Open captions
Also called burned-in captions, hard subtitles, hardcoded subtitles, burnt-in captions
What are open captions?
Open captions are captions that are permanently burned into the video frames, so they appear for every viewer on every device and cannot be switched off. They are also called burned-in captions or hard subtitles. Open captions are the standard on short-form social video, where many people watch muted and caption settings vary.
Because they are part of the picture, open captions can be styled freely: brand fonts, colors, highlighted words and motion, as in animated captions. The trade-off is that viewers cannot resize, translate or hide them, and the text cannot be indexed like a caption file.
Many publishers do both: burn captions into the social cut and upload a separate SRT file as closed captions where a platform supports it.
Why open captions matter
Open captions guarantee the message reads with sound off, which matters for Reels, TikTok and Shorts viewed in public. Viewers do not need to find a CC button, and you control exactly how the words look.
They also keep captions on brand. Styled, well-placed captions look like part of the design instead of a default white box covering the product.
How to burn captions into a video
- Get an accurate transcript or SRT file timed to the speech.
- Choose a bold, readable font with an outline, shadow or background box for contrast.
- Place captions inside the safe zone, clear of platform buttons and the caption area at the bottom.
- Keep lines short, two lines at most on screen.
- Render the captions into the video, then watch it muted on a phone to check.
Open captions FAQ
What is the difference between open and closed captions?
Open captions are part of the picture and always visible. Closed captions are a separate track viewers can turn on or off.
Are open captions accessible?
They help deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and anyone watching muted, as long as they are accurate and easy to read. Viewers cannot resize them, so use large, high-contrast text.
Related terms
Closed captions (CC) are text versions of a video's speech and key sounds that viewers can turn on or off, made for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.
Animated captions are on-screen captions that appear or highlight word by word in time with speech, common in Reels, TikTok and Shorts.
Subtitles are on-screen text of the spoken words in a video, often translated, for viewers who can hear the audio but need or prefer to read it.
An SRT file is a plain-text subtitle file listing numbered captions with start and end times. Most video platforms and players accept it.
A safe zone is the area of a video or image where text and key content will not be hidden by platform buttons, captions or cropping.