ANEXO: ÁREA COMERCIAL DEL NALÓN Cuadro 155

In this section we will limit ourselves to some purely formal layout issues and other spatial aspects of subtitling, even though these are inevitably linked to the distribution of text on the screen, and therefore to linguistic matters.

Linguistic considerations, the core business of subtitling from a translational point of view, are the topic of chapters 6 and 7. Here we touch on issues of a more technical nature or related to particular house styles, where decisions tend to be taken by technicians, producers, distributors, and project managers rather than subtitlers. Still, subtitlers are a link in a chain, and it is good to have an overall view of the process and to know what happens with a programme before and after the actual translation.

Even though there is no absolute uniformity in the way subtitles are positioned on the screen, there certainly are a number of trends. Today, the situation is one of variation within generally accepted practice. The initial diversity was due to the more or less independent, gradual development of subtitling and subtitling guidelines in different countries, based on individual preference, national literary or cinematic/broadcasting traditions, and the evolution of technology. The development of subtitling for new media has no doubt also been a determining factor in the emergence of formal guidelines.

The fact that the most prominent new medium, i.e. the DVD, usually contains several subtitling tracks in different languages, has actually led to more rather than less uniformity, whereas television subtitling remains less uniform. DVD does, however, also appear to be having an in uence on TV norms (cf. below).

We will be considering subtitling as it appears on TV, on cinema screens, on videotapes, and DVD. Newer forms like subtitling for Internet, fansubs, and computer games, usually derive their guidelines from existing styles, just as surtitling for the theatre and the opera initially turned to open subtitling for guidance. It usually is not the subtitler who makes the  nal decision in these matters; however, future subtitlers should above all try to be  exible in their approach, gain an insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different practices, and be consistent when applying the conventions proposed by a particular subtitling company.

In each of the sections below, we will indicate what guidelines are to be followed when carrying out the exercises contained on the DVD.

4.6.1 Maximum number of lines and position on the screen

For many cinema professionals and  lm buffs subtitles are a blemish on the

 lm screen and we do not really wish to contradict them. We have stated above that subtitling is a type of translation that should not attract attention to itself.

This holds for its formal as well as its linguistic features. That is why, gener-ally speaking, interlingual subtitling is limited to two lines, which occupy no more than two twelfths of the screen. In this, subtitling for a hearing public differs from (teletext) subtitling for the deaf and the hearing impaired, which often makes use of three or even four lines. Bilingual subtitles may also resort to four-line subtitles sporadically.

In the world of digital video, any picture is made up of individual dots known as pixels – literally picture elements. Each frame of the video is a picture 720 pixels wide and 576 pixels high, known in the profession as broadcast resolution. Written text and graphics shown on screen may get distorted if they appear too close to the edges because TV manufacturers deal with the screen edges differently. This is why all text must be centrally positioned within a safe area. This safe area is usually 10% with each frame edge, e.g. 72 pixels in from the right and left edges and 57 pixels from the top and bottom. By default, the following standard parameters are applied by WinCAPS in regards to the safe area: top 32, left 56, right 56, and bottom 32. They should always be respected when working with this subtitling program.

The standard position for subtitles is horizontal at the bottom of the screen since this limits the obstruction of the image, and this part of the screen is usually of lesser importance to the action. Some languages, like Japanese, have a long history of placing subtitles vertically on the right-hand side of the screen, especially for theatrical releases. With the arrival of video and DVD, horizontal subtitles have become more common than ever before, although both approaches still co-exist.

The positioning of a two-line subtitle at the bottom of the screen does not offer any options since both lines are in use. The situation is different when dealing with one-line subtitles, with some companies using the  rst – i.e. top – line and some others preferring the second line. This traditional variation in the placement of one-line subtitles is giving way to a more uniform approach these days with most one-liners habitually appearing on the second – i.e.

bottom – line, keeping clear of the image as best they can.

WinCAPS

One-line subtitles should be written on the second, bottom line.

Technology regarding DVDs and cinema projection is evolving constantly and extremely quickly, which means that new methods of projecting and

engraving subtitles keep appearing on the market. Technical advances have made it possible to place the subtitles, either both lines or just the bottom one, immediately below the image. Pollution of the original photography is obvi-ously reduced, but more research ought to be carried out to establish whether this aesthetic change has any negative impact on overall appreciation of the programme, since the eye has to move across a wider screen area in order to scan all the information available.

Subtitles can be moved from the bottom of the screen to another position if the need arises. Such a move can occur if:

‰The background at the bottom of the screen is so light that the subtitles are illegible.

‰Some important action is taking place at the bottom of the screen.

‰Some essential data are displayed at the bottom of the screen while dialogue continues and must therefore be subtitled (examples are: other subtitles, in-serts with dates or information about a speaker, or the broadcaster’s logo).

