Tips About Best Ways to Write Subtitles?

[giannid]

I know how to generally make and use subtitles, but what I am looking for is a guide or some tips on how to author them so that they are easiest for others to read. For instance things like:

When should the subtitle first appear in relation to when the dialogue is spoken - 100 ms before, exactly when they start talking, or a little after?

How and when should I divide the subtitles? Like in the following example:

I didn't think that The Colosseum and The Fountain of Trevi were so close.

Is this best divided like this:

I didn't think that The Colosseum and
The Trevi Fountain were so close.

or like this:

I didn't think that The Colosseum
and The Trevi Fountain were so close.


If anyone knows a website or a guide which could help, please let me know.

Thanks

[SLK001]

It's mostly a matter of preference. I prefer my subtitles to appear exactly when, or just slightly before the person starts to talk. That way, you can "read" as the person "talks". I set the minimum time of display to 2 seconds for dialogs of many words (like your example), and 1.5 seconds for very short dialogs (like an answer to a question, "Okay"). Sometimes with rapid fire dialogs, even these minimums have to be violated.

Most subtitling programs will give you the option for balanced captions. Either example above would work.

McPoodle has a page on closed captions that you might want to read. It provides good, basic guidelines for on-screen caption displays.

[giannid]

Thanks for the reply.