VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 22 of 22
Thread
  1. I am using the title slides in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 to create subtitles for a film I am making (its the easiest method for the moment because the film is being edited at the same time as subtitle creation - dont ask!!).

    Can anyone reccomend what the best font for subtitle text is, thats readable on a TV screen.

    At the moment I have two lines of text with no more than 40 characters on each line, for each subtitle slide, if you get me.

    Any other reccomendations on colour, antialiasing etc etc are welcome.
    Quote Quote  
  2. IF you have it/can find it....

    AG Foreigner-Roman seems pretty good for subtitles. It's the closest I can find to the font Bandai uses for their DVDs (If anyone knows the name of that font PLEASE, PLEASE contact me! I'm going insane trying to find the font that they're using!) and it's very easy to read. I've used it on a couple of things I've subtitled and I've yet to find a font that works better than AG Foreigner-Roman when subtitling videos.

    Also, a few quick tips:

    - Avoid serif fonts (e.g. Times New Roman) -- ALL SERIF FONTS, especially Times New Overrated.

    - Times New Overrated, Borial, and HELLvetica should be banned, permenantly. (I'll let you figure out what these are, if you have a PC they should be pre-loaded.)

    - Don't make the text too large or you'll have "dancing logo syndrome" (e.g. screen bugging) -- keep it out of the overscan box, and size the text so that it's a fairly decent size on a TV Screen. Use up to two lines-- THREE MAX to a subtitle. Anymore than three lines on one screen is too many and ugly, anymore than two should only be used if you really need to break a line or have two people talking at once.

    - Don't use fonts that are excessively wide (e.g. ADVs typefont used in Neon Genesis Evangelion) or suck up alot of screen space, these are ugly and hard to read.

    Hope this helps.
    ~Cyrax9~
    Quote Quote  
  3. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    dFAQ.us/lordsmurf
    Search Comp PM
    Sans serif fonts.
    Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
    FAQs: Best Blank DiscsBest TBCsBest VCRs for captureRestore VHS
    Quote Quote  
  4. Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Brazil
    Search Comp PM
    flickerx
    I usually use Trebuchet MS Bold, size 18. Very elegant font, with a clean design, but still carries some sutil graphic elements to differentiate all letters, like the lower case L to the upper case I. Makes it very good to read.

    As for style, I always use white font, with black border and shadow, but that is more of a personal choice. But colors usually are either white or yellow.

    Cyrax9
    If you can get a good, clean screenshot of the font, you can try to identify it on this site: http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
    Quote Quote  
  5. I agree on Trebuchet MS. I used it with textual subtitles. By the way, what do you guys think about Deja Vu Sans? It looks pretty good on the screen.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Well, I'm a late comer to this thread.
    However I'd like to share my experience with subtitle fonts.

    The font that resemples closest to Blu-ray font is Levenim MT (looks bawdy when in BOLD).

    The next closest is Advantage Demi http://www.fontpalace.com/font-download/Advantage+Demi/

    I experimented with Forgotten Futurist Shadow 3-D font in Lime color and liked it too http://www.fontpalace.com/font-category/3D+Fonts/5/

    Personally, I prefer Tahoma, it shows all symbols , especially, those musical note symbols.
    Quote Quote  
  7. DECEASED
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Heaven
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by ConverterCrazy View Post
    Personally, I prefer Tahoma, it shows all symbols , especially, those musical note symbols.
    Yes, Tahoma is a somewhat-decent font, certainly much better than Borial or Hellvetica

    You could give a try to Droid Sans, or even to Consolas ( assuming you think monospaced fonts are OK for subtitles, I know some people don't think so, anyway I don't see the reason why they are good for CJK text but "bad" for Western languages )

    Originally Posted by ConverterCrazy View Post
    Well, I'm a late comer to this thread.
    However I'd like to share my experience with subtitle fonts.

    The font that resemples closest to Blu-ray font is Levenim MT (looks bawdy when in BOLD).

    The next closest is Advantage Demi http://www.fontpalace.com/font-download/Advantage+Demi/

    I experimented with Forgotten Futurist Shadow 3-D font in Lime color and liked it too http://www.fontpalace.com/font-category/3D+Fonts/5/
    Fancy-designed fonts MAY look good on ads, banners, T-shirts, whatever, but I doubt they may ever look OK on subtitles.
    As for the other clones of Arial and Helvetica... seriously, IMHO we don't need more fonts that make no distinction between "I", "l" or/and "1"
    Quote Quote  
  8. Choice of fonts is very personal.

    I used monospace font for their directness & impersonal look as in Government/Official circulars.

    I use Tahoma for its cute appearance and apparently larger size look (also for subtitles)

    I use Verdana for convenience of reading

    And I use Times New Roman (at least 12pt) for its classic literary looks to write poetry

    Papa, he loves Mama
    Mama, she loves Papa

    And to write prose

    Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Princess..

    I could use other SanSerif fonts, if they didn't confuse 'I' for 'l' and vice versa.