When the decision is taken to displace the subtitles in a  lm, they are then placed at the top – most common practice – or in the middle of the screen, but this is extremely rare. An example occurs in the classic Taxi Driver. Pro-tagonist taxi driver Travis takes the woman he would like to be his partner to a porn movie. The  lm is Swedish and subtitled in English. On the French subtitled DVD, the French subtitles appear at the top of the screen each time the English ‘cinema’ subtitles appear at the bottom.

In the case of TV documentaries or interviews, it is often the inserts with details about the speaker or interviewee that are moved to the top of the screen, whereas the subtitles remain in their usual position. However, if the original inserts cannot be edited and changed, subtitles tend to be moved to the middle of the screen, just above the text appearing on screen. If the decision goes against re-positioning the subtitles, one of the strategies implemented consists in encasing them in a grey or black box that covers up (part of) the original data.

Since viewers expect subtitles to appear at the bottom of the screen it is better not to move them around unnecessarily. Besides, there are a limited number of alternative solutions to avoid collisions with other textually ren-dered information. A one-line subtitle, placed on the top or bottom subtitle line, may not obstruct anything at all. Alternatively, the position of the subtitle can also be shifted horizontally, to the right or left, so that it does not cover up the inserts or the logos. But this accumulation of different bits of original and translated information may be confusing to the viewer, considering the limited exposure time available. In fact, the same problem arises when data appear both at the top and the bottom of the screen. In these cases, the exposure time of the subtitle has to be reconsidered and the translation left a bit longer

on the screen if possible. The subtitle could also be made to appear slightly earlier or later, if this does not disturb synchrony exceedingly. Each particular instance will require an ad hoc solution, and it must be remembered that all these suggestions are emergency measures of sorts.

4.6.2 Font type and number of characters per line

Today, most subtitles are white, although occasionally yellow is used when subtitling black and white  lms, so that the contrast between image and text is sharper. Fonts without serifs are preferred (Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman) and the size varies.

WinCAPS

The font we recommend to use is Arial 32.

Please note that 32 refers to pixels, not points.

The characters are almost always shadowed or black contoured, which solves legibility problems, even if the letters appear against a very light background.

Should this not do the trick, when the subtitles appear against a very light background, one of the solutions may be to encase them in a grey or black box. The boxes are standard in subtitling software and can be made to appear throughout the  lm or simply whenever they are required in concrete subtitles.

They are partly transparent and the shade of grey can be adapted (rendered lighter or darker) depending on whether or not the background must remain visible to some extent. If the only purpose of the box is to improve legibility, a grey box is preferable because it stands out less on the screen than a black one and is therefore less obtrusive.

Bearing in mind what has been said about the screen safe area (§4.6.1), for the Roman alphabet the maximum number of characters allowed on a one line TV subtitle is usually 37, including blank spaces and typographical signs, which all take up one space. Occasionally, clients will ask for a maximum of 33 or 35 characters per line, or allow up to 39 to 41 characters depending on their guidelines and software used. Exceptionally, some  lm festivals will go as high as 43 characters per line. For cinema and DVD a maximum of 40 characters seems to be the norm, whereas for VHS this used to be between 33 and 35. The evolution seems to be upwards, probably due to higher quality projection or engraving of the subtitles on the one hand, and increased viewing experience on the other. In any case, the concept of characters per line is somewhat being blurred when working with digital technology, as pixels are fast becoming the way of measuring text on screen. As the basic unit of the composition of an image on a television screen, computer monitor, or similar display, they allow for greater rationalization of the space available for subtitles. The syllable ‘mo’

takes clearly more space than ‘li’, and whereas under characters per line they both count as two letters, using pixels they will allow for a varying number of letters in a line, depending on the actual space they occupy.

Still, a higher number of characters per line often results in more image being covered by text, or in a smaller font being selected, which again ham-pers legibility, and viewers who have to read more have less time to scan the

 lm’s other information channels. More research into the relative importance of these various channels for information would certainly be welcome. In practice, subtitlers get instructions as to how many characters they can use, either from their customers or from the subtitling company they are working for. Once the number is known, the software preferences are set accordingly and the program takes care of the counting. The cursor normally moves down to the second line when the  rst one is full and programs usually have a function or a checker, which tells the subtitler when the maximum number of characters has been exceeded. Each program has its own warning system, usually a symbol that changes colour.

The maximum number of characters per line varies according to alphabets, and it is normal to allow 35 for Cyrillic languages like Bulgarian, Macedonian and Russian, 34 to 36 for Greek and Arabic, 12 to 14 for Japanese and Korean and between 14 and 16 for Chinese.

WinCAPS

To carry out the exercises in WinCAPS, we recommend using a maximum of 39 characters per line. The total for a two-liner is, therefore, 78 characters.

There is no  xed rule as to the minimum number of characters a subtitle must have, but subtitles counting less than 4 to 5 characters are rare. Any subtitle should ideally remain on screen for at least one second so that the eye of the viewer can register its presence, although it is not uncommon to come across subtitles that stay on screen for as little as 21 or 22 frames.

Subtitles that are kept on screen for a shorter period of time risk appearing and disappearing like a  ash and therefore not being read by the viewer. On the other hand, if a very short subtitle remains on the screen too long, the viewers will have time to read it repeatedly, which is equally irritating and can break the reading rhythm. In other words, extremely short subtitles must be used for a good reason and timed carefully. In some cases, a one-word subtitle can just as well be incorporated into the preceding or following one (§4.7.1).

4.6.3 One-liners and two-liners

The ideal number of lines and their positioning on screen is an issue a bit closer to the jurisdiction of the subtitlers. Is a single line subtitle always the

preferred solution? Are two short lines of equal length better? Should one go for a short  rst line and a longer second line? Opinions again vary, but some consensus does exist. Choices regarding the physical distribution of text al-ways try to balance between issues connected with the linguistics of subtitling, since respecting syntactic and semantic units promotes readability, and more purely visual aesthetic matters. In addition, ideal line length also depends on the screen safe area and on the positioning of the subtitle, i.e. left-aligned versus centred.

The general rule is: if a relatively short subtitle  ts into one line, do not use two. There is no need to make eyes travel from one line to the next when all the information can be presented in a single line that viewers can read at a glance. Theoretically, this is a rule that can be applied, at least, in the case of left-aligned subtitles. However, especially in the cinema and if the subtitles are centred, some subtitling companies do prefer for aesthetic reasons to have two shorter lines of equal length rather than one exceedingly long one – i.e.

one that would use up the maximum of 39 or 40 characters and spaces. But then again, grammatical considerations also come into play (§6.4).

Extremely long subtitles also force the eye to travel, if only from left to right (or right to left depending on the language), particularly on large cinema screens. Sometimes, this is unavoidable, especially when bilingual subtitles are required, but in other cases one option should be given priority against the other. Some sentences, composed of clauses, lend themselves more easily to two-line subtitles than others. Besides, a sentence break can help render intonation. In short, if a one-liner is divided over two lines, this is usually done because the one-line subtitle would be very long and/or the break helps to underscore syntax and/or intonation. Compare, for instance, the following alternatives. In the  lm dialogue, there is a brief pause after ‘up there’:

Example 4.6

ST: Can you see the light up there, in the window?

Can you see the light in the window? Can you see the light?

In the window?

As we have mentioned, when dealing with one-liners, a decision has to be taken on whether to place them on the  rst/top line or on the second/bottom line of the screen. Some companies give preference to subtitle placement on the bottom line since this way the written text is pushed to the edge of the screen and hence interferes less with the image. Other studios give priority to the top line. The reasoning behind this is that they prefer the consistency of starting the subtitles always at the same height on the screen. This way, the eye can get used to it and goes automatically to the same place on the screen every time a new subtitle pops up. This second option does not make

much sense when working for small screens and may be more productive in cinema subtitling where the dimensions of the screen are bigger and the eye has to travel more.

With two-liners, a recommendation based on aesthetics is to keep the top line shorter whenever possible in order not to pollute the image. How-ever, sense blocks and readability ought to be the most in uential aspects in subtitle positioning. In the two-liner in the example given above, the  rst line is longer than the second, which could not be avoided due to the way the utterance is structured syntactically. Let us compare the four versions of the same subtitle, below:

Example 4.7

My whole life, I’ve been followed by loneliness.

My whole life,

I’ve been followed by loneliness.

My whole life,

I’ve been followed by loneliness.

My whole life, I’ve been followed by loneliness.

We are only considering layout at this point; and from this perspective the second and third examples are the best solutions, in the sense that they both apply the general rule of keeping the top line shorter. Not only are they aes-thetically more pleasing, but in the case of left-aligned subtitles this means the eye has to cover less of a distance to read the second line.

In any event, the overriding factor when presenting two-liners on screen is to secure line-breaks which are appropriate syntactically, respecting and re ecting the logic of the sentence. In this sense, solutions one and four above ought to be avoided. Priority has to be given to a subtitle that is easy to read, rather than to a convoluted subtitle that is symmetrically perfect, obstructs the image less, but is dif cult to read.

4.6.4 Centred and left-aligned

In the past, TV subtitles were often left-aligned, and some TV channels still left-align subtitles in countries like The Netherlands, although televised feature  lms often have centred subtitles. By contrast, subtitles are nearly

In the past, TV subtitles were often left-aligned, and some TV channels still left-align subtitles in countries like The Netherlands, although televised feature  lms often have centred subtitles. By contrast, subtitles are nearly