Captions VS Subtitles: Differences & Main Benefits

What’s the difference between Captions and Subtitles?

Captions and subtitles are distinct but overlap in many ways.
They both display text on the screen, but the purpose for using each is different.

It’s a thing that you need to know if you’re planning to add text to your videos or if you want to hire a captioning or subtitling provider.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into this video and take a closer look at the differences and similarities, but first, let me briefly introduce myself:

I am Antonino, I am an Italian video translator and I help companies to reach their Italian-speaking customers by translating English videos.

Captions are a text version of the spoken audio of a television, movie, or video content.
They are in the language of the medium rather than a translation to another language.

Captions are either open or closed, and I made a video/article about their differences, and you can find them here.

But just to help you get the idea, open captions, also known as burned-in captions, always are in view and cannot be turned off, whereas closed captions can be turned on or off by the viewer.

Subtitles are translations for people who don’t speak the language of the medium.
These are the ones that accompany foreign films, for example.

So the main difference is that subtitles involve translating the video’s language into an alternate language, closed captions are in the same language as the audio.

But another crucial difference that distinguishes them from each other is their purpose.

As a matter of fact, closed captions are mostly created to allow deaf and hard-of-hearing people to experience the video, so they include background sounds and speaker changes. 

On the other hand, subtitles assume the viewer hears the audio, and as a result, do not contain the background sounds or notifications for speaker changes.

Also, another thing is that the Americans with Disabilities Act, a couple of sections of the Rehabilitation Act,  and the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines all require captions for multimedia.

These laws and guidelines apply to most video content to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.

So, captions are mainly used to ensure accessibility, but they are useful for a variety of other reasons.
You can find a whole playlist of videos about the benefits of captions and subtitles right here.

Subtitles, on the other hand, were developed to make multimedia available to viewers who may not speak the language used in the video.

Globalization has increased the use of subtitles, and more and more video producers are seeing the value in making content available in more than one language.

The rise of smartphones has led more people to seek out videos with captions or subtitles.

And what’s more is that there’s actually a kind of blend between subtitles and captions, or at least between their main goals, which are the “Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing” or SDH.

SDH are intended for viewers who are both Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing and do not understand the language spoken in the video.

In fact, they are subtitles in an alternate language that do include non-speech elements, like audio sound effects and speaker identification.

So, that’s it, I hope this article helped you clear your head about the basic differences between captions and subtitles, and if you want more content about subtitling and translation, don’t forget to check out my other blog posts and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Now, if you run a successful business in your home country, or you work in a healthy company, and you want to expand your video communication beyond your domestic borders, make sure to visit this page to get your videos translated into Italian and get access to the Italian market.

I look forward to seeing you soon, take care!