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Subtitles written, checked and timed to your video.
Send us the file. The speech comes back as text that has been read against the recording and cut into cues that hold on screen long enough to be read: an SRT file, a WebVTT file, or a copy of your video with the captions burned into the picture.
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Transcription
The speech in your recording is written out as text, including the parts that are hard to catch on a first listen.
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Checking
The text is read back against the recording: spelling of names, product names and technical terms as you supply them, punctuation, and the line breaks that decide how a caption reads.
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Timing
The text is cut into cues and each cue is set against the recording, so a caption appears with the words and clears the screen before the next one is due.
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Delivery
You receive the subtitle files your order names, and, where the order includes it, a copy of your video with the captions burned into the picture.
A caption on screen, and the line in the file that put it there
Step through the cues, or let the track run. The listing beside the frame is generated from the same cue list the caption is drawn from, so the timecode you read on screen is the timecode in the file.
Every caption starts with the same question:can it be read in time?
The text is a separate file, so a viewer switches it on and off and a search engine can read it.
SRT numbers every cue and separates the seconds from the milliseconds with a comma. A blank line closes each cue.
The scene behind the caption is drawn in code rather than filmed: customer recordings are confidential and do not appear on this site. The track above is written to show the conventions a subtitle file follows, cue by cue, so that what the rest of this page describes can be read instead of taken on trust.
Three ways a subtitle reaches a viewer
One order can take more than one of them: both file formats come out of the same timing pass, and a burned-in video is rendered from it.
The table below is wider than a phone screen: drag it sideways to read the third column.
| Property | SRT file .srt | WebVTT file .vtt | Video with captions burned in .mp4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | The plainest subtitle format there is: a numbered cue, a start and end time, the lines, a blank line. | The web format. It opens with a WEBVTT line, separates seconds from milliseconds with a full stop, and can carry cue settings. | A copy of your video re-rendered with the captions drawn into the picture, in the style agreed for the order. |
| Where it goes | Accepted by most video platforms and desktop players, and by most editing software as an import. | What an HTML5 video element expects from a <track> tag, and what most players embedded in a web page read. | For places that take no separate subtitle file, and for feeds that play without sound by default. |
| What you do with it | Upload it next to your video. The viewer switches captions on and off, and the text is never part of the picture. | Put it beside the video file on your own site and point the track element at it. | Use it as it comes. Nothing has to be uploaded alongside it and nothing can be switched off. |
| Worth knowing | Positioning and styling are decided by whatever plays it back, not by the file. | Cue positioning is supported, but how much of it survives depends on the player. | Captions are part of the picture, so a change after delivery means a re-render rather than an edit to a text file. |
What is not part of it
- Translation into another language. Subtitles are produced in the language that is spoken in the recording.
- Editing of the video itself: cuts, colour, sound mixing, graphics or thumbnails.
- Live captioning of a stream, an event or a call as it happens.
- Audio description for blind and partially sighted viewers, which is a different craft with its own standards.
Where the detail lives
The file formats, the caption style and the way a set of files is put together are set out on the subtitle files page. What a recording has to be like for the work to be possible, and the languages captioning is offered in, are on the page about your video.
Running time first, then everything that makes a minute harder
Every estimate starts from the length of the finished video. What moves it from there is the state of the sound, the number of voices and what you need back.
The quotation arrives in writing before anything starts. It names one total in pounds sterling (GBP), with any tax due already inside it and nothing added afterwards, what is included, how many rounds of changes come with it, and the date the files are due.
There is no checkout on this site and no basket: payment is arranged from the written confirmation, by bank transfer against an invoice, by card or through PayPal, on the secure link in the email. Card details are entered on the payment provider's own page and never reach us.
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Running time
The length of the finished video, measured on the file you send.
The base of every estimate. Everything else adjusts it.
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Audio conditions
How clearly the speech sits above music, room noise and the recording device.
Clean speech works out lower than a recording that needs repeated passes.
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Speakers
One voice, an interview, or a table of people talking across each other.
More voices and overlapping speech raise it; a single presenter does not.
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What you need back
One subtitle file, both formats, or a re-rendered video with the captions burned in.
A file costs less than a render. Two file formats from one timing barely moves it.
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Caption style
Our plain house style, or your own style guide with its own font, positioning and colours.
House style is included. A style guide with positioning rules adds set-up to the first order.
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Terms and names
Whether a glossary comes with the video or has to be worked out from it.
A glossary you send lowers it. Working the spellings out raises it.
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When you need it
A date that fits the current run of work, or one that has to displace it.
A date inside the normal run is quoted as standard; one that has to jump the queue is quoted separately and only if it can be met.
From the first email to the files, with nothing charged before you agree
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01
You describe the video
By email, or through the form on the contact page, which writes the same message for you. Running time, language, what you need back, and how you will send the file.
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We watch it and quote in writing
The quotation names the total in pounds sterling with any tax already inside it, what is included, how many rounds of changes come with it, and the date the files are due.
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03
You accept, we confirm
There is an order once you accept the quotation in writing and we answer with an order confirmation. Nothing is charged before that point and no work starts before it either.
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Payment is arranged from the confirmation
By bank transfer against an invoice, by card, or through PayPal, using the secure link in the email. This site has no checkout and takes no payments: card details are entered on the payment provider’s own page and never reach us.
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First files, then your changes
You get the files to check. Corrections to spelling, timing or line breaks come back inside the rounds the quotation names; a change to the video itself is a new timing pass and is quoted separately.
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Final files by email
Attached, or as a download link where the files are too large to attach. Nothing is posted, because there is nothing physical in an order.
Tell us the running time and what you need back
The form on the contact page writes the message for you, or write to operations@subtitleflow.org directly. A quotation follows in writing, and nothing is charged before you accept it.