Best practices in subtitling: hiring a specialized subtitler from the get-go

The other day, one of my clients asked me if I could go through a file with subtitles for an informative video aimed at patients interested in participating in a clinical trial. The original translation of the subtitles had already been proofread and approved by an ethics committee, so my client specifically asked me to avoid making significant changes to the text.

The first thing I noticed when opening the file with the subtitles was that the quality of the translation was excellent. At least, it would have been if it had been for a patient brochure. The tone of voice was spot-on, no unnecessarily complicated terminology, and concepts that were a bit more complex were explained very well.

Subtitling limitations and reading speed

The problem with subtitling is that you don’t really have the space to explain things very elaborately. You need to find the balance between providing all the necessary information and making sure that the subtitles don’t fly in and out of the screen at the speed of light. There is no point in creating subtitles with lots of information, if people don’t have time to read them.

The ideal reading speed for subtitles is approximately 12-14 characters per second. Occasionally exceeding this speed is acceptable, but as a rule of thumb it’s best to avoid it as much as possible. In this project, several subtitles had reading speeds ranging from 27 to 35 characters per second. Needless to say, it took quite a bit of editing to make the subtitles easy to follow for the patients watching the video.

Importance of specialized subtitling

Although the original translation was excellent, it’s almost impossible to accurately gauge the reading speed without using specialized subtitling software. So translating and proofreading subtitles without software first, only to discover later that they are too lengthy and require significant revision, is inefficient.

Recommendation for subtitling projects

Moral of the story: when a project involves the translation of subtitles, it’s always best to hire a subtitler who is also knowledgeable in the relevant field from the outset. This approach will save you a lot of time (and money). If you are looking for a subtitler in the medical field, have a look at our ‘Find a Translator’ section as many of us offer this particular service.

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This post was written by Veronique Doggen, who specializes in medical translations from English, French and Portuguese to Dutch (BE and NL).