Feimi's Subtitling Notebook (4) - Subtitle Formatting

Introduction

This chapter records the subtitle formatting styles I’m using. This is more like a documentation instead of a guidance, for everyone has their own preferred styles. Example files have been uploaded to my Google Drive.

Prerequisites

• Fonts (check the licenses) and colors you like.

Basic information

• The basic fonts I use are open-sourced Noto Sans SC and Noto Sans JP. This family of fonts are licensed under the Open Font License and is free for both commercial and non-commercial uses.
• In 95% cases the subtitles are white-filling and color-framed. The basic colors I use are Keeler blue (#0092c8) and ETH blue (#215CAF).

AKB Stage

• Chinese subtitles are always in ETH blue (#215CAF).
• Sometimes I use different colors for contents corresponding to different teams of AKB48. The original intention was to use team colors, which can be found here and here. However, the team colors are not always suitable due to two reasons. First, light colors are not suitable for frames as the filling is already white. Second, the blue color of Team B and Team 8 is too similar to that of Chinese subtitles. As a result, the colors I’m using at present is kind of ramdomly chosen. Despite that Team B and Team 8 both use Keeler blue (#0092c8), I have Team A pink (#D07FBF), Team K green (#1A6840), and Team 4 yellow (#B78B26).

Other subs (Youtube channels, TV shows, etc. )

• Main subtitles are always in ETH blue (#215CAF).
• Other occuring subtitles on the screen are matched as much as possible to the original formats.
• Notes can be added on the top of the screen.

Additional notes

• Because of its unique position in my mind, the song 『桜、みんなで食べた』 always uses a pink color (Team A color, #D07FBF).