Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Every word or sound effect where the pace of a video sometimes makes it impractical.
Information that is already displayed on screen, e.g. text in a Powerpoint slide.
Font
Characters should use a white san serif font, such as Arial or Helvetica.
Background
Captions should have a black background box.
Sentence Style
Each sentence should use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters.
Punctuation should follow normal style and conventions.
Punctuation should convey, as much as possible, the way speech is delivered.
Use ellipses when there is a significant pause within a caption (e.g. It's so...majestic).
In order to maintain reading rate, non-essential information can be removed.
Spell out numbers from one to ten, but use numerals for all numbers over ten.
Spacing
Each line should be no more than 37 characters in length.
Each caption should run over no more than two lines.
Line and caption breaks should reflect the natural flow of the sentence and its
punctuation.
Timing
Captions should coincide with the relevant soundtrack, to preserve the relation
between sound and visuals.
The reading speed should not exceed 180 words per minute (3 words per second).
The pace of a video sometimes makes it impractical to include every word or sound
effect in caption form.
No sentence should remain on screen for less than 2 seconds.