Next Subtitle Question - Outline

PeterWright wrote on 12/21/2007, 11:01 PM
The default subtitles in DVDA have a thin outline - has anyone found a way to increase the thickness of the outline?

Clicking the "O" button produces a filled in background for the text box, with control over colour and transparency, but the actual text outline seems to be default thickness, control over colour only...

Comments

MPM wrote on 12/22/2007, 5:39 AM
As someone who relies on subs as a viewer, I've found the results from DVDA just about the best available as is. That said, you might look at Subtitle Creator if you need more customization.

My guess is that you'd do any timing adjustments in DVDA, export the subs as a text file, convert to srt or sub, import into Subtitle Creator, then create the subs customized however you like. The program has some built-in features to add these new sub tracks to your DVD on hdd, or do it manually using free-ware tools like Muxman & VobBlanker.
PeterWright wrote on 12/22/2007, 5:23 PM
Thanks MPM - my current project is about people with visual and hearing impairment, so I want to make sure the subbies are as visible as possible.

I may revert to a partly transparent text box background to make sure they are readable no matter what colour the picture underneath.

Do you find 14 point text large enough or would you recommend 16?
MPM wrote on 12/23/2007, 5:00 AM
Personally I prefer to use 16 - 18 (usually 18) in a very pale yellow using Arial Narrow bold unicode. The condensed font is very legible, and well, condensed ;-) towards the middle of the screen so you don't have to worry much about the screen area, & the unicode feature means that you can have CC characters like musical notes. A pale yellow shows up both when the background is dark and when it's white. Many Hollywood DVDs go larger still, into the 20-24 point range, but I worry that anything over 18 starts to interfere with the non-hearing impaired viewer sitting next to the one using the subs.

Please note that DVDA has a bug in recent versions: just after importing a text sub file you have to save & re-open the project for line spacing to appear normal... Don't know if that effects your method of generating subs or not, but thought I'd mention it in case.

Needing CC or subs, I'm afraid that my personal perspective is a bit skewed... I tend to worry too much about obscuring the picture for those sitting next to me who don't need or use the captions -- something that you [assuming you don't need the subs] could probably judge better than I. Semi-transparent text boxes are *Wonderful*, but I don't know how much that effects the experience for everyone else.
PeterWright wrote on 1/10/2008, 4:31 PM
Update - Thanks for your suggestions - I've done a second draft with 18 point yellow Arial Narrow, semi-transparent text box background, and the client likes it, so that's good. In fact I had little choice - when I tried burning with outline on the text instead of background, I got an error message and discovered that DVDA cannot handle two line subtitles with outline!

The semi-transparent text background does work extremely well - it still allows the video beneath to be seen, and if someone does not need or like the subtitles, they can turn them off - I have them on by default in this project by request.
MPM wrote on 1/11/2008, 8:24 AM
Great!!!
Thanks!