© Juan Carlos Alcalá, Juan Marcos Carrillo, Juan Pedro Rica

General criteria for subtitling

Orthotypographical aspects
Previous considerations

 Since there is a lack of orthotypographical norms in the world of AV subtitling (translators,

subtitling companies, studios, academic institutions, etc.), there are in the market a great
number of style guides regarding the orthotypographical criteria for subtitling.

 The general tendency is to use the Ortografía de la Real Academia de la lengua española
(RAE) but with certain adaptations, more appropriate ‐from our point of view‐ for the
subtitling practice (for example, elimination of unnecessary spaces, unification in the use of
the italics, etc.).

Orthography and accentuation

 Those stated by the RAE are followed. Orthotypographical mistakes are more noticeable in
subtitles. Therefore, they must be avoided by any means.

Use of capital letters

 Movie titles are always in capital letters.

LOS ORÍGENES
DEL YOGA

 The labels, inserts, posters and signs are always in capital letters.

PRECAUCIÓN
AMIGO CONDUCTOR

 We cannot abuse of capital letters. They occupy more space than ordinary letters and they
are less legible to the viewer. It is absolutely advisable not to exceed 18 characters in
capital letters per line. When there is no other option (that is, more characters per line
than 18), italics is preferred.

Precaución
riesgo de avalanchas

 If the subtitler opts for the italics instead of the capital letters, he should maintain the
same criterion along the AV product: the italics should be only used when it is impossible
to use the capital letters.

 Capital letters cannot be used to express shouts or emphasis coming from the characters'
speech.

 Capital letters and italics cannot be combined. Only one of the two codes is preferable.

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 © Juan Carlos Alcalá, Juan Marcos Carrillo, Juan Pedro Rica
Use of italics

 They are used to express off‐voices (Voice‐off is not the case of a character who is not in
the scene, but participates in the sequence). In some documentaries in which there is only
one voice, that off‐voice (the narrator) can used regular font because there is no way for
confusion (nature documentaries, for example).

 Song lyrics are always in italics.

 Voices coming from some gadgets such as radios, televisions, megaphones, loudspeakers
or any electronic device are always in italics.

 Italics are also used to show titles of books, movies, theater plays, etc.

 Foreign terms and neologism not accepted by the RAE are always in italics.

Los rishis crearon el yoga

para lograr hacerse uno con Dios.

 If a character speaks in a language different from the main language in the movie, italics
are used.

Use of quotation marks (or inverted commas)

 Only English quota on marks are used ("―")

 Quotation marks are used to express direct speech (quotations, fragments which are read,
etc.). When this direct speech is extended into some subtitles, opening quotation marks
will be used in each of the subtitles and opening and closing quotation marks in the last
subtitle.

Subt. 1
Creo recordar que lo dijo Quevedo:
"Serán ceniza,

Subt. 2
"más tendrá sentido;

Subt. 3
"polvo serán,
mas polvo enamorado".

 They are also used to express deliberately ungrammatical expressions ("cocretas") or

invented ones.

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 © Juan Carlos Alcalá, Juan Marcos Carrillo, Juan Pedro Rica
Punctuation

1. Hyphens:

 They are used to express two characters' participation in the same subtitle. No space
between the hyphen and the first letter of the subtitle is left.

Subt. 1
‐¿Has terminado ya la barbacoa?
‐No, aún no.

Subt. 2
todavía tengo que poner
los chorizos y las morcillas.

 We cannot use more than two hyphens per subtitle. If two or more people are talking at
the same time, we must give priority to one of them.

 We cannot use hyphens to separate words.

2. Comma:

 We must follow the orthotypographical rules for the use of the comma in Spanish.

 If the comma is obligatory in Spanish, it must be kept no matter it is at the end of a

subtitle.

 If the comma is optional, we should avoid to leave a comma at the end of the subtitle,
since the end of a line of a subtitle is already a pause.

3. Suspension points:

 They are used when a character does not finish his speech.

 We can use initial suspension points when we begin a speech in an abrupt way (for
example, when a character switches on the radio).

 We use suspension points to mark a cut in an interrupted expression.

Subt. 1
La subtitulación...

Subt. 2
¡Cuidado, un coche!

Subt. 3
...es muy importante.

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 © Juan Carlos Alcalá, Juan Marcos Carrillo, Juan Pedro Rica
 It is discouraged to use suspension points to mark the transition in the same speech in
different subtitles.

Subt. 1
Esto es un ejemplo...

Subt. 2
...de lo que no se debe hacer.

4. Exclamation and question marks:

 We should not use exclamation and question marks to express the emphasis in the voice of
the characters, specially in the case of subtitles for hearing population, since the intensity
of the voice of the characters can be easily deduced from the sound path which is heard.

 We cannot use a combination of exclamation and question marks.

 When two expressions using exclamation or question marks take place on the same line of
the subtitles, they are separated by a space.

‐Hay niños que están peor.

‐¿Cómo lo sabe? ¿Tiene hijos?

5. Other symbols and signs

 We are not encouraged to use parentheses ( ), brackets [ ], asterists * and apostrophes

unless they appear in inserts shown on the screen.

 We should not abuse of the semicolon.

 Some other symbols, such as the slash (/) or the percentage symbol (%) can appear in
certain expressions that require those symbols, like 27 km/h.

Abbreviations, acronyms and symbols.

1. Abbreviations:

 Only those ones which are very common can be used (Vd. instead of Usted, Sr. instead of
Señor, a. C. instead of antes de Cristo, s. XX instead of siglo XX, etc.), always following the
orthographical rules, and always followed by a dot.

 We should not abuse of those abbreviations which are less common in Spanish and can
lead to confusion (admón., cód., etc.).

¿Sabe Vd. con quién está hablando?

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 © Juan Carlos Alcalá, Juan Marcos Carrillo, Juan Pedro Rica
2. Acronyms: acronyms are always written in capital letters and without dots.

Subt. 1
Me fui de vacaciones a EEUU.

Subt. 2
Quería coger el tren,
pero ya solo circula el AVE.

3. Symbols: some other symbols, such as the chemical symbols or measure units are never
followed by a dot.

Compró 200 g de chopped

y cuarto y mitad de bacon.

Numbers

 It is recommended to write numbers from zero to nine with letters, unless we have some
spacial‐temporal limitations. The rest of the numbers will be written in figures.

 It is recommended not to start a subtitle with a number.

 Numbers are written in figures when they are part of an address, a date or a measure
expression or the age.

 The measure expressions will be expressed with the number and the specific abbreviation,
leaving a space inbetween. We will have to convert the foreign measure expressions to the
equivalent Spanish ones (miles/millas → kilometers/kilómetros).

 An expression denoting money will be expressed with the appropriate symbol. It will not
be divided from its number by a space.

Se compraron
un coche de 20.000$.

 Decimal numbers will be written with figures and a comma.

 The time will be written using two dots.

 The ordinary numbers can be written superscript (voladita).