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466Final Cut Pro User Guide
Step 1: Choose a caption format
In Final Cut Pro, choose whether to create CEA-608, iTT, or SRT captions. The format
you choose depends on the intended use of your project and the target audience.
Broadcasters, streaming services, and government regulators each have their own delivery
specifications.
Step 2: Create a caption role
Create a caption role for the chosen format and a subrole for each language version.
Step 3: Create or import captions
Create or import an initial set of captions in one language.
Step 4: Edit caption text
Edit caption text directly in the timeline using the caption editor, or make text changes in
the inspector.
Step 5: Adjust and arrange captions
Use the powerful editing tools in Final Cut Pro to adjust the timing and arrangement of
captions in your projects. You can sync the captions to specific clips and points in time in
your project, and set the duration of each caption.
Step 6: Format caption text
To determine how your captions look onscreen, you can format caption text in the
inspector. The CEA-608 and iTT caption standards each have their own specifications for
text formats, placement, color, transitions, number of lines, and number of characters.
The SRT format has relatively few formal specifications. You can format SRT captions in
Final Cut Pro, but you have the option to remove all formatting during export to make them
universally compatible with players and devices.
Step 7: Create captions in additional languages
After you finalize an initial set of captions in one language, you can create captions in
additional languages by duplicating the first set of captions. You can enter translations in
the caption editor or the inspector.
You can also send the captions out for translation and then import the translated captions.
At this stage, you can also Convert captions to another format.
Step 8: Export captions
You can export captions with your final output media file, either as a separate file or
embedded directly in the video file.