Adding subtitles and captions to your video content is important because it makes your content more accessible, engaging, and SEO-friendly.
However, adding subtitles to your video content can take time and effort.
If you’re using Premiere Pro for editing videos, creating and editing captions is easy. It even gives you absolute control over their functionality and look.
Due to Premiere Pro’s many features, tools, and shortcuts, it can take a lot of time to learn how to use it.
Here’s what this article will cover;
- The difference between captions and subtitles
- How to add captions and subtitles automatically in Premiere Pro
- How to export captions and subtitles in Premiere Pro
- Premiere pro captioning alternative - Submagic
- Adobe Premiere Pro vs Submagic Captions
Let’s dive in.
What is the Difference Between Subtitles and Captions?
Subtitles and captions have been used interchangeably but have subtle differences. Subtitles are written transcripts of your video and are super helpful for language translation and accessibility for those who don’t have audio.
Captions interpret the audio in your video and convey dialogue, sound effects, music, or background noise. Closed captions are subtitles with more details.
Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Subtitles and Captions in Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro offers both subtitling and captioning features. Beyond adding captions to your videos, you can also add personal touches.
We’ll cover three different ways to add captions using Premiere Pro:
Adding Captions and Subtitles Automatically in Premiere Pro
The quickest way to add captions on Premiere Pro is through their built-in automated captioning feature. This will use Adobe Premiere’s technology to generate a transcription automatically from the speaking voices in the video.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to attaching subtitles and captions with Premiere Pro’s automatic caption tool:
Step 1: Open the Premiere Pro Captions Workspace
Head to the top right of your window and hover over Workspaces, then click Captions.
Step 2: Generate a Premiere Pro Transcription
- Next, click on ‘Transcribe Sequence.’
- Choose the language you’d like to transcribe; you can add multiple speakers if more than one person is speaking in your video. You can also select the segment of your recording sequence to transcribe.
- For subtitles, you can tell Premiere Pro only to transcribe clips you’ve tagged as ‘dialogue’ in your essential sound panel.
- Once you’re satisfied with the result, click ‘Transcribe’. Premiere Pro will then automatically generate a transcription of your audio.
Step 3: Edit your Premiere Pro Captions
Once the transcription is ready, it’ll appear in the top left-hand portion of your captions workspace. Read through the transcription and make adjustments to any mistakes.
Step 4: Create a Captions Track with your Transcript
Next, click on the ‘Create Captions’ button. Premiere Pro will automatically add captions to your timeline.
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How to Import Captions or Subtitles to Premiere Pro
Here’s how to import captions to Premiere Pro if you already have your transcription file.
Step 1: Click ‘Create Captions’ and then ‘Import Caption from File’ Create Blank Track’.
Step 2: Drag your .SRT file into your project.
Step 3: Align your captions with your recording. You can do this by adjusting the length of your captions track to match the audio.
Step 4: Customize your captions using the tools in the Essential Graphics panel.
How to Manually Add subtitles or Captions to a video in Premiere Pro
Here’s how to add captions to Premiere Pro manually:
Step 1: Go to your Captions workspace. This should be empty, as you haven’t created anything yet. Click ‘create new caption track’. Select ‘Subtitle’ as your format and click ‘OK’ on the pop-up box.
Step 2: You’ll see a new subtitle track in your timeline.
Step 3: Click the ‘+’ icon to add a new caption line in the Text panel in the top left-hand corner. Type what you’d like the subtitle to say into the segment, and realign the clip in your timeline to match the dialogue.
Step 4: Repeat this process until you’ve transcribed and added captions to your video. You can then edit and adjust your transcripts as you’d like.
How to Export Captions and Subtitles in Premiere Pro
Here’s how to export captions and subtitles in Adobe Premiere Pro:
Step 1: Head to File > Export > Media and choose your desired format.
Step 2: Choose whether you want open or closed captions. Closed captions are in a separate file from your video; viewers can toggle them on or off. If you want to export in this way, then you need to select ‘Create Sidecar File.’
If you want open captions, choose ‘Burn Captions into Video.’ These captions are permanently visible on your video.
Premiere Pro Captioning Alternative - Submagic
Premiere Pro is a great tool for adding subtitles and captions to videos. However, it takes a lot of time to master it if you’re a beginner. It’s also quite expensive compared to the limited customization for its captions.
If you’re looking for a tool with a simple interface and a straightforward process for generating Tiktok video captions, use Submagic.
Submagic allows you to add subtitles to iPhone and Android devices, which you cannot do on Adobe Premiere Pro.
With Submagic, you can effortlessly create captions with emojis and intelligently highlighted keywords within two minutes.
Submagic allows you to add trendy captions and animated subtitles with emojis in your videos.
It also allows you to create subtitles in over 48+ languages. You can generate Japanese subtitles, Italian captions, German subtitles, etc.
Submagic makes it easy to add captions to Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts, Facebook Reels, and TikTok just with a click.
Adobe Premiere Pro vs Submagic Captions
If you’re creating short-form content and looking for the best tool for adding captions to your videos, here’s a comparison between Premiere Pro and Submagic.
Premiere Pro
Time: It takes time to master Premiere Pro.
Price: At $35.99/month/license, Premiere Pro is expensive for what it offers. The classic caption styles it offers are available in alternatives at a much lower price.
Customer support: Customer support staff can be hard to reach sometimes if you have an issue with the software.
Compatibility: Mac and Windows
Submagic Captions Tool
Perfect for short-form videos (Instagram, Youtube, TikTok): This is the best tool to automatically add trendy captions. It is super powerful for short videos (1080x1920) and helps increase the engagement of your videos. ✅
It works in over 48+ languages.
Time: Create professional videos in less than 5 minutes with this closed caption generator. ✅
Personalization: Submagic will allow you to add your personal touch as well as your brand essence for your captions style. ✅
Customer Support: The support staff is available 24/7 and is quick to fix issues. ✅
Price: With pricing starting at $16/month, Submagic.co offers top-notch animated captions at an affordable price. ✅