Number of characters on a subtitle line:

Try to use not more than 32 characters on a subtitle line. If you use Codi default font 2 in upper and lower case, 32 characters fills the screen from the left to the right, leaving a nice amount of breathing space.

If you want to use fonts created by Windows Font Converter, we suggest you use either ALT-GO2B.CPC (normal) or ALT-GO-2I.CPC (italics) for languages supported by CPC International. This is a nice font - thick, tall, not too wide, and easy to read. It is about 40 scan lines high and has a border of 2 scan lines. These fonts were created by CPC from Bitstream Alternate Gothic No. 2 Regular (ID # 0524) Windows font.

Number of lines in a subtitle block:

It is a standard practice to keep the subtitle block within two lines. A three line subtitle covers too much of the video, and does not look good aesthetically. If a sentence is too long, break the sentence so that no line on the CaptionMaker edit screen is more than 60 characters.

Spacing between two lines in one subtitle: Subtitle > Chyron Codi > Font

Spacing between two lines in one subtitle block is aesthetically very important. For the above fonts ALT-GO… , font height = 45 and font spacing = 0 are good choices.

Left and Bottom margins: Subtitle > Chyron Codi

We recommend a left margin of 60 and a bottom margin of 68 as good choices.

Centering subtitling Subtitle > Horizontal shift

While formatting the script using the Preview window, choose centering as opposed to left justified. When you send the first subtitle to the monitor, check the centering of the subtitle by comparing it to any title or other graphics on the video. (It can safely be assumed that a professional video would have any title or graphics accurately centered with respect the screen. Your screen may not be calibrated to show true centering.)

If you notice that your subtitles are not truly centered, you may have to adjust the Horizontal shift, to center the subtitles.

Blank space between two subtitles: Subtitle > Chyron Codi > Blank Frames

It is aesthetically pleasing to have a blank space of few frames between two subtitles. Choose Blank Frames = 6 for a good result.

Do not try to achieve the same result by inserting a blank line to clear out the previous subtitle. This technique makes the subtitle file too big and you may run out of memory space for a two hour video.

Time coding subtitles in different language:

We found that assigning time codes to long sentences which require more than one subtitle block is quite difficult. Listening to the video in one language and pressing the Enter key for multiple blocks of subtitles in another language is not an easy task, as the syntactic construction of languages differ from one to another.

Fortunately, we found an easy solution to assigning time codes to long sentences. Let’s take a segment of the above paragraph as an example.

We found that assigning time codes to long sentences which require more than one subtitle block is quite difficult. Listening the video in one language…

First, break the above segment of script in the following way:

We found that assigning\time codes to long sentences
which require\more than one subtitle block
is quite difficult.
Listening the video\in one language…

Now assign time codes only to the 1^st and 4^th lines (i.e. only to the beginning of the two sentences). While you are listening to the video, press the Enter key only when you hear the beginning of the first sentence. For the 2^nd and 3^rd lines simply press the arrow down key twice to go to the 4^th line, and then press the Enter key as soon as you hear the beginning of the second sentence. Let’s say the time codes assigned are as follows.

01:00:25:14 We found that assigning\time codes to long sentences
01:00:25:14 which require\more than one subtitle block
01:00:25:14 is quite difficult.
01:00:31:22 Listening the video\in one language…

Now we are going to fill-in the time codes for the 2^nd and 3^rd lines in such a way that 1^st, 2^nd and the 3^rd lines all have the same reading speed.

First, bring the cursor to the beginning of the 1^st line and press F7, to start a block. Then bring the cursor to the beginning of the 4^th line and press F8, to end the block. Now press Ctrl+F9 to fill-in time codes for 2^nd and 3^rd lines. The result is going to look like the following.

01:00:25:14 We found that assigning\time codes to long sentences
01:00:28:13 which require\more than one subtitle block
01:00:30:22 is quite difficult.
01:00:31:22 Listening the video\in one language…

The time codes added to line 2 and 3 give a reading speed of 182 wpm for all three lines of the first sentence. You may check that by pressing Ctrl+F7 on each line. The timing utilities are available inside the timing menu under the subtitle menu. Please read the help on these options for details.

You do not need to fill-in time codes for the 2^nd and 3^rd lines while you are time coding the script. You may leave the time codes blank in the first pass of time coding. When you are completely done with the video, you may fill-in the time codes for the entire script at the very end.

Some Additional Tips

Quotation marks:

Quotation marks look much better with 2 different symbols - one for open quote and another for close quote. To achieve that, you have to use two different characters for the open and close quotes. They are

< instead of open quotation mark
> instead of closed quotation mark

You may use the Replace function to change all quotation marks to the appropriate symbols.

Default Settings:

If you are using fonts created from Windows Font by using Chyron Windows Font Convert software, you should add the following line just above the script to access the accented characters properly.

^F2W (F ® Font; 2 ® If font number 2 is used; W ® Windows font).

To force subtitling in upper and lower case which is usually the standard in subtitling, add another line

^L ( L ® Lower case)

To make sure that your default display mode is Pop On, add another line

^P (P ® Pop On mode)

At the top of the file, add time codes to these default code setting lines a couple of seconds earlier than the time code for the beginning of the actual script, as shown below.

01:00:23:00 ^F2W
01:00:24:00 ^L
01:00:24:15 ^P
01:00:25:14 We found that assigning\time codes to long sentences
01:00:28:13 which requires\more than one subtitle block
01:00:30:22 is quite difficult.
01:00:31:22 Listening the video\in one language…

When you start auto subtitling, place the cursor on the ^2FW line. The first three lines will automatically set the right font, upper & lower case and Pop On display mode even if the CaptionMaker default settings are different.