Quick subtitling question ( S button?)

VMP wrote on 6/19/2004, 2:13 AM
Is it possible to make the subtitle text "outline" thick or with a black backgroung behind each word. The titles what I made, regardless which font I use is transparant. It is very difficult to read. Now I made it finally with a big black border what is good to read but very ugly for the film.

The outline colour is set to 100% now.
( turning outline off so that the background becoms dark is not a good option for me)


DVDA 2 help says :

"Click the B, I, and S buttons to toggle bold, italic, and shadow effects on your text"

But I dont see any "S" button or a shadow button.
There is no "S" button beside "B" "I"button.... on the text bar

Am I doing something wrong?

Font used : Any font it is all the same.
Font size: 20.
Kindly help me out.

Comments

VMP wrote on 6/19/2004, 5:44 AM
This is very strange, because every subtilte has a very thick "Black line" around the text on broadcasted programes, but why dosen't Dvda support it?
VMP wrote on 6/19/2004, 6:10 AM

I have put a comparison screenshot online so that you can see what I mean.
It is clear that the second picture "2" has a mutch better outline.

http://www.v-mp.com/screenshot678.jpg

bStro wrote on 6/19/2004, 9:14 AM
v_gts wrote:

DVDA 2 help says :

Skipping the part of that same Help section that says the shadow option is "not available" when doing subtitles. ;-) I imagine that shadows are available in menu text but not subtitles because menu text is video, whereas subtitles are more of a data stream. In general, you can do fancier formatting with video than you can with data.

Have you tried looking at your subtitles while playing the DVD on a television? It might look different than in the preview -- maybe even better rather than worse.

Rob
VMP wrote on 6/19/2004, 1:41 PM
Yes I have tested it on 3 big tv's and 2 small tv's. on all Tv's the text is not visible enough. and on small tv's the text vibrates.

so it is worse.

as shown on the screenshot.
http://www.v-mp.com/Files/DVDA2SUB.JPG

v_gts
Cunhambebe wrote on 6/19/2004, 10:35 PM
You wrote:
"Yes I have tested it on 3 big tv's and 2 small tv's. on all Tv's the text is not visible enough. and on small tv's the text vibrates".

-there might be a problem with aliasing. I've experienced what "would be" a kind of problem like this, but almost imperceptible. I don't think a button anti-aliasing would fix. When you make menus with Photoshop, everyone says to turn off anti-aliasing becasue the text look better. And it does. Same here. So, to fix this, you can follow these advices:
Font for all subtitles: Arial 22 Bold Outline (the "O" button!)

Please also try to go out and rent/buy the excellent Sony Pictures' Stuart Little 2 and try to see the french subtitles. It's almost that same size if not the same as the one (s) described above. Bigger sizes for the fonts will mess the screen and will make the whole thing extremely unpleasant for the eye. Besides, a short statement may not fit on the screen so that you'll have to divide it, inserting 2 or more subtitles for a shorter period of time. Just imagine 3 people talking on the screen at the same time...Got it?

PS I had previously answered this topic, stating that ARIAL 16 bold was great. I do apologize, since Arial 22 BOLD OUTLINE is the correct option.
;)
VMP wrote on 6/20/2004, 12:55 AM
Thank you (Cunhambebe).

I will try this.