Guides
SRT Files vs Burned-In Captions: What Creators Should Know
28 October 2026 · 6 min read · CaptionFy team
There are two ways to deliver captions: as a separate file that the player displays, or drawn directly onto the video. Each has a clear use case, and choosing the wrong one can make your captions invisible or impossible to style.
What is a caption file?
A caption file such as SRT or VTT is plain text: a numbered list of lines with start and end times. The video player reads the file and draws the text on top of the video. Viewers can usually turn it on or off.
Caption files are great for long-form YouTube videos, courses and accessibility requirements, because the text stays searchable and editable.
What are burned-in captions?
Burned-in, or open, captions are rendered into the video pixels. They look exactly the same everywhere, with your chosen font, colour, animation and placement. They cannot be switched off.
Short-form platforms favour this style because the captions are part of the creative: highlighted keywords, emoji, bouncing words and bold layouts all depend on being drawn into the frame.
Which one should you use?
- Reels, TikTok, Shorts: burned-in captions, styled for the vertical frame.
- Long YouTube videos and webinars: a caption file, optionally plus burned-in highlights for key moments.
- Courses and training: caption files for accessibility and searchability.
- Ads: burned-in, because many ads autoplay muted.
How CaptionFy handles it
CaptionFy is built for burned-in captions on vertical video. Captions are rendered frame by frame into the exported video, so what you see in the editor preview is what appears in the final file.
The short version
If the video lives on a short-form feed, burn the captions in. If it lives in a player with a CC button, ship a caption file.
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