All You Need to Know About Translating Subtitles like a Pro!

The audiovisual content industry is rapidly evolving. The increased use of subtitles is one of the developments we're seeing. Subtitles have become commonplace on numerous platforms, and audiences love them. According to studies, subtitled videos raised the view-through rate by 80 percent. Subtitling into other languages, as well as dubbing and narration, are all examples of video localization. It's a technique to make your film more culturally and linguistically relevant to new viewers while also breaking down barriers. Non-native speakers will appreciate the subtitles, making the video easier to interpret. However, adding subtitles in a target language to your video opens your material to new audiences, markets, and higher ROI.

Factors to consider before deciding on how to translate subtitles

The adaption of subtitling text

Because people read words slower than they can hear them, it's critical to adjust the text so that viewers can read everything in time. Such a factor often necessitates altering the content to fit the situation, keeping it as short as possible while maintaining clarity and the intended meaning. The text length can increase by 20-25 percent when translating from English to Spanish while translating into Swedish can increase by 35 percent. As a result, it's critical to be brief while keeping the original text's meaning. The following are some common ways of accomplishing this:

●    Removing words that aren't necessary (like fillers or repetition)
●    Changing the structure of grammatical expressions
●    combining two sentences into a single sentence
●    Using antonyms to make sentences shorter

Timing

It's also crucial to make sure the timing is accurate. Your subtitle should appear as soon as the speaker begins speaking and disappear as soon as the speaker finishes. 2 seconds per line of text is a preliminary estimate for timing. However, this can be altered or reduced significantly after testing.

Assurance of high quality

Before publishing, we recommend that you test your subtitles alongside your video. It's also better to have them reviewed by a native speaker who is also a subtitling professional. They can examine if the line can be read in the allotted time and double-check the meaning.

Dimensions and spacing

The standard is to display no more than two lines on the screen at a time, preferably one. This lets users see the visual content without becoming overwhelmed by the text. The number of characters per line varies according to the language. Many people recommend restricting most languages to roughly 35 characters per line, or 16 characters in East Asian languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Benefits of Creating Subtitles for a Video

Improvement in ranking

Video material has a lot of searchability. Every day, 100 million individuals watch at least one video, and every minute, 300 hours of video footage are added to YouTube. Trying to locate a friend at a concert when they're bent over tightening their shoelaces in the middle of a mosh pit can be challenging. However, you can take steps to make your movie more searchable. When you convert a video to English subtitles, you improve your search engine rankings and expand your audience to include English-speaking users.

Obtain a Larger Audience

The world is a big place, and the most widely spoken language is English. 1.5 billion people speak English; this population will be cut off from your video's message without English subtitles. Even if English isn't their first language, the ability to practice following along with the subtitles on your video may be beneficial.

Assist non-native speakers by acting as a resource

You're also improving the instructional value of your videos for your viewers. Subtitles produced with a subtitle translation tool can become a trusted resource for classrooms worldwide, with their videos being utilized for both learning English and studying their native language.

Better Global Engagement

Videos worked on by a subtitle translator attract more viewers. A typical viewer will watch 91 percent of a subtitled video. If your video doesn't have subtitles, the percentage of people that view it falls to 66%. Other forms of participation will be boosted as well. When a spectator can easily read what's being said onscreen, it's easier to respond. This higher engagement perfectly fits Facebook and YouTube's constantly changing algorithms, which favor well-received films and videos which are interacted with more frequently.

Create unique content for each user

Another great advantage of hiring translation service companies? Your viewers can benefit from the translated videos as new content. You can include English subtitles in blog posts, emails, infographics, and other written content after you've made them. You'd have to do all of that work manually if there were no subtitles. 

Best practices for subtitle translation

Do your homework

Translators who are good at their jobs learn how to conduct research. Accepting that research is an essential aspect of the job can help you get a good start on technical content, marketing materials, and other things. Imagine translating subtitles for a video, uploading it, and then discovering that the brand name was misspelt throughout the entire video! A little background research on the topic you're translating can go a long way.

Prioritize Native Languages

It's enticing to learn a new language by interpreting subtitles visible on the screen. However, your translation may make it more difficult for someone to understand a video. People who translate their "mother tongue" or original language produce the best subtitles. Moreover, there are easier ways to learn languages! It's advisable to remain with the languages you're most comfortable with and expand your knowledge accordingly.

Localization

You can learn how to localize the information for different locations if your native language has numerous regional dialects. You can localize information by converting common metrics to make sense to your target audience. 

Conclusion

An effective translation services provider would ensure that they apply standard practices for quality translation. A translation service provider will guide you on how to translate SRT files to another language. Hence it is highly recommended to work with a translation services company to make sure that you meet your objectives. 

Get your SRT files localized from us – Lingual Consultancy. For requirements/queries drop an email at [email protected] or give us a call.