What Is the Best Font for Subtitles? [12 Fonts Compared]

Sasha updated on Aug 16, 2024 to AI Article

Are you a video creator and looking for the best font for subtitles? Look no further; the article lists and compares the best subtitle fonts in terms of their effectiveness.

As Video content continually dominates the digital world, we can't overstate the importance of subtitles fonts. Every detail, including subtitles, matters while telling a story or creating vlogs or videos. Along with helping viewers to understand sounds better, they also build the creator's path to engaging and captivating audiences. Whether you're a content creator, vlogger, or video editor, understanding the font styles is essential as they can affect the video's overall performance.

The table compares features of all font styles for video subtitles text. You can select according to your video content.

Font Style Readability Legibility Suitable for Visibility
Arial High High Various Good
Helvetica High High Professional Goo
Times New Roman Moderate Moderate Formal, Academic Fair
Verdana High High Web, Informative Good
Georgia Moderate Moderate Creative, Artistic Fair
Tahoma High High Business, Presentations Good
Roboto High High Digital, Modern Good
Merryweather Moderate High Elegant, Literary Fair
Open Sans High High Versatile Good
Lato High High Contemporary Good
Pluto Sans Moderate Moderate Playful, Casual Fair
Calibri High High Professional, Modern Good

What to Consider When Choosing Font for Subtitles?

The subtitles should be clear and easily understandable as the subtitles appear only on a small part of the video screen. Several factors affect the subtitles' effectiveness.

1. Readability

The ease of reading and understanding the text is called readability. A subtitle with good readability ensures that video viewers can read the lines without straining their eyes. Before choosing a font style for your video subtitles, selecting a font style that offers high readability is crucial.

2. Legibility

Legibility is the degree to which readers can distinguish between two characters. The subtitles should be legible enough to be recognizable in small sizes. It is vital to ensure that characters are not vague and confusing.

3. Visibility

Visibility is related to clear subtitles being easily readable while the video plays. It depends upon the contrast of the background color and font color. While choosing your font style and color, make sure it is visible clearly on a specific background.

4. Serif & San Serif fonts

Serif fonts are traditional, with small decorative lines or "Serifs" at the end of characters. In contrast, San Serif fonts lack these lines and are modern font style. While choosing a font style, check if the Serif font style is easily readable. The choice of a font style depends upon the tone you want to convey.

12 Best Fonts for Subtitles

Here are the 12 best fonts for subtitles that will increase your video subtitles' readability, legibility, and visibility. The comparison of all the font styles will help video creators to find a font style that will elevate the quality and accessibility of their video.

1. Arial

Arial is a San serif font and has become popular as Microsoft's core font. With over 15 styles, it is widely used for multiple purposes, such as graphic design, advertising, and digital media. One of its distinct features is that it is readable and legible even in small font sizes. Regarding visibility, you can choose an Arial font style and color that is prominent in the background color.

2. Helvetica

As a San Serif font style, Helvetica is the best font for subtitles on Reddit and is known for its clear lines and contemporary style. This versatile and legible typeface combines elegance with minimalism. In addition to being highly legible, its naturally balanced design makes fonts clear on all types of backgrounds. With a perfect contrast with the background, the fonts are easy to read without any visual distraction.

3. Verdana

With exceptional readability, this San Serif font style is suitable for video subtitles. The qletters in Verdana are more comprehensive and have a considerable height than many other font styles. The exceptional letter size and balanced design make it more legible for all screen sizes and resolutions. With consistent spacing and proportion, the subtitles blend well with the video content, making it look more professional.

4. Tahoma

Tahoma is a popular font style for video subtitles known for its clarity. The uniform character width and letterforms contribute to its perfect legibility and readability. With clear fonts, distinct letters, and versatile layouts, Tahoma offers a positive user experience. But it is unsuitable for projects needing a more artistic or creative touch.

5. Georgia

Georgia is the best option if you want to add elegance to your video. The letters in the words are positioned close together cleanly, making them easy to read. Furthermore, the small letters in Georgia are slightly greater than other font styles. Its readability is even on small screens, and the sophisticated contrast ensures a perfect interface even on smartphones.

6. Calibri

Calibri is a simple font style and is easy to read. Its well-proportional lines and clear characters make it highly legible. As it emphasizes more on clarity, the content creators use it to attract a wider audience. It is suitable for any video content, from formal to casual, informative to artistic, and documentaries to entertainment.

