Sync subtitles with text
If you don’t have any transcription text or script, you can now type the text for each scene into the text field in the editing window (below the video preview). Type only what you hear. Camtasia has a handy feature that lets you loop a sequence until all of the text has been typed out.
If you have a script or transcription text, you can save a lot of time. Simply copy all the text into the text box in the editing window. You can then synchronize the text with the video step by step in one easy pass. To do this, click on the gear in the subtitle window and select from the menu Synchronize subtitles. Please also take a look at our video tutorial.
Step 4: Proofread and review
Before publishing, you should check the subtitles carefully. The dialogue or spoken commentary should match the displayed text as closely as possible and allow for a comfortable reading speed. The basic value is 13 to 15 characters per second, less for children. A maximum of 37 characters should be used per line.
Step 5: Produce and publish your video
If everything looks good and the captions are correct, you have several publishing options:
Should the subtitles be burned into the video? Then export the video as a simple MP4 file. Should the subtitles be able to be shown and hidden as needed? Then you need one MP4 mit HTML5 Smartplayer.
These and other output formats can be found in Camtasia Share > Local File.
You can also export the subtitles in .SRT or .SMI format and use this file to easily create subtitles on YouTube, Facebook and other platforms or for translation.
Would you like to try adding captions and subtitles to your videos yourself? Then get the free trial of Camtasia for Mac or Windows and get started. Have lots of fun with it!
Create subtitled videos with Camtasia
Camtasia is a powerful video tool that is easy to use. You can record, import, edit and add subtitles to videos in just a few steps.
Download free trial