Everything You Need to Know about Multilingual Subtitling

If your organization is creating multilingual video content, it’s important to understand the difference between captions and subtitles—and what’s involved in creating either one. While the two are often confused or used interchangeably, they serve very different purposes.

Captions are designed for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. They include not just spoken dialogue but also non-speech audio cues like [laughter], [door creaking], or [music playing].

Subtitles, on the other hand, are for viewers who don’t speak the language of the video. They include only the spoken words translated into another language.

Once you’ve determined that multilingual subtitling is the right fit for your audience, there are a few key things to keep in mind—both in terms of the video files you provide and the subtitling process itself.

Tips for Success in Multilingual Subtitling

• You can’t apply subtitles to online videos (e.g., YouTube links), and due to copyright restrictions, your translation provider can’t download most online videos. You’ll need the original video file to embed subtitles.  
• Be aware of text already on screen. If your video includes text, graphics or PowerPoint slides in the original language, it may be best to translate that content first and re-record or edit the video to fully localize what the viewer sees.
• The process of multilingual subtitling begins by creating a subtitle-friendly transcript (typically a .srt or .vtt file) in the original language. Even if a transcript exists, if it doesn’t have the appropriate file coding, it will have to be recreated to be used for multilingual subtitling.
• Audio quality matters—background noise or unclear speech makes it harder and more time consuming to create accurate transcripts . Clean audio leads to better outcomes.

Multilingual Subtitling Translation Considerations

Subtitles aren’t just word for word  translations—they’re about readability, clarity, and timing to make it as easy as possible for the viewer to understand the video ideas

• Subtitles aren’t just for English videos! You can create English subtitles for videos filmed in almost any source language.
• Multilingual subtitles are written to fit within screen time and space limitations. For example, Spanish translations are often up to 30% longer, so the linguist will adjust wording to maintain pacing without losing meaning.
• Subtitles typically exclude environmental descriptions like [applause] or [car honking]—but if your project needs those, just let your translation partner know.
• Best practices indicate that there should be no more than 42 characters per line, with lines balanced in length and designed to fit within a 21 characters-per-second reading speed. And it’s important to keep sentences together to improve comprehension. 

Be Aware of the Pros and Cons of Using AI for Multilingual Subtitling

• AI tools work best with professionally recorded audio that is free of background noise.
• AI tools don’t work well when speakers have thick accents, or mix in words from other languages (for example, if a Spanish speaker sprinkles in a few English words into a sentence).
• AI tools are not sophisticated enough to accurately create subtitles for specific dialects or informal speech.
• As with any use of machine translation, professional human editing is essential. A trained editor ensures that the final subtitles are culturally appropriate, correctly formatted, and an accurate reflection of the speaker’s intent.

Need help subtitling your organization’s next video project? Whether you’re creating content for public service announcements, community engagement, or training staff, Alboum can support your team with high-quality, accessible subtitling and translation solutions. Reach out today to get started.