7. Open Sans

Being a San Serif Font style, Open Sans is exceptionally readable even at smaller sizes. The neutral design makes it suitable for both formal and informal videos. The font style offers a positive user experience with its clear letterforms and clear style. But it's less distinctive and expressive, so it may not suit every project. While selecting Open Sans for subtitles text, make sure to check if it aligns with the content's tone.

8. Times New Roman

Times New Roman is a serif font, having small decorative lines/serifs at the ends of characters. This font style is helpful for printed materials. But as subtitles texts are often small, the serifs may merge, making the text less clear. Compared to San Serif fonts, this style doesn't streamline with contemporary aesthetic designs. Moreover, Times New Roman doesn't clearly distinguish fonts from the background.

9. Roboto

Roboto is a popular Sans-Serif typeface originally designed for Google's Android Interface. With its multiple weights and styles available, video editors can use it for all their needs. From promotional videos to film subtitles, it offers a perfect and friendly appearance for all formal and informal video content.

10. Lato

Lato is a clean and modern typeface suitable for digital displays and subtitles. From thin to bold, the font style is available in multiple weights. It also includes italic versions of each weight allowing video editors to differentiate between various kinds of information. Its high readability and legibility make this San Serif font style perfect for video subtitles.

11. Pluto Sans

Pluto Sans is a simple font style with clear letterforms and contributes significantly to the readability of subtitles. The font style is legible, and viewers can read in all sizes and resolutions. Multiple weights and styles are available to add spice to the aesthetics of your video. But in terms of contrast, video editors may need to adjust the contrast of background and font to make the subtitles readable.

12. Merryweather

Merryweather combines traditional Serifs and modern styles with clean and clear letters. It is suitable for both digital and print media. Being a traditional design, it is more suitable for videos that convey a sense of timelessness. The subtitles are easily readable and have generous spacing between characters, making the context clear even at small sizes. To ensure proper visibility, editors must carefully consider the contrast between subtitles text and background.

Tips for Picking the Best Font for Subtitles

Here are a few tips for video editors to choose the best font style for subtitles on TikTok.

♦ Maintain consistency in your subtitles.

♦ Create a hierarchy between the title, subtitle, and main content.

♦ Make sure that the font style is compatible with all devices.

♦ Consider the tone of your content; use simple fonts for formal content and decorative fonts for creative content.

♦ Before finalizing the video, test it for readability and visibility.

If you are wondering how to add subtitles to TikTok, the below post might be helpful.

How to Add Subtitles on TikTok?

Wan to enhance your storytelling and reach a wider audience by adding captivating captions on TikTok? Learn how to add subtitles on TikTok from the post below.

How to Add/Edit Subtitles?

Avoid the hassle of manually adding subtitles with the all-in-one video editor "EaseUS VideoKit." It provides automatic subtitles generation and subtitle editing in just a few steps. You are free to add subtitles to the video or edit SRT files. In addition to generating subtitles, EaseUS VideoKit serves as an all-around platform workspace for all your video editing needs. Some useful features of it for video editors are:

  • Video editing: trim, cut, split, merge, rotate, mix video clips, apply stylish video effects
  • No video length limitation
  • Remove vocals smoothly from the song
  • Add text effects to improve the visual experience

Boost your video editing experience with EaseUS VideoKit now!

Bottom Line

The article listed and compared the 12 best subtitles fonts for Youtube, Netflix, and other video-sharing apps. To help video creators edit like a pro, this article also offers a versatile video editor, "EaseUS VideoKit." From audio track editing to removing watermarks, this video subtitle generator will help you to grow your audience.

Spread the knowledge and help more people discover the magic of subtitles.

 

FAQs on Best Font for Subtitles

Still have some questions after reading the information above? The following section addresses frequently asked questions by users.

1. What font is used for Netflix subtitles?

The default font style of Netflix subtitles is known as "Consolas." The subtitles in Netflix videos are in monospaced fonts, I.e., fixed equal space. All the characters and words have the exact distance between them.

2. What are the best Dafont fonts for subtitles?

The best Dafont fonts include Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Montserrat, Raleway, Nunito, Source Sans Pro, Quicksand, Oswald, and PT Sans.

3. What is the best font and color for subtitles?

Black and white are known as the best fonts for video subtitles. Black appears clearly on light color backgrounds, while white suits the best for darker backgrounds.

4. What is the aesthetic font for subtitles?

Helvetica is one of the most aesthetic typefaces with clear lines and simple fonts. High readability, legibility, and visibility make it the best choice for a subtitle font style. If you want to add aesthetic subtitles to your videos, EaseUS VideoKit offers automatic subtitles generation and advanced editing features.