Burned-in subtitle
Also known as: hardcoded subtitle, open caption
Text rendered permanently into the picture rather than carried as a separate track, which guarantees it is seen and makes it impossible to remove.
Updated
What it means
Two ways exist to put words on screen. A subtitle track sits beside the video and can be switched off; a burned-in subtitle is part of the pixels and cannot.
Social platforms are why it is the default. Autoplay with the sound off means text is the only thing carrying speech, and Subtitles and captions as a separate track are frequently not offered at all.
The trade is permanence for certainty. Every viewer sees the same words, in the same place, on every platform, which is exactly what a selectable track cannot promise, since a platform decides whether it shows one at all.
How it works in practice
Position follows the crop. Text placed inside Safe zones survives a vertical version and a platform interface, which is the difference between legible captions and ones hidden behind a progress bar.
Readability beats styling. A heavy weight, a contrasting outline and two short lines at a time work; anything decorative fails on a phone at arm's length. The screen is small and the viewer is moving.
Generation is usually automatic now. Auto captions produce a timed transcript, and the work left is correcting names and jargon, which no model gets right for a niche sport.
What to watch out for
Mistakes are permanent. A typo burned into an export means a full Rendering and export pass to fix, which is why the text is proofread before the render rather than after. Reading it aloud catches more than reading it silently.
Language locks too. A burned-in version serves one audience, and a second language means a second master, where a track would have been a checkbox. Planning for one language is a decision worth making knowingly.
Crops break the layout. Text centred for widescreen can land under a subject's face in a Vertical video (9:16) version, so each shape needs its own placement pass.
How RawClip handles it
Spoken word is rare in action footage, so captions are not part of a standard highlight. Where a clip carries speech worth keeping, the text is added after the sequence is assembled and placed for the format being delivered.