Glossary → Captions & subtitles
Captions & subtitles

Caption positioning

Caption positioning is where captions sit on screen — bottom-center by default, moved when they would cover speakers' mouths, on-screen text, or scoreboards.

Broadcast standards support explicit positioning; simple sidecar formats like SRT do not, which is one reason professional delivery uses richer formats. Auto-captions that never move are a common accessibility complaint.

Related terms

Caption line lengthCaption line length is the maximum characters per caption line — commonly 32 in broadcast tradition, up to 42 … Closed captionsClosed captions are timed text that can be turned on or off by the viewer, written for deaf and hard-of-hearin…

Frequently asked

What is Caption positioning?

Caption positioning is where captions sit on screen — bottom-center by default, moved when they would cover speakers' mouths, on-screen text, or scoreboards.

Why does Caption positioning matter?

Broadcast standards support explicit positioning; simple sidecar formats like SRT do not, which is one reason professional delivery uses richer formats. Auto-captions that never move are a common accessibility complaint.

What terms are related to Caption positioning?

Closely related concepts: Caption line length, Closed captions — each has its own entry in this glossary.

Put the term to work

Transcribe audio or video in 99+ languages — speaker labels, word timestamps, captions.

Transcribe a file →