How to customize automatically generated video captions and visual styles

Video & Audio

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Goal: Deliver accurate, accessible captions and cohesive visuals for auto-generated transcripts.
Approach: Use a repeatable, tool-agnostic workflow to preprocess audio, generate captions, and refine styling.

Who is this for?

- Content creators seeking to automate captions and visual styling.
- Video editors balancing speed, accuracy, and visuals.
- Marketing teams needing accessible videos for broad audiences.
- Educators and trainers scaling caption workflows.

Before you start

- Access to your video content and a captioning workflow.
- Basic familiarity with caption timing concepts.
- A plan for desired visual styles (font, size, color) and accessibility targets.

General Process (How it works)

Assess audio quality Identify background noise and speech clarity to guide tool choice and settings.
Choose captioning approach Decide whether auto captions, semi-automatic editing, or manual corrections best fit your workflow.
Prepare media Clean up audio, trim silence, and align transcripts to reduce errors.
Configure visuals Set fonts, colors, and timing rules for captions and on-screen text.
Generate captions Run the captioning tool and export in a compatible format, then review for errors.
Review and correct Iteratively fix misheard words and align captions with video pacing.
Deliver and archive Publish with accessible captions and save versions for future edits.

Jump to tool:

Submagic

Descript

VEED

🏆 Recommended for this task

🏆 Recommended

Submagic

Best for: For teams and businesses needing rapid, scalable short-form content. Use Submagic to produce engaging shorts for marketing campaigns and social channels.

Paid Required$12 / month

How to in Submagic

Decide scope: global vs per-theme: Choose whether caption styling changes apply to all captions in the project or only to a specific theme. Global scope yields consistency across videos; per-theme scope allows variations. Confirm the preferred scope before proceeding.
Move caption position globally: Open the global caption position control and set the desired position (bottom, center, etc.). Apply and preview to verify consistent placement across captions.
Create and apply a Custom Theme: Create a new custom theme that captures your brand—fonts, colors, spacing, and emphasis—and save it. Apply this theme to the project to apply the styling across captions.
Upload your own fonts: In the font settings, upload your brand font(s) and assign them to the caption style. Ensure the font renders correctly in previews.
Add emojis to captions: Enable emoji support in the current theme and insert emojis into captions where appropriate. Verify rendering in the preview and adjust as needed.
Adjust caption size: Use the Size control in the Style panel to increase or decrease caption size. Apply to the chosen scope and preview on multiple devices.
Set caption colors (primary and highlights): Open the color settings; set the primary caption color and up to three highlight colors. Save and apply to the theme, then review readability in the preview.
Apply and explore themes: Browse the theme library and categories; select a theme that matches your brand and apply it. Compare alternatives and keep the best fit.
Generate AI Hook Title and refine: In Caption editing, use Generate Hook Title to create an AI-generated hook; regenerate variations and select the best. Verify the hook text appears in captions.

Try Submagic Tool details

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Alternatives

Descript

Best for: Best for individuals and teams producing marketing videos, tutorials, podcasts, and social clips who want fast, AI-assisted editing and design.

Free Plan Available$16 / month

How to in Descript

Define caption and styling goals: Clarify branding requirements for captions and text overlays, including preferred fonts, colors, layout, and when to use a captions layer versus a text layer. This establishes the baseline for all subsequent steps and ensures consistency with your WordPress visuals.
Create and rename text layers: In Descript's Elements panel, add Text, Subtitle, and Title layers and rename them to reflect their role (e.g., BodyText, CaptionSubtitle, HeroTitle). This naming helps keep scenes organized as you scale the project.
Customize fonts, color, and layout: Select a text layer in the scene editor or Timeline. Use the toolbar to adjust font family, size, alignment, and color. Set positioning and layout across scenes and control layer duration and placement to maintain visual coherence.
Use live text to auto-fill layers: Enable live text for dynamic fields: Speaker, Composition name, Marker, and Timer. Configure each live-text target to automatically populate as you edit the script, ensuring captions stay in sync with on-screen context.
Add a background to text: Enhance readability by applying a background to text layers. Choose between a bounding box or fixed-width box, adjust border radius, background color, and enable hugging lines to wrap the background to each line.
Add emojis to text: Insert emojis (e.g., 🎉, 👍, 💡) directly into text layers. Ensure emoji styling matches the surrounding typography by adjusting size, color, and alignment in the Properties panel.
Switch to captions layer for synced captions: If you need timed captions, switch from a plain text layer to a captions layer. Captions are generated from your script and update with edits, providing synchronized captions for playback.
Ensure style consistency across scenes: Review all scenes to confirm consistent font choices, colors, background treatments, and spacing. Apply changes globally where possible to maintain a unified look across the video.
Preview, export, and publish to WordPress: Play back the project to verify timing and visuals. Export captions and assets or prepare WordPress-ready output. Draft a WordPress post describing the workflow and attach the video/caption assets for embedding.

Tool details

VEED

Best for: Teams across marketing, learning and development, internal communications, and sales that require on-brand, collaborative video production.

Paid Required$12 per user / month

How to in VEED

Open VEED AI Text-to-Video and set initial caption style: Log in to VEED and navigate to the AI Text-to-Video tool. Before generating, choose the baseline subtitle style to shape the appearance of captions in the preview (font, size, color, and background options may be available). Confirm the preview reflects the selected style.
Review script and tone: Check the generated script for accuracy and adjust tone or audience settings if needed to influence how captions align with narration in the final video.
Generate the video: Proceed to generate the video from your prompts. Locate the new project in your VEED dashboard once processing completes.
Edit captions for accuracy and timing: Open the captions track in the editor, correct any errors in the caption text, and adjust timing to ensure captions sync with spoken content.
Customize caption appearance: Modify caption font family, size, color, background box, and optional outline/shadow to maximize legibility across scenes.
Refine caption placement and duration: Move caption blocks on the timeline to proper screen placement and adjust durations to avoid overlaps while maintaining readability.
Save caption style as a preset: Save the current caption styling as a reusable preset for future VEED AI Text-to-Video projects.
Apply visual styles to the video: Use the Effects tab to apply filters or color grading. Ensure the chosen visual style complements caption readability and overall aesthetic.
Preview and export: Run a full preview, verify captions and visuals across scenes, then export with the desired quality settings.

Tool details

Quick Comparison

Tool	Free Plan?	Min Price
Submagic	No	$12 / month
Descript	Yes	$16 / month
VEED	No	$12 per user / month