Subtitle reading speed (characters per second)
How many characters per second a viewer must read to follow a subtitle: too high and there isn’t time to read it.
A subtitle’s reading speed is measured in characters per second (CPS): the number of characters in the text divided by the seconds it’s on screen. A 34-character subtitle that lasts 2 seconds runs at 17 CPS.
If the speed is too high, viewers don’t finish reading before the subtitle changes and stop watching the picture. Industry guidelines usually put the maximum somewhere between about 15 and 21 CPS depending on the audience and type of content.
- Extend the subtitle if there’s room before the next one.
- Condense the text without changing the meaning.
- Split a long subtitle in two.
Echo creates subtitles aiming for about 17 characters per second as a comfortable speed and 21 at most, with 2 lines of 42 characters and 1 to 7 seconds per subtitle. The subtitles editor shows each one’s speed so you can fix the fast ones.
