Glossary → Captions & subtitles
Captions & subtitles
Caption line length
Caption line length is the maximum characters per caption line — commonly 32 in broadcast tradition, up to 42 in many modern streaming specs — with at most two lines on screen.
Line limits exist so captions never cover too much picture and remain readable at a glance. Good caption tools break lines at linguistic boundaries (after clauses, not mid-name) rather than just at the character cap.
Related terms
Characters per second (CPS)Characters per second (CPS) is the standard measure of caption reading speed: total characters in a caption di…
Caption reading speedCaption reading speed measures how fast text asks viewers to read, commonly in characters per second (CPS) or …
Caption positioningCaption positioning is where captions sit on screen — bottom-center by default, moved when they would cover sp…
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