Description

There is only one standard for judging captions: when viewed on a phone, at thumb size, with the sound off, can the sentence still be understood at a glance? 【Caption Layout Guide】 starts with three non-negotiables: safe zones, explaining how much space to leave on each side for vertical and horizontal video; a maximum number of characters per line, including why it matters and why there is a limit to how many characters people can read in one second; and a two-level hierarchy only, with main text and emphasis text, because a third level creates confusion. It then provides a fill-in-ready layout parameter table covering captions, titles, keyword emphasis, names and places, numbers, and proper nouns. For each, it specifies placement, relative size, font weight, whether to use a background, and when it should appear and disappear, while marking areas to avoid around faces and platform buttons. Keyword emphasis is limited to three methods—change the color, add a background, or enlarge the text—with a clear explanation that you may choose only one. It also includes six practices that look the most amateurish and how to fix them, plus a simple muted-phone viewing check. Ground rules: no dialogue or script writing, no recommendations for specific font files, no instructions for disguising or obstructing text to evade platform moderation, no judgments about the user's appearance or accent, and no promises about completion rates.