    Just sharing information - not setting standards.
    Quote Quote  
  9. Hey, I know this is a very late reply, and I don't expect the PM to reply, but this came up in top Google search when I was looking for the same thing as the PM. The PM was correct about text having possibility for outlining which makes them MUCH MORE VISIBLE. In windows Movie Maker you have "outlining" to the furthest right when you have a text/font selected, where you can select thickness and color of the outlining (if the text is a different color than black, then make it black for very good visibility). I was not able to figure this out anywhere and just stumbled upon it by accident. This is why I post it here so the word hopefully spreads or that people in the future sees this so they don't have to struggle as much to get this as I did.
    Quote Quote  
  10. Originally Posted by ConverterCrazy View Post
    ....Tahoma, it shows all symbols , especially, those musical note symbols.
    Thanks. Just what I was looking for.
    Quote Quote  
  11. Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    New York City
    Search Comp PM
    I am a FCP7 user. Fonts that I used for:
    the Title of my doc: Xingkai SC 60;
    Subtitle: Futura size 21;
    Name title: Futura size 18.

    Is it a bad idea to use the same Font in both subtitles and name titles. The documentary is about reunion, and it has many many names.

    What do you think?
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Brazil
    Search Comp PM
    Hello!

    Originally Posted by ConverterCrazy View Post
    I could use other SanSerif fonts, if they didn't confuse 'I' for 'l' and vice versa.

    Just sharing information - not setting standards.
    For that specific reason, I use PT Sans Narrow (Bold).
    Image Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version

Name:	PTSansNarrow_sample.jpg
Views:	2555
Size:	91.1 KB
ID:	29692  

    Quote Quote  
  13. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Northern California
    Search PM
    Originally Posted by flickerx View Post
    I am using the title slides in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 to create subtitles for a film I am making (its the easiest method for the moment because the film is being edited at the same time as subtitle creation - dont ask!!).

    Can anyone reccomend what the best font for subtitle text is, thats readable on a TV screen.

    At the moment I have two lines of text with no more than 40 characters on each line, for each subtitle slide, if you get me.

    Any other reccomendations on colour, antialiasing etc etc are welcome.
    Is your film HD? If so then you really do not need to limit yourself to 40 characters per line.
    Quote Quote  
  14. Originally Posted by jmourao View Post
    Hello!

    Originally Posted by ConverterCrazy View Post
    I could use other SanSerif fonts, if they didn't confuse 'I' for 'l' and vice versa.

    Just sharing information - not setting standards.
    For that specific reason, I use PT Sans Narrow (Bold).
    Thanks

    It is good.
    Quote Quote  
  15. Member Skiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Germany
    Search PM
    I agree, PT Sans (Bold or Narrow-Bold) is very good for subtitling. I noticed it is very similar to ITC Officina Sans Bold (almost a clone), which I have been using for my own subtitles for a few years now. I feel affirmed to see other people have the same opinion about what is a good font for subtitling and why.

    Arial/Hellvetica is probably about one of the worst fonts one can use for subtitling, yet I see it being used often because people don't realize how bad it is.
    Quote Quote  
  16. Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Indonesia
    Search PM
    I'm using GEORGIA
    The outline is Black with no shadow

    it was comfortable and cool.
    Try it, trust me
    Quote Quote  
  17. Originally Posted by domarco View Post
    Try it, trust me
    No thanks.
    Quote Quote  
  18. Member Skiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Germany
    Search PM
    It would depend on how/where the subtitle is rendered. Georgia may look nice when rendered "live" from a SRT or ASS subtitle file at the display's resolution. For DVD-Video Georgia is not a good choice because the strokes are quite thin, vary in thickness and have lots of serifs. It would look very bad rendered to a 720x576/480 frame with 4 colors...
    Quote Quote  
  19. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    San Francisco, California
    Search PM
    The BBC invented their own captioning font in the mid-1970s, when it was no mean feat! Contrary to the "only use sans!" mantra, it was a slab-serif.
    Quote Quote  
  20. Member Skiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Germany
    Search PM
    Yes, slab-serif fonts are usually a good choice for subtitles.
    Quote Quote  
  21. Originally Posted by JVRaines View Post
    The BBC invented their own captioning font in the mid-1970s, when it was no mean feat! Contrary to the "only use sans!" mantra, it was a slab-serif.
    I use Devanagari script to write in my language – a very different script than Roman.
    On readability scale Slab-Serif font doesn't score many points.

    Not from me.

    I still find PT Sans and ITC Officina Sans very convenient.
    Quote Quote  
  22. hello,

    that post has been really instructive and I wanted to share a tip that I used to test subtitles. It's quite simple.
    install the free video player Potplayer
    load a video of your choice that has an SRT subtitle (you can also load an external SRT file, press L and choose the option)
    when you see the first line of text, pause the movie.
    open the preferences (F5 key)
    Expand the subtitles category and choose font Style
    from there you can choose the font, size, spacing etc...
    when you change a setting, the movie will immediately adjust the subtitle in the video behind the preferences box.

    It's a very quick and easy way to test various settings before you "burn" your SRT into SUP subs.


    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!