Intro to captions in Final Cut Pro for Mac

Captions is a general term for timed text—visible lines of text that are synced with video and audio media. Captions are most often used for subtitles (for example, translations of the dialogue in foreign-language movies and TV shows) or closed captions (transcriptions of a program’s audio for people who are deaf or hard of hearing or for display on muted devices). Captions are also used for karaoke, scrolling news items, and teleprompters.

Government regulators, broadcasters, and streaming services often have specific requirements for subtitles and closed captions. With Final Cut Pro, you can add captions to your projects and embed them in output files—for example, when you export files for broadcast or posting to video-sharing websites. You can also import and export closed captions as separate files, independent of the associated projects and media.

How closed captions differ from titles

Closed captions have particular traits that distinguish them from titles:

Closed captions are always visibly superimposed over everything else in the video frame, including titles.
Typically, viewers can turn closed captions on or off while watching TV shows, movies, web videos, and other programs. In contrast, titles are always permanently “burned in” to the output media file. (However, Final Cut Pro for Mac does offer the option to burn in captions permanently as well as an option to convert closed captions to titles.)
Closed captions have industry file and formatting standards that make file transfers and interchange possible.
In Final Cut Pro, closed captions are assigned format-specific caption roles, with subroles for different language versions. Titles are assigned the Titles role. Subtitles are assigned the Subtitles role.

Closed caption formats

Final Cut Pro supports the following industry standards for closed captions:

CEA-608 (also known as EIA-608): A closed caption standard for broadcasts and web video. The CEA-608 closed caption standard features a variety of position, formatting, color, and animation options. CEA-608 closed captions can be imported or exported as tracks embedded in a media file or as separate files.
iTT (iTunes Timed Text): A format for delivering closed caption content to the iTunes Store, YouTube, and Vimeo. The iTT standard features formatting, color, and placement options, including a wider range of alphabets, making it the best choice for languages with non-Roman characters. iTT closed captions can be imported or exported as separate files, but they can’t be embedded in an output media file the way CEA-608 closed captions can.
SRT (SubRip Text): A subtitle format supported by Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo. The SRT format is simple: Each caption has a number, a start and end timecode (in decimal timecode), and one or more lines of text with HTML tags. SRT closed captions can be imported or exported as separate files, but they can’t be embedded in an output media file the way CEA-608 closed captions can. Unlike closed captions in other formats, exported SRT captions can be read and edited in a plain text editor.

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Final Cut Pro User Guide for Mac

Intro to captions in Final Cut Pro for Mac

How closed captions differ from titles

Closed caption formats