Subtitling and Captioning Style Guide
Set rules for readable subtitles.
Added October 15, 2026. Written with AI assistance and checked for clarity and placeholders; not reviewed by a lawyer, accountant, clinician or other professional. How these prompts are made
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[VERIFY] is an editorial flag, not a blank to fill. Wherever the prompt shows [VERIFY], check that item against a reliable source before you use it (what [VERIFY] means).
Write a style guide for subtitles. Language pair: [LANGUAGE_PAIR]. Platform and audience: [PLATFORM_AUDIENCE]. Content (interview, drama, tutorial): [CONTENT_TYPE]. Specify: characters per line, number of lines, reading speed in characters per second, minimum and maximum duration, line breaks at natural units, handling of overlapping speech, sound descriptions, music and speaker identification, numbers, names, and profanity. Provide before and after examples of a poorly segmented subtitle fixed, written freshly. Add a quality-control checklist and a note that platforms have their own specifications, so I must verify them [VERIFY]. Include accessibility considerations for deaf and hard of hearing audiences. Add a quick-reference card of ten rules that fits on one page, and a sample timing table with six lines showing start time, end time, duration and characters per second for checking. Include guidance for subtitles of songs and on-screen text, and a review workflow with a native speaker who has not seen the source.
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