5 Easiest Ways to Add Captions to Video Free and Fast

Both subtitles and captions are used as a textual representation of a video’s soundtrack. Although they look pretty much alike, subtitles and captions are not the same thing. Subtitles mostly display the text that is said by a movie character. Usually subtitles are added to a film in a foreign language for better comprehension. Captions in their turn are used to display all the sounds that take place in a movie like knock at the door, screaming, telephone ring, and serve to aid deaf and hearing-impaired audiences. Depending on your scope, you can add either subtitles or captions to your movie. Here are some tools that will help you.

ADD TEXT WITH WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER

Windows Movie Maker has always been one of the most popular software for simple video editing. It can join video files, lets you add audio and music to your video, apply video transitions, create slideshows and many more. The software is pretty easy to use. Here’s how to add captions to video in Movie Maker:

• Step 1: Download Windows Movie Maker if you don’t have it.
• Step 2: Open Movie Maker and add the video clips;
• Step 3: Then click on Home tab and choose Caption;

• Step 4: As soon as you click it, Windows Movie Maker will insert a special window where you can type text for your video;
• Step 5: Make edits to your caption if necessary.
• Step 6: Save your video track to apply changes.

It is a convenient and simple software that provides a multi-functional text editor. You can change text position, font and size. Moreover, you can choose the transition effect to your text and make it appear in an unusual way.

ADD CAPTIONS WITH YOUTUBE EDITOR

SEE ALSO:Introduction to Video Editing on YouTube

SEE ALSO:YouTube Upload: Tips, Specs, Limits & Formats

YouTube provides several ways of adding captions and text to your video. It can be either annotation that may look like note, text or speech bubble, or captions. Read the following paragraph and try to add captions to your video online:

1. Step 1: Register on YouTube with the help of your Google accounts;
2. Step 2: Upload your video;
3. Step 3: Open the video and click Annotations or CC button under it;
4. Step 4: If you choose annotation, then set its type, insert the text and alter it to your taste. Don’t forget to tune the time duration! In case you want to add subtitles or captions, the 1st hing to choose is the language. 
5. Step 5: Now choose whether you want to upload a ready subtitles or captions file, transcribe and auto-sync your video or create new subtitles or close caption right on the way.

 

• Step 6: When the movie is ready, click Saved. 

YouTube Editor comprises many features to make your video clip unforgettable. However, it is an online editor. If your Internet connection is slow, you will need a lot of time to save all the changes. If you need to save your edited video offline, use free Freemake Video Downloader.

ADD CAPTIONS WITH PINNACLE STUDIO

Pinnacle Studio is a quite complicated video editor with various features that may require some additional skills from you. It allows its users to add captions to movies in the same manner as Windows Movie Maker.

To add text to a video with Pinnacle Studio, follow our simple instructions:

• Step 1: Download Pinnacle Studio.
• Step 2: Add a video clip;
• Step 3: Choose Titles;
• Step 4: Select the type of the title and its place. Put it in the editor line.

Pinnacle Studio is smart software with numerous text options. However, it is quite heavy for PC, and littered with programs. Moreover, free version is available only for 30 days.

ADD CAPTIONS AND SUBTITLES WITH CAPTIONMAKER

CaptionMaker is one more tool that will help you create captions on Windows and Mac. The software is not free, but demo version is available. Thus, you can download it and try the majority of options to make the final decision. CaptionMaker is highly customizable. Here you can change text font and text background color, choose the number of rows and their position and many more.

To make close captions with CaptionMaker:

• Step 1: Download CaptionMaker for your PC or Mac here.
• Step 2: Run the software on your PC or Mac.
• Step 3: Import you video file via File -> Open Movie.
• Step 4: Set the necessary time for your caption.
• Step 5: Type your text in Caption/Subtitle field.
• Step 6: Select the style for your captions (font, position, etc).
• Step 7: When you are done, click File -> Save to save your movie with captions.

CaptionMaker is a great tool with a good number of settings. So if you want your captions to look professional, don’t skip it.

ADD CLOSED CAPTIONS AND SUBTITLES WITH AEGISUB

Aegisub is a simple cross-platform text editor like Notepad that will help you make close captions and subtitles in a couple of clicks. The software has a built-in video player, thus you won’t need to open your video in a separatevideo player.Follow these steps to add subtitles or captions to your movie:

• Step 1: Download Aegisub for free here.
• Step 2: Install and open Aegisub.
• Step 3: Set the time interval for your subtitles or caption.
• Step 4: Enter the text you want to display on your movie.
• Step 5: After you typed the text, click the green arrow to save it.
• Step 6: When you complete your job, click File -> Export as and save your subtitles in .srt format.

Aegisub is a tiny and easy-to-use caption maker that we’ll let you add text to your movies without getting deep into subtitles creating.

And what video editor do you use to create closed captions and subtitles? Share it with us in comments below.