These days, subtitles have gotten more and more frequent, notably as companies broaden their advertising efforts and purpose to succeed in a broader, international market. Moreover, subtitles are sometimes mandatory to make sure your video and audio information are as inclusive as attainable.
Fortuitously, there’s a simple resolution to including subtitles to video — an SRT file.
To make sure your movies are inclusive and simply digestible for any viewers, it is vital you embody an choice to observe with subtitles. Right here, we’ll clarify what an SRT file is, and find out how to create and edit one on your advertising movies transferring ahead.
What’s an SRT File?
An SRT file (in any other case often called a SubRip Subtitle file) is a plain-text file that incorporates important data concerning subtitles, together with the beginning and finish timecodes of your textual content to make sure your subtitles match your audio, and the sequential variety of subtitles.
It is vital to notice, an SRT file is only a textual content file you’ll use alongside video or audio — it doesn’t additionally embody the video or audio you are subtitling.
The right way to Create an SRT File
- You’ll be able to create an SRT file in any textual content editor, together with Notepad, TextEdit, and Notepad++.
- Open a textual content editor of your alternative, and order every line of your subtitles, beginning with 1.
- Subsequent, put the time the subtitle begins, then “–>”, and the time it ends.
- Format your timestamp like this — “hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds”.
- Under your begin and finish timestamp, put your first line of textual content.
SRT information might be created from scratch or downloaded and edited. Earlier than we get into the fundamentals of enhancing SRT information, let’s check out what an SRT file seems like and the way it’s formatted.
SRT File Instance
Typically, Wordpad or Notepad are the best packages to open SRT information with as a result of you may view them in plain textual content. Nonetheless, it’s also possible to use software program particular to SRT information similar to Subtitle Workshop (extra on this later).
To ensure that an SRT file to work together with the video or audio file it is paired with, it should observe a particular format consisting of:
- The road quantity
- The time vary the place the road ought to seem within the video
- The textual content that ought to seem on the road
The timestamp is formatted like so with the milliseconds rounded to a few decimal factors:
Hours:Minutes:Seconds,Milliseconds
The timeframe is formatted like so with an arrow denoting vary:
[First Timestamp] –> [Second Timestamp]
The arrow should encompass two hyphens and a right-pointing angle bracket (also referred to as the greater-than signal or carrot).
If you happen to’re creating one from scratch, be happy to repeat and paste this pattern SRT formatting:
Instance SRT Formatting
00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:00,000
[Insert your first line of text here, and don’t forget to change the timestamps.]
2
00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:00,000
[Insert your second line of text here, and don’t forget to change the timestamps.]
If you happen to discover your subtitles do not align together with your audio, or you’ll want to change the phrasing, it is easy sufficient to edit your SRT file. Think about using Subtitle Workshop or one other subtitle editor of your alternative.
Alternatively, for those who do not need to obtain an editor, you may open your SRT file in Notepad. You’ll be able to change the time and phrases throughout the file, however do not change the punctuation. Then, click on “File” → “Save as”, and select the SRT file extension.
The right way to Edit an SRT File
- Obtain Subtitle Workshop.
- Discover “File” after which choose “Load Subtitle” to insert your SRT file.
- Click on “Film” after which “Open”, and choose the corresponding video file.
- Subsequent, choose “Edit”. You’ll be able to select from Timings, Texts, Subtitles, or Translations.
- Modify the time or the textual content on every line.
Captions are one component you can embody in your video advertising technique that makes your content material extra inclusive and priceless to your viewers.
Editor’s observe: This submit was initially revealed in December 2018 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.