Captions
Captions in Seconds: Best Practices for 2026
Why every short-form video needs captions, and how to style them so they read on every device.
2 min read2026-01-15by FreeCut Editorial
Over 80% of short-form is watched muted. Captions are no longer optional — they are the lower third of your video, and the first hook the feed shows.
What makes captions readable
- Sans-serif font at 40–60 pt for vertical canvases.
- Maximum 2 lines, 7 words per line.
- High-contrast stroke OR background pill — never both at low opacity.
- Word-level timing so words pop on the beat.
- Top-safe placement: keep captions inside the middle 70% of the frame.
Burn-in vs SRT
Burn-in renders captions into the MP4 — universal, but baked. SRT keeps captions editable in any other tool and lets platforms index them. FreeCut exports both.
#captions#subtitles#shorts
Keep reading
Strategy
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The export, safe area and pacing differences between the three big short-form platforms.
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Cut your next video in FreeCut.
Clean export. No forced watermark. No forced outro.