Soft subtitles versus burned-in captions
There are two common ways to add subtitles. A soft subtitle track is stored alongside the video and can often be turned on or off by the player. It preserves the original picture and is useful when viewers need language choices or selectable captions.
Burned-in subtitles, also called hardcoded captions, are rendered into every video frame. They work in players that do not understand subtitle tracks and are always visible, but they cannot be hidden or corrected without exporting the video again.
Use the subtitle tool to add an SRT, VTT, or ASS file as a track or render it into the picture, depending on the delivery format you need.
How to add an SRT or VTT file
- Prepare a subtitle file with one cue per spoken section. Each cue needs a start time, an end time, and text.
- Add the video and subtitle file to the subtitle editor.
- Preview the timing against speech, then correct spelling, line breaks, and overlaps.
- Export a subtitle track or burn the captions into a new video.
If your file is in the wrong format, use the subtitle format converter to move between SRT, VTT, ASS, and SSA while keeping the timecodes. When subtitles are already embedded in a video, the subtitle track extractor can export the selected track for editing.
Timing rules that make captions readable
Captions should appear when the words are spoken and disappear when the idea ends. Avoid showing a long sentence for only a fraction of a second. Split dense text into short lines and use line breaks at natural phrases rather than in the middle of a name or verb.
Watch for these problems:
- subtitles that arrive before the speaker's mouth moves;
- two cues overlapping when only one should be visible;
- a cue that remains on screen after the speaker has finished;
- punctuation and capitalization changing from one cue to the next;
- text placed too close to the bottom edge or important on-screen controls.
For accessibility, captions may also describe meaningful sounds, speaker changes, or music when those details affect understanding. Keep the wording concise and readable at the same time.
When should you burn subtitles into the video?
Burn captions in when the destination ignores subtitle tracks, when the text must be visible in a social feed, or when you need a predictable appearance across players. Keep a copy of the original video and the subtitle file because burned-in text is difficult to revise.
Use a soft track when viewers should be able to switch captions off, choose another language, or adjust subtitle appearance. It also avoids re-encoding the picture in workflows that support the chosen container and subtitle format.
Always watch the exported file from beginning to end. Subtitle timing that looks correct in a short preview can drift or reveal a line-ending problem later in a long recording.