Standard subtitling rules?

rawfa

rawfa

Veteran
Hi,

I'm not sure where this topic should go, but I need to subtitle a 45min narrative project I just finished and I'd like to know some basic/standard subtitling rules.
Which font? (where to download for free?)
Which size?

so far I have this:
• three seconds are needed to read a line,
• a single subtitle showing should not exceed two lines, and
• a line of subtitles should not exceed 37 characters.
 
I don't think there's a standard, because I've seen yellow subtitles and I've seen white with black background.

I also think the font is your decision.
 
Yes, there actualy are a couple of rules. You can't just choose say "monotype corsiva" at 18, or put 4 lines. Stuff like that.
 
Nice link to the PDF.

In FCP at least, you can put a double outline your subtitle text. Using light text, a dark outline, and a light outline (or vice-versa if your material is light) seems to give the best result - much better than shadows when text color and background are similar!

For timing... have a test audience report whether they can read everything after you think everythings good.

It's not standard practice, and may not be useful in all applications... but I like to use spatial placement of text (left/right/center justification) to disambiguate certain intense duets and trios in opera subtitles; and sometimes use 3 lines for trios... in the end, use the same artistic sense for placing subtitles that you do for other aspects of visual composition.
 
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