What’s so difficult about translating some dialogue and then creating a subtitles file? In fact, there’s far more to translating subtitles hardly than normal documents. This blog here will provide you with an insightful guide about five subtitling services challenges you’ll come across. Let’s check it out!
Text length vs screen width
Text expansion/contraction will be the first challenge that you have to face. Technically, the translated text must fit into a fixed space. However, written text varies in length across different languages. For example:
| From English | To English | |
| Burmese | +15% | -5% to -15% |
| Hindi | +15% to +35% | -15% |
| Japanese | -10% to -55% | +20% to +60% |
| Korean | -10% to -15% | +15% to +20% |
| Thai | +15% | -5% to -15% |
| Vietnamese | +30 to +37% | -30% |
| Spanish | +20% to +25% | -10% to – 20% |
| French | +15% to 20% | -10% to -15% |
| German | +10% to +35% | -20% to -25% |
Text expansion in subtitling services can be an issue for many reasons that lead to miscommunication and inconvenience. You have got limited space to work and you don’t want text to be cut off by the edge of the screen. Therefore, you need to find professional subtitling services to provide users with a comprehensive experience and high quality.
Text length vs dialogue speed
In addition to the screen width, another issue caused by text expansion is the dialogue speed. When dialogue in your footage outpaces your viewers’ reading speed, it can make an interrupted experience. Either of the subtitles moves too fast or slow than the dialogue in the video, it also can annoy the viewer.
The best option for this is planning ahead with a subtitling services company. They have a wide range network of native translators and updated technology to help you deal with any problems. The viewers can subtitle easily and quickly if they make it “on time”.
Multiple speakers
This one can be really tricky for subtitles, regardless of whether you’re translating them or not. Even relatively basic conversations can be hard to keep up with when there are multiple speakers.
Not only do you need to think about screen space and pacing, but you also have to make sure the corresponding text is visible as people are speaking and that readers can finish each subtitle before the next one appears.
That’s not always an easy task, considering we tend to talk faster than we read – and that’s before you think about any potential text expansion. Things get even more tricky when you have to deal with fast-paced conversations, arguments, or debates between half a dozen people such as Netflix movies, meeting conferences, etc.
Once again, subtitling services can help you deal with the hardest situations. With years of experience in the subtitling services industry, the subtitlers can set up the sentences following the speaker one by one clearly.
Style
Recreating the style of a video is particularly challenging if you’re working with film, advertising, or any kind of creative footage. Instructional videos can be easier in this regard due to not necessarily going for a friendly tone of voice or using a highly characterized speaker.
If you’ve got multiple speakers in the same video, capturing the different personalities of each participant is something else to think about. Sometimes the unprofessional and inexperienced translators might lose the flavor of what someone is actually saying. Therefore, you need to hire reliable subtitling services to make sure all the personalities of the characters are shown as an original version.
Font choice
Font choice is an important part of any subtitling services project. Your first priority is to make sure text is always legible for different screen sizes at a reasonable distance. A viewer on their smartphone has a much smaller display to work with but a significantly closer viewing distance than someone watching a 4KHD TV.
Text size is obviously a key consideration but you’ll also find some texts are naturally larger than others. Font weighting is also important as letters that are too bold are narrowly spaced apart can make reading difficult. With the trusted subtitling services company, they can guide you to make the comprehensive subtitle with the appropriate font and fit with all devices.
Reach more viewers with subtitling services
Subtitling services shouldn’t be one of the things that cause you trouble. GTE Media, a professional subtitling services company, provides you with a dedicated team of native translators and subject matter experts to help you overcome any level of complexity. We can make your video reach a wide range of target audiences worldwide and expose the message with the highest quality and accuracy. Moreover, we also offer a lifetime warranty to make sure the clients are satisfied with our services.
Ready to give your video a boost with the best subtitling services around? Contact us today for a free consultation!
Tags: Subtitling Services
