The one thing I love and appreciate about video subtitles is the fact that they have a sense of inclusivity for different categories of people. There is a time where people would not watch films from a foreign country because of the language barrier, but that is no longer a problem in 2021 because of the introduction of subtitles. Subtitling is an audio-visual form of translation where the original audio of a film is translated into another language in form of texts that usually appear at the bottom of a screen.
There are service providers who have mastered the art of creating subtitles seeing that they have been in business for a long time, but then there are those individuals who prefer to do it by themselves and that is the specific group I will address in this article. Do you always wonder why your subtitles are off-sync? If your answer is yes, then it might be because of the software you choose to create your subtitles in. There is nothing as annoying for a consumer, like watching a film or a video that has off sync subtitles and that is why making sure your subtitles are synched well is the most important thing for a subtitle. One thing to note though is that out of sync subtitle lines can sometimes be caused by the video player, so always check into it, as some video players have automatic synchronization features.
In this article, we will look at some of the best subtitle software that we have in the market today. This will make it easier for you to make the right choice when it comes to choosing your subtitling software. The market is filled with subtitle tools that are great for helping you add subtitles to your videos and also for editing them afterward. When you’re editing your videos, you may also consider adding some subtitles to them either for making your videos more personalized or simply for better conveying their meaning. You will also be able to translate your favorite movies with the help of these programs.
The software we will look at today is Adobe Premiere Pro, Subtitle Edit, Subtitle Workshop, Jubler Subtitle Editor, Pop Subtitle Editor, and Aura Video Editor.
1. Adobe Premiere Pro.
This software is commonly referred to as the editor’s choice, and this is because it is the most used software by video editors in the market today. Some people might go as far as saying it is the best editing software in the market. This is the reason we had to put it at number one because If you were to ask any editor what software they use mostly to add and edit subtitles on their videos, you will definitely get Adobe Premiere Pro as the answer. Premiere Pro comes with a vast toolset for editing captions and texts, along with a couple of export and import features.
Some of its important features allow one to view captions and subtitles and also edit them in real-time. If you want to edit the font size, font colors, background, and timings on your videos, then Premier Pro is the software for you. It has another incredible feature that comes in handy, and that is the feature that allows one to add music to their videos. Premiere Pro also gives you the freedom to create subtitle files from scratch, all you need being the text and practice of syncing the sound with captions.
2. Subtitle Edit
With first-hand experience using the Subtitle edit software, I can tell you for free it is hands down the easiest subtitle software to use. It is usually used mostly for editing films, and in a scenario where the synchronization is off, it allows one to easily adjust the start line of any subtitle if it’s not synced with the movie. This software comes with several features that will definitely come in handy for anyone who uses it to create film subtitles. With the Subtitle Edit software, you will create, adjust, sync, and translate subtitle lines. As you can note, the translation bit is not familiar with the Premiere Pro.
The program comes with a cool audio visualizer control that can display waveforms and spectrograms. Another important feature is how easily one can visually sync and adjust a subtitle’s start and end time by creating timestamps for them. The software easily allows translation through Google translate and it also allows for the merging and splitting of subtitle lines. Other features you can enjoy while using Subtitle edit is the error fixes and spell checks from the Open Office dictionaries. These are but some features you can enjoy when using the Subtitle Edit software.
3. Subtitle Workshop
The Subtitle Workshop software is one of the free subtitle software that we have in the market today. It is a software used for creating, editing, and also converting text-based subtitle files. It is one of the best free subtitle software to use, and one can easily get accustomed to using it because of its really easy user interface. This means it is ideal for beginners because it is free and it is also easy to use. Just like the two software I have mentioned above, the Subtitle Workshop software also has several great features that make using it to create subtitles quite productive and effective.
It supports converting between creating, opening, editing, and saving over 60 subtitle formats via the Subtitle API library. It also allows the saving of subtitles in a custom user-defined file format. Its user interface is really easy to use, customize, and can take on subtitles of any language. If you decide to use the Subtitle Workshop software, you will get a massive set of tools that you can customize and all kinds of functions for automatic timing and manipulation of texts. The tools that many people enjoy using include automatic durations, spell checking, smart line adjusting, FPS conversion, search and replace, and so on and so forth. To finish, the software comes with an integrated video player that provides customizable subtitles preview and a full-screen mode. If interested in using it, you can try it out to get a first-hand experience on it.
4. Jubler Subtitle Editor
Just like the Subtitle Workshop software, the Jubler Subtitle Editor comes in handy when editing text-based subtitles. It can be used for converting, correcting, transforming, and refining existing subtitles. We can further use it as an authoring program for new subtitles. This software also has several incredible features that come in handy for any subtitler using it.
There are quite a number of subtitle formats, and the Jubler Subtitle editor supports most of them. With this software, you can also preview your subtitles in real-time and edit plus redesign them. The program comes with a spell checker, and it also includes a translation mode. There are a couple of editing styles for your subtitles.
The minimum requirements to use the software is the latest version of JRE, MPlayer to view the subtitles, and ASpell to spellcheck the subtitles. The software is written in Java 5.0, and this means it’s multi-platform. This is a superb software that will ensure your subtitles come out great.
5. POP Subtitle Editor.
The POP Subtitle Editor is a software that is quite easy to use. It has a really easy user interface and beginner subtitlers can use it when starting out their subtitling journey. It allows individuals to add subtitles to any type of video file. You can write your texts while previewing the movie and all you have to do after that is to select both start and end times by using the same function key.
If you are interested in wanting to use this software, these are some incredible features that you will enjoy: With the POP Subtitle Editor, you can customize the font, size, color, and also position of your subtitles. It supports any files that are in the AVI, MPEG, or WMV formats with just a single click. Adding subtitles to videos doesn’t get as easy as when using this software because the process is so straightforward. You can easily change and edit the font properties. One thing that you need to note about the POP Subtitle Editor is the fact that that the subtitles will be always justified to the left margin and this will be more obvious with longer subtitles that will take up at least a line or two.
6. Aura Video Editor
The best thing about the Aura Video Editor is the fact that it comes with an in-built subtitle editor for managing subtitles. It is an easy-to-use user interface meaning even beginners can make a killing using this software. This software is full-featured and some of its incredible features are versatile. First, it is a software that allows you to create your own videos from scratch, and it has an array of effects and transitions for when one creates a video from scratch.
The program supports adding all the popular video formats, images, and soundtracks, and video effects. The way it works is that it allows one to drag-and-drop videos onto a graphic timeline and then edit.
With that said, you are able to use any of the software to create great subtitles for your videos, that your target market will enjoy and appreciate.
