Subtitles and captions on a company video

Short answer: Captions put spoken words and key sounds on screen, while subtitles usually carry speech alone, often for viewers who hear the audio. On a company video, both make the message work with the sound off. You can have them burned into the picture or delivered as a separate file. The right choice depends on where the video will play.

Subtitles and captions are not quite the same thing

People use the two words interchangeably, and that is mostly fine. The difference still matters when you brief an editor.

• Subtitles show what people say. They assume the viewer can hear the rest.
• Captions show speech plus meaningful sounds, such as applause, laughter or a phone ringing.
• Open captions are burned into the image. Everyone sees them, every time.
• Closed captions live in a separate file. Viewers switch them on or off.

When you ask for corporate video subtitles, say which of these you mean. It saves a round of changes later.

Why most business video needs words on screen now

A lot of video is watched with the sound off. Feeds autoplay on mute. People watch at their desks, on trains and in open offices.

Words on screen also help viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. They help people watching in a second language. They help anyone following technical terms, names or numbers.

Many organizations also expect captions on training and internal video as part of their accessibility standards. If your company has a policy, check it before the edit begins.

There is a quieter benefit too. A captioned video still lands when someone skims it. That matters most for short pieces, which our post on how long a corporate video should be covers in more detail.

Burned in or a separate file

We deliver captions either way, and sometimes both. Here is how to choose.

Burned in works best when

• The video goes to social feeds where it will autoplay silently.
• You cannot control the player, such as a video playing on a screen at an event.
• The captions are part of the look, styled in your brand fonts and colors.

A separate file works best when

• The video sits on your website, a video platform or a learning system that supports caption files.
• Viewers should be able to turn captions off.
• You may need more than one language track on the same video.

If one video goes to several places, ask for both. A burned-in cut for social and a clean cut with a file for your site is a common pairing.

Where the words come from

Captions are only as good as the text behind them. There are usually three sources.

• A script. If the video has narration or an AI presenter, the script already exists. Captions can follow it closely.
• A transcript of real speech. Interviews, talks and webinar clips are transcribed from the audio, then cleaned up.
• On-screen text that is already there. Titles and lower thirds sometimes do the job, so captions are not repeated over them.

AI presenter videos are especially easy to caption. The words are written before the video is made, so nothing is guessed from audio.

For transcribed speech, the hard parts are names, product terms and acronyms. Send us a short list of these with your footage. It is one of the most useful extras in what we need from you before we start editing.

Checking the words before they go out

A wrong word on screen looks worse than a wrong word spoken. Viewers read it, and it stays there.

Plan a review pass just for captions. Read them with the sound on, then again with it off. Watch for misspelled names, numbers that changed, and filler words that should have been trimmed.

In your private client portal you watch each cut and pin notes to the exact second. That makes it simple to flag a single word in a long video.

Small choices that make captions readable

Good captions disappear into the video. Poor ones fight it. These details make the difference.

• Two lines at most. More than that covers the picture and slows reading.
• Breaks at natural pauses. A line should end where a phrase ends, not mid-thought.
• Timing that matches speech. Text should appear as words are said and stay long enough to read.
• Clear contrast. Light text on a dark band or outline reads on any background.
• Space for graphics. Captions should not sit on top of lower thirds or logos.
• Room for vertical crops. Short-form versions need captions placed away from app buttons.

You can see captioned work across our portfolio. Captions and delivery versions are part of the editing work listed on our services page.

Dvideo Productions is located in Westchester, NY, and serves clients nationwide through a fully remote process.