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How to style your subtitles in Type Studio

This is a short little tutorial that explains how you style subtitles for your Instagram video by using Type Studio.

In short

In this article, you will learn about the styling of your subtitles. You will learn how to change the background color, the text color, the font, and the font size!

Get started

Open Type Studio

Go to signup to create an account or login or click instructions to get a step by step guide on how to create an account.

Upload video

After logging in with your email and password you will be redirected to the dashboard or project overview. To upload a new video click on the card in the upper left corner, which is marked with a plus sign.

Type Studio upload page

Transcription

At this point, you need to wait till the transcription is finished.

Switch to "text correction" mode

If you want to make changes in the transcribed text that will affect the subtitles of your video you need to switch to the "text correction" mode. Simply switch the mode on the button right above the transcript on the left.

Text correction mode

Correct, change or add words

To change, correct or add a word, just click on it.

Simply use your left and right arrow key to navigate through the text. For even faster navigation click and hold "alt" on a Windows PC or "option" on a Mac to jump wordwise.

Turn on subtitles

Style the subtitles

In the context menu, you can change the style or translate your subtitles.

Subtitle translation

Subtitle type

In the top row, you can change the subtitle style. 1. don't show subtitles 2. show the subtitles static 3. show the subtitles dynamic - word by word.

Static subtitles

Static subtitles

Dynamic subtitles

Dynamic subtitles

Translate your subtitles

To translate your subtitles you have to choose one of the languages and click the translate button.

Subtitles styling

To style your subtitles, just click on them in your video. If you cant see them, make sure that you activated the subtitles in the top header bar and that at the current position is spoken text inside of your video.

Subtitles styling options

Best fonts for subtitles

To style the text you want to add to your video, you first should choose one of the fonts that match your brand the best. If you haven't a special brand-font, you can choose the one you like most.

Fonts to use for subtitles:

  • Open Sans, Epilogue, Roboto and Montserrat are perfect for neutral - serious usecases.
  • Libre Baskerville and Playfair Display are for noble - serious purposes.
  • Bebas, Bangers and Alfa Slab are perfect to make it pop.


Lobster, Permanent Marker or Courier are very playful and hard to read, especially when the subtitles change too fast. That's why we don't recommend these fonts for subtitles.

To define the size, simply grab one of the cornerpoints and drag them.

Different fonts

Choose the perfect subtitle color

After choosing, a font for your subtitles you should pick a fitting color for your text on your video. The easiest way is to choose one color from the presets.

A short course in color psychology:

  • Black / White: Neutral and professional.
  • Red: Attracts a lot of attention and could have a warning effect
  • Yellow: Yellow appears bright, cheerful, friendly, optimistic, and open.
  • Blue: Is said to have an emotionally balancing, calming and moderating effect. Blue also looks sporty, technical and dynamic.
  • Orange: Stands for light and warmth and security.
  • Green: Stands for nature, health, satisfaction, happiness and hope.

Attention: When you add text to your video you always should take care that the text is readable and the contrast is strong enough.

To learn more about text legibility, we can recommend the
google text legibility guidelines.

Subtitle styling

Custom subtitle color

If the color presents don't provide the style you want, for example, if you want to add text to your video that matches your brand, you can choose custom colors for the text and the background.

Add custom colors to your subtitles:

  1. Move the circle to change the saturation.
  2. Pick the color you want.
  3. If you want to add custom color codes, you can add them here. Hit the arrows to toggle the input mode.
  4. Preset colors provided by the browser
Color options

Move subtitles

To move your subtitles simply grab them and move them on your video. Below a few tips on where you should place your subtitles.

Where to place your subtitles:

  • Instagram Reels / Tiktok: Not to far at the bottom because of the Account information.
  • Instagram Feed: Wherever you like them to be.
  • Youtube / Vimeo: Make sure that they don't hide your video. You can also export and add the .srt files to let the user decide if the subtitles should be shown.
  • LinkedIn / Facebook: Not to far at the bottom because of the player controls

Attention: When you add transparent subtitles to your video you always should take care that the text is readable and the contrast is strong enough.

Export video with subtitles

To get burned in subtitles, hit the export button in the top left corner of your video. After clicking it the rendering will start.

Export options

Rendering

The rendering will take a short amount of time. You will receive an email when your rendering is finished.

Download video

To download your video, just click on the link in the mail we have sent you. After clicking the link, your sharing page will open in your browser. On this page, simply click download.

If you want to share your video with your friends or colleagues, just click on "copy link" and share the link to the sharing page.
Here you can learn more about how to use the
sharingpage to distribute your videos.

Sharing Page Download Video