CaptionKit Tutorial : Publishing your project

Overview » Starting a new project » Using the caption list » Publishing your project

The CaptionKit Software is available now. You can view the help files here, which have full details about how to produce subtitled media using CaptionKit.

This picture shows the main CaptionKit screen in use. Descriptions of the screen areas follow below.

Video size Output font Font size Showing actors Publish to web

1. Video size

CaptionKit will record the original size (width and height) of the video when you start to play it. Many of the clips on this website are 176x144 pixels in size.

However, it is possible to increase (or decrease) the output width and height a little without visibly harming the video. This selection allows you to change the output video size in the following steps : Half size, -25%, Normal size, +25%, +50%, +75% and Double size

It is not recommended to go to double size unless you are publishing a very high quality video source. Good results can usually be obtained at +25% if you want to use this option.

2. Output font

Media players allow a range of font styles to be used, just like web browsers. This list specified a selection of fonts for the player to use.

The choices available are : Helvetica, Verdana, Arial and Times : These fonts are common across all platforms. The CMP suggest fonts such as Helvetica are the most suitable for subtitle applications, so this is the default but you are free to change fonts if desired.

3. Font size

We can output subtitles at various font sizes, but these *do* differ between, for example, the Mac and a PC. For this reason the font size listed is approximate.

The choices available are : 14, 16, 24, and 28 pixels in height. We have made 24 pixels the default size, as this allows the recommended 32 characters per line for subtitles, to maintain readable captions. Please contact us if you feel the use of larger fonts than this selection is desirable.

4. Showing actors

Each line of captions you create has an actors name with it.

This name can be output for every line of their dialogue ('Always'), only when the actor name changes ('First Line') or 'Once', the first time they start to speak then never for subsequent lines. The default is 'First Line'.

The 'Once' option may be useful if for example a narrative is dialogue (only two speakers) and it's obvious who is speaking to who. Using this option results in the least screen clutter in the resulting captions.

5. Publish to web

Click this button to send your changes to your CaptionKit publishing point

CaptionKit stores your completed captions in a database on the internet. This button publishes all your changes to the database, ready for output. It wil open a new browser window.

To publish caption files, you may be asked for a user name and password - please type in the user name and password you provided on registering. You can visit the password reminder page if you have forgotten or lost your user details.

If you were asked for your user name and password when you clicked publish, please enter them, then click the 'Publish' button again. If this has happened, it's likely your computers 'Cookie' for this website (which identifies your computer to us) was deleted or lost at some point.

Your project will now be stored on the CaptionKit website.
At this point, you can choose to :

1. View the resulting captioned content immediately
2. Add the project to your IE favourites
3. Email the presentation link to a friend or colleague
4. Download and save the presentation as a ZIP file

You have probably seen the public captions area - you can choose to publish your subtitles for the whole world to see, or keep them in your private project area. We will also be adding a private, password protected viewing area. This may be useful if your project is part-complete or you only want friends to see your work !