When it comes to creating high quality, effective video content, we are Manchester’s leading experts, here at Oh Video. Not only do we produce stunning professional quality video content for companies and businesses, but we are also video marketing specialists too. After all, there’s not much point in a stunning video that no customers ever watch! We can help you make sure your video content gets in front of the right audience. And is optimized for the best possible experience. This includes adding captions. But what are captions? And why does your video need them? Well, this is our guide to hard captions and soft captions for your company video.
What are video captions?
Captions are on-screen, readable words, that are presented when the sound is turned off when playing video content. These words help the audience to understand either what is going on in the visual, or what is being said. So if you want to produce a commercial video with a voice over, captions can help users understand what is being said, without having to tun on the sound.
Why use video captions?
Captions provide a huge advantage for a multitude of users, including people with impaired hearing. But they also benefit the general user. Especially on social media platforms like Facebook, where it is now the norm for video content to be viewed entirely in silence. Your audience it seems, would actually rather read your words, than listen to them!
Hard captions and soft captions for your company video
So when it comes to producing a video with captions, there are two different type of captions to choose from. These are the hard caption, an the soft caption. So what is the difference between these? And which type of caption should you choose?
Soft captions
Soft captions are used as an overlay, on top of the video. And they do not make up the video itself. This means that in some cases, and on some platforms they will be able to be toggled on and off.
There are several advantages to this type of captioning, including:
- giving the viewer control, so that they can have the best possible experience for them
- Facebook and YouTube let you add soft captions during upload
Hard captions
Hard captions are produced when the video is edited and are permanently ‘burnt’ into your video as part of the actual video file. This means that users cannot turn them off and on themselves. But there are a number of advantages, including:
- Hard captions will always play reliably, no matter what technology is being used to play the video
- Less user responsibility. So your users can’t accidentally turn off the captioning, and not know what is happening
- You have complete control over the style of your captions including the colour, size and font options. In fact, these can even relate back to your company branding, for a more cohesive feel.
For more information or advice about professional commercial video content, and video captions, get in touch with the professionals today, here at Oh Video.