When it comes to translating subtitles, youāre not just swapping words between languages. Youāre shaping how your target audience experiences a story, an idea, or a lesson.
As a translation or localization professional, you already understand the unique demands of this work: preserving tone, matching timing, and ensuring cultural nuances resonate with viewers across different languages.
Yet, with tight deadlines and increasing expectations for speed and quality, the challenges have only grown.
This guide covers everything you need to know to master the art of subtitle translation, from choosing the right tools and workflows to avoiding common pitfalls.
šŖ Actionable tips
Whether youāre fine-tuning subtitles for a documentary, localizing a blockbuster movie, or adapting educational content, these insights will help you deliver translations that donāt just informābut engage and inspire. Weāll also show you how you can use Lokalise to translate your subtitles fast.
Translating subtitles into other languages is one form of video localization, as well as dubbing and voiceover. Itās a way to make your content culturally and linguistically relevant to new audiences and break down barriers. But itās not just language barriers weāre talking about.
When you add source language captions to your video, you make it more accessible for anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or just anyone who doesnāt want to turn the audio on.
There are specific rules for closed captions to support people with hearing impairments. But subtitles do more than thatāthey help non-native speakers follow along and understand the story.
By adding subtitles in target languages, you can easily reach new audiences and markets. Itās a quick, affordable way to boost your contentās reach and impact.
Translating subtitles isnāt just for big names like Netflix or Disney anymore. Now, marketing, content, and growth teams are using subtitle translation to tap into new markets and reach wider audiences.
Here are just a few types of videos that you may have available for subtitling:
Whether you're looking to expand internationally or just connect with more viewers at home, adding subtitle translations can transform your video library into a powerful tool for growth.
š§ Did you know?
If youāre localizing YouTube videos, having your subtitles available in multiple languages can help your SEO. It can give your older videos new life with minimal cost.
There are a few different things to keep in mind when translating subtitles. Firstly, you need to make sure to adapt the text properly.
People read slower than they listen, so subtitles need to be concise while still capturing the original message. For example, translating from English to Spanish can increase the text length by 20-25%, while translating to Swedish can expand it by up to 35%.
To keep subtitles readable, itās crucial to trim the text without losing its meaning. There are many ways to do this, but some common ways are:
This can be quite tricky as the tone might slightly change. However, itās on you as the translator to make the call where this makes sense for the sake of accuracy. Here are a few examples.
| Techniques for adapting text in subtitle translations | Source text | Subtitle translation |
| Change of grammatical form | āShe was taught long division by her teacherā (43 characters) | āHer teacher taught her long divisionā (35 characters) |
| Antonym translation | āI donāt think youāre rightā (26 characters) | āI think youāre wrongā (20 characters) |
| Condensation | āDue to the extremely heavy rain, the event was unfortunately canceled.ā (69 characters) | āHeavy rain canceled the event.ā (30 characters) |
| Transposition | āIn the library, a student found the lost book.ā (43 characters) | āA student found the lost book in the library.ā (42 characters) |
| Synonym translation | āThe cat was extremely hungry after its long nap.ā (52 characters) | āThe cat was very hungry after its long nap.ā (47 characters) |
The standard is to stick to a maximum of two lines on the screen at a time, one if possible. This allows viewers to see the visual content, but also not be overwhelmed by reading.
The number of characters per line depends on the language used. However, many advise keeping to around 35 characters per line in most languages, or 16 characters per line in East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Itās also essential to ensure timing is synced correctly. Your subtitle should appear when the speaker starts talking and stop appearing soon after the speaker stops.
š” Pro tip
A rough estimate of timing is to give 2 seconds per line of text, but this can be changed or reduced slightly after testing.
We advise you to test your subtitles along with your video before publishing. Itās also a good idea to get a native speaker who is a subtitling expert to review them. They can check if itās possible to read the line in the given time, and make sure the meaning is there.
There are plenty of subtitle translation software out there, but Lokalise stands out with features that can support you at any scale, whether you're handling a small project or a larger one. No matter what your needs are, Lokalise has you covered.
Gone are the days of burning subtitles directly onto a video. The best way to add subtitles to a video is in a plain text file, which is separate from the video.
Subtitle file formats like SRT file contain information regarding the subtitles, including the start and end time codes of the text, so your subtitles match your audio. This format is widely accepted by video hosting sites such as Vimeo or YouTube.
If youāre dealing with a large subtitle translation project, youāll need a software that can support your workflow. With Lokalise, you can create chained tasks, assign them to translators, and automate rules. By speeding up repetitive tasks and streamlining your localization efforts, youāll get to market much faster.
Create and share a glossary (also known as a termbase) to ensure industry-specific terms are maintained throughout your subtitle translation project. You can also use the glossary across multiple projects and between multiple collaborators.
Using translation memory will vastly help your translators too. They wonāt need to repeatedly translate the same things, and can maintain consistency throughout the project.
š§ Good to know
Lokalise can help you easily manage all types of translations, centralize your workflows, and automate parts of the process for greater efficiency.
Just need to translate subtitles for a few videos, but donāt want to hire or outsource to a whole team? Choose from one of our translation providers, who also offer bilingual editing or proofreading options.
Our quality assurance features make sure you donāt miss those pesky grammar and spelling mistakes, and you can automate everything for an even faster turnaround.
With Lokalise AI, you can significantly speed up your subtitle translation process and lower your cost. If you upload your Style Guide and Glossary, the machine translation accuracy will be very high. Still, itās recommended to have a native speaker check the translated subtitles and verify theyāre ok.
We invite you to try Lokalise for 14 days, completely free. Youāll get the chance to explore the platform and evaluate if it matches your subtitle translation project needs.
Subtitle projects usually involve translators who handle the translation, editors who review for accuracy, and sometimes linguist QA specialists for final checks. Project managers oversee timelines, and subject matter experts may contribute for specialized content.
Subtitle translation typically takes 4-6 hours for an hour-long video, factoring in translation and review. Complex content or multiple foreign languages can extend the time, while tight deadlines may require multiple translators.
Common mistakes include literal translations, poor timing, inconsistent terminology, lack of localization, and exceeding character limits, all of which can disrupt the viewing experience.
Author
Jess works in our Product Marketing team at Lokalise. She is a marketing enthusiast as well as language geek, and has studied Chinese and Spanish to a high level. Passionate about the intricacies of language, localization, accessibility and the potential of technology to improve the lives of everyone, she fit right in at Lokalise.
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