How to Add Subtitles in Premiere Pro: A Complete Guide

Adding captions enhances your videos and makes them more accessible, engaging, and viewer-friendly. If you are looking to caption your videos either for YouTube or any other social media platform, Adobe Premiere Pro has all the equipment and tools that help you in faster subtitle adding. This step-by-step guided tutorial is designed to walk you through adding subtitles in Premiere Pro, as well as different subtitle workflows, and also offer some suggestions on how to improve your subtitles. Still not enough? 

Premiere Pro: Explicitly for Whom?

Adobe Premiere Pro is video editing software which developed by the Adobe. This is likely more appropriate for film and television, social media type content, and marketing material. Premiere Pro is for filmmakers, YouTubers, marketing teams, educators and video content creators who want complete control over their productions with advanced level of editing tools available to them, beautiful fleshing out visuals effects,VFX controls and audio controls combined with the power AI features.

You can create subtitles and edit them with built-in transcription tools; hence making it a strong candidate when you want to include multilingual support, increase engagement (a longer watchtime), as well as accommodating those who may need content in an accessible form.

4 Ways to Add Professional Subtitles to Your Videos

1.  Automatically Add Subtitles in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro has the feature of transcription, whereby you can add subtitles automatically to your videos:

Steps:

1. Open Premiere Pro and Start a New Project

Open Adobe Premiere Pro and create a new project to begin your editing workflow.

2. Switch to the Captions and Graphics Workspace

Navigate to Window > Workspaces > Captions and Graphics to access the transcription and subtitle editing tools.

3. Import and Open Your Video Clips

Double-click on the clips you want to edit in the Project panel to import them into the timeline or source monitor.

4. Transcribe the Clips Using the Text Panel

Navigate to the Text panel and select the Transcribe option to automatically create a transcript of your video.

5. Edit the Transcript Directly Within Premiere Pro

You can edit anywhere on the transcript text. Once edited, you can click outside of the text box to save.

Source: Adobe

2.How to Import Subtitles SRT Files in Premiere Pro

If you have a sinhala subtitle file already (. SRT or . XML file), which you can then import into your project.

Steps:

1.Prepare Your Subtitle File

Be sure to save the subtitles as srt. This file type is fully supported in Premiere Pro as the standard format for importing subtitle data

2. Import SRT File to Premiere Pro

The simplest way is to upload .srt file into your project the same as when you add any video, audio or image asset. Drag the file into the Project panel, or select File > Import.

3. Created Subtitles on the Timeline

After your subtitle file shows up in the Project panel, drop it onto a new sequence. Premiere Pro automatically generates a new subtitle track over your sequence, and put all captions at their different time-stamps.

 

3. How to Add Subtitles in Premiere Pro Manually

For those of you who like to have full manual control, it is possible to define each subtitle entry by hand.

Steps:

1. Go to the Captions and Graphics Workspace

Go to Window > Workspaces > Captions and Graphics. Find the Text panel (where you can add or change your subtitles), as well as the Properties panel (to stylize your subtitles), and start by clicking Create new caption track in the text panel.

2. Choose Subtitle Format and Style

You will be given a dialog which prompts you to chose your subtitle format and style of the new caption track. So select the options best suited for your project.

3. Place the Playhead At The Beginning of Dialogue

Place the playhead where that first line of dialogue is to start in your sequence. If you want to be more specific in syncing your subtitles with the speech, use the waveform display of audio.

4.Add and Enter Subtitle Text

Click the Add new caption segment button to create a new empty subtitle. In the area marked New Caption, double click and insert your subtitles for that part.

5. Adjust Timing and Repeat

Adjust the ending of a caption line by trimming it in the timeline to end after the spoken dialogue has ceased. Do this for the rest of your strings in the sequence until all stimulated subtitles are correct. 

 

4. Alternative Tools for Downloading Subtitles: Vmake, CapCut, and Others

Premiere Pro is a professional tool, but it may be a bit more complex than something like Adobe Premiere Rush CP for beginners or even casual users. Here are some simpler alternatives:

● Vmake: AI Powered Subtitle Editor for Creators

The powerful online video editor for creators, Vmake gives you caption in the simplest way without having to deal with complicated software. Each provides AI-generated captions and plenty of styling options. With you can customize fonts, colors and animations right before you export final video.

Advantages:

✓ High AI Accuracy: The transcription of speech-to-text is quite accurate, so that you save time on hand corrections.

✓ Allows Creativity: Available with multiple fonts and offers animations to enhance the visual look of subtitles.

✓ Web-Based: No downloading, just edit videos inside your browser.

✓ Completely export without Watermarking: there may be a limitation with free plan, but you can still download your video freely without watermark.

Drawbacks:

❌ Internet Needed: Being cloud-based it does require a solid connection to edit.

❌ Learning Curve: Might not be immediately intuitive for new users to discover all of the available features

How to add subtitles with Vmake:

Step 1: Open the Auto Generated Captions Page

Head to Auto Generated Captions tool and click “Use Now” to start.

Step 2: Upload Your Video

Then click on “Upload Video” and select the file from your computer.

Step 3: Pick a Caption Style

Pick any font, color and animation type or subtittle style you prefer.

Step 4: Edit the Text (If Needed)

Make edits in your text — correct typos, reword contents or change timings on the timeline

Step 5: Export

After everything is complete, export your HD project with no watermark into any social medias!

CapCut

CapCut is a good video editor for TikTok creators, though most of its features require logging in. Subtitle editing is accessible only from its mobile app, with no online captioning functionality. A handful of advanced capabilities are locked up behind a subscription.

Advantages:

✓Mobile-Oriented: Robust video and subtitle editing capabilities supported on iOS and Android.

✓User-Friendly: Easy interface is perfect for beginners.

Drawbacks:

● ❌ Login Required: Most functions require account login to use.

● ❌ Limited Free Features: Caption and other features typically require paid upgrades.

● ❌ No Web Caption Editing: Captioning only works on the mobile site.

Captions

Captions is a mobile AI video editor specifically made for content creators who need quick automatic subtitles. It supports auto transcription, voiceover dubbing, and easy subtitle styling, ideal for brief videos like TikTok videos and Instagram Reels.

Advantages:

✓Instant Subtitles: Generates automatically captions from audio with good accuracy.

✓Voice Features: Includes voice dubbing and AI voiceovers in multiple languages.

✓Watermark-Free Export: Exports videos without watermark for most simple edits.

Drawbacks:

❌ Hidden Feature: The subtitle tool is not a standalone module and can be difficult to locate within the app interface.

Want to add subtitles with Vmake?

Try Vmake Auto Generated Captionstoday and create your first pro subtitle!