What is Closed Captions?
Closed captions are toggleable text overlays stored separately from video. Learn how CC differs from burned-in captions and when each format is appropriate.
- Captions & Subtitles
- 4 related terms
Definition
Closed captions are text overlays stored as a separate data track alongside the video, allowing viewers to toggle them on or off in their player settings.
Closed Captions explained
Closed captions (CC) are encoded as metadata rather than burned into the video pixels. They are the accessibility standard for broadcast TV, YouTube, and streaming platforms. Formats include SRT, VTT, TTML, and EBU-STL. Closed captions can be auto-generated by platforms, uploaded by creators, or produced by professional transcription services. They support features like font customization, background opacity, and positioning adjustments by the viewer. For short-form social video, closed captions alone are insufficient because most platforms default to captions off. Creators typically use burned-in captions for social and closed captions for accessibility compliance.
Create closed captions content with BlitzReels
BlitzReels provides the tools and automation to put these concepts into practice.
All terms
Video Editing
AI Video Generation
Social Media Video
Captions & Subtitles
Video Formats & Codecs
Video Production
- B-Roll
- Workflow Automation
- Content Repurposing
- Stock Footage
- Motion Graphics
- Color Grading
- Render
- Storyboard
- Scene
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- Batch Processing
- Watermark
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- Royalty-Free
- Video API
- Webhook
- Background Music
- Dubbing
- Video Template
- Render Queue
- Video SDK
- Noise Reduction
- Video Podcast
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