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Adding Subtitles

This guide gives you an introduction to adding Subtitle Styles by showing you visual outputs of the configurations available for the SubtitleStyle class:

Typography and Style

Font families, sizes, spacing, and text effects

Color and Effects

Primary colors, outlines, and background styling

Positioning and Margins

Alignment and margin configuration

Text Transformation

Scaling, rotation, and skewing effects

Borders and Shadow

Border styles, outlines, and shadow depth

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🛠️ Setup

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Installing packages

pip install videodb

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API Keys

Before proceeding, ensure access to VideoDB Get your API key from VideoDB Console. ( Free for first 50 uploads, No credit card required )

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Connect to VideoDB

import videodb

# Set your API key
api_key = "your_api_key"

# Connect to VideoDB
conn = videodb.connect(api_key=api_key)
coll = conn.get_collection()

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Upload Video

Upload a base video to add subtitle. For this guide, we’ll use following video 
video = coll.upload(url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il39Ks4mV9g")
video.play()
You can upload from your local file system too by passing file_path in upload()

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Index Spoken Words

First, we need to index the video using video.index_spoken_words() function. This ensures the availability of the transcript. Without this step VideoDB wouldn’t be able to add captions to any video. 
video.index_spoken_words()

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Default Subtitles

To add subtitles to your video you can use video.add_subtitle(). This method returns a streaming link that you can play using play_stream() method 
from videodb import play_stream

# Add Subtitle to Video
stream_url = video.add_subtitle()

# Play stream
play_stream(stream_url)

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Custom Styled Subtitles

To customise the style of subtitle, pass SubtitleStyle() with configured styles to video.add_subtitle() View API Reference for SubtitleStyle class 💅

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1. Typography and Style

Configure Typography of the Subtitle by passing following parameters to SubtitleStyle() class
  • font_name : The name of the font to use for the subtitles.
  • font_size : The size(px) of the font
  • spacing : Spacing(px) between characters
  • bold : Set to True for bold text
  • italic : Set to True for italic text
  • underline : Set to True for underlined text
  • strike_out : Set to True for strike-through text
Examples of typography and style options for subtitles including font, size, spacing, bold, italic, underline, and strike-through 
from videodb import SubtitleStyle, play_stream

stream_url = video.add_subtitle(
    SubtitleStyle(
        font_name="Roboto",
        font_size=12,
        spacing=0,
        bold=False,
        italic=False,
        underline=False,
        strike_out=False
    )
)
play_stream(stream_url)

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2. Color and Effects

Configure color of Subtitle by passing following parameters to SubtitleStyle() class
  • primary_colour : The color of the main subtitle text.
  • secondary_colour:** The color used for karaoke or secondary effects.
  • outline_colour:** The color of the outline of the text.
  • back_colour : The color of the subtitle background.
Format of Color SubtitleStyle accepts colors in the &HBBGGRR hexadecimal format, where the sequence represents the blue, green, and red components. &H prefix is required in this color format. And when transparency is needed, an alpha value is placed at the beginning, yielding &HAABBGGRR. Examples of color and effects for subtitles including primary color, secondary color, outline color, and background color 
from videodb import SubtitleStyle

stream_url = video.add_subtitle(
    SubtitleStyle(
        primary_colour="&H00A5CFFF",
        secondary_colour="&H00FFFF00",
        outline_colour="&H000341C1",
        back_colour="&H803B3B3B"
    )
)
play_stream(stream_url)

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3. Position and Margins

Configure alignment and position of Subtitle by passing following parameters to SubtitleStyle() class
  • alignment : Alignment of subtitle. