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What Are Open Captions?

Open captions are captions burned into the video itself, as part of the picture. They are always visible, look the same on every player and platform, and cannot be switched off — unlike closed captions, which come as a separate track the viewer can turn on or off.

Example
Closed captions: video.mp4 + video.srt → viewer can turn captions off
Open captions:   video-captioned.mp4 → captions are part of every frame

Why people use them

Social feeds autoplay video with the sound off, and many apps ignore or restyle uploaded caption files. Burned-in captions survive downloads and reposts, and you control the font, size and position exactly.

What you give up

Viewers can't hide them, resize them or pick another language, and search engines can't read text that is part of the picture. Each language needs its own video file.

Making them

Start from a subtitle file, choose a style, and render a new video with the text drawn onto the frames. Keep the SRT too: it is the version you can edit, translate or upload as closed captions later.

Questions

Are open captions good for accessibility?

They help, because they are always on, but viewers can't adjust them. Where accessibility rules apply, provide closed captions as well.

Are hardcoded and burned-in subtitles the same as open captions?

Yes, all three describe text drawn onto the video frames.

Can I remove open captions from a video?

Not cleanly. They are pixels in the picture; keep the original video without captions.

Read more

Related terms

  • SDH subtitles

    SDH stands for Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Besides the dialogue, SDH subtitles name off-screen speakers and describe sounds that matter — [door slams], [phone buzzing], [tense music] — so the video makes sense without audio. Streaming services label them, for example, English [SDH].

  • Forced subtitles

    Forced subtitles appear even when the viewer has subtitles turned off. They cover only what a viewer in the film's language would otherwise miss: dialogue in another language, signs, letters and on-screen text. Streaming services call them forced narrative subtitles.

  • SRT file

    An SRT file (SubRip Subtitle, .srt) is a plain-text subtitle file. Each subtitle is a numbered cue with a start and end time and one or two lines of text. Players and platforms show the text over the video at those times, and viewers can switch it on or off.

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