The Difference Between Subtitles and Captions

When it comes to deciding whether to use captions or subtitles in your video it is important to understand their purpose and their differences. There are multiple uses for both subtitles and captions. However, for the most part, the purpose of subtitles is to provide the target audience with the ability to understand the content of the dialogue in the video. The primary purpose of captions is to provide deaf and hard of hearing audiences to obtain a clear understanding of not just the dialogue, but of the surrounding sounds, such as laughter, dog barking, music, etc.

Subtitling and captioning go hand-in hand. It is important that both be done properly in order to ensure the target audience has a complete understanding of the video dialogue content. Therefore, both captioning and subtitling should be done by a professional company like Speechpad, whose staff includes experienced individuals who have been doing captions and subtitles for years.

This is especially true if you want your video to have captions or subtitles in a language that is different than that of the dialogue spoken in your video. If such is the case, the standard of the work product can have no room for error. Transcribing and translating requires the hiring of a professional company like Speechpad, which can accurately and precisely transcribe and translate the dialogue content of your video, in order to properly reflect the message your video is intended to convey to your intended audience. An additional reason to consider captioning and/or subtitling your video into different languages is because it will increase the exposure of your video to a wide variety of different audiences.

When considering whether to have subtitles and/or captions in a language that is different to the dialogue in the video, the primary consideration should be the hiring of a professional company who has professional transcribers and translators on staff who are 100% fluent in both languages (the language in the video and the target language), and have an in-depth understanding of the cultural differences of the video dialogue and the target language. Speechpad has fluent transcribers/translators on staff who can add the local flavor your video will require in order to attract your target market.

The importance of retaining a professional company that can accurately transcribe and translate the dialogue in your video cannot be understated. It is imperative to retain a professional company that can transcribe and translate the dialogue in your video and incorporate the slang, ideologies, and sayings which will add a local flavor to the target languages that the captions and/or subtitles being translated.

So, the next time you are adding captions and/or subtitles to your video, consider including captions and subtitles in a variety of languages to increase the exposure of your audience to a wider audience and retain the professional services of Speechpad to ensure your video is professionally captioned, subtitled, transcribed and translated.