Captions and subtitles

Zornov can listen to the speech in your film and turn it into words on screen. Use captions when you want styled words in the picture, and subtitles when you want subtitle tracks per language that players can turn on and off.

Both run on your computer: the speech model listens to the sound locally and nothing is uploaded. The one exception is translation, described below.

Before you start: the speech model

Transcription needs a speech model on your computer. The first time, open Settings > Models and click Download next to one of the Whisper models (used for Captions): tiny is quickest, small is the most accurate. It downloads once and stays. Until it is installed, the Auto captions tool shows Needs model.

Make captions from speech

1. Select the clip with the speech in it. (If nothing is selected, Zornov uses the first video clip with sound.)
2. In the Library, open AI and find Auto captions.
3. Click Run.

The job runs in the background; you can follow it under the bell icon (Background jobs) in the top bar. When it finishes, Zornov adds a Captions lane at the top of the timeline with one caption clip for each spoken phrase, timed to the speech.

Captions are title clips, so everything in Titles and text works on them:

• Double-click a caption in the player to fix a word.
• Drag its edges on the timeline to change when it appears or leaves.
• To style them all at once, drag a box over the Captions lane to select every caption, then change the font, size, colour, outline or shadow in the Inspector's Text section.

Subtitles

Subtitles live in the Sound view. Click the Sound button in the timeline toolbar or press Shift X, then open the Subtitles & dubs tab. Each language is its own track, shown with its name, language code and number of lines.

Make subtitles from the dialogue

1. In Language, type the language code of the speech (for example en or es), or leave it empty for Zornov to work it out.
2. Click From dialogue.

Zornov transcribes the dialogue of the whole film and times the subtitles by common streaming rules: lines short enough to read, on screen long enough, with small gaps between them and snapped to the cuts.

Import subtitles

Click Import… and choose an .srt or .vtt file. It comes in as a track in the language in the Language field (or the film's original language if the field is empty).

Work with a track

Click a track's name to select it. Its lines are listed below with their times; click a line to move the playhead there.

• Check lists every line that breaks the subtitle rules, with its time and the problem. When all is well it says Every subtitle passes.
• Conform fixes the timing for you: frame-accurate times, enough reading time, a sensible maximum length, two-frame gaps and lines snapped to the cuts.
• Export… saves the track as SubRip (.srt) or WebVTT (.vtt).
• Burn in puts the subtitles into the picture as styled caption clips on a lane of their own.

Translate

Type a language code in the box next to Translate (for example fr), then click Translate. Zornov makes a new track in that language with the same timing.

For a translated track, the Dub button speaks every line in a voice fitted to the original timing. See Sound effects and voices.

Subtitles in your export

When you export an MP4, every subtitle track goes into the file as a subtitle track tagged with its language, and Zornov also saves each one beside the video as .srt and .vtt files. Burnt-in captions are part of the picture and show everywhere. See Export.

Captions or subtitles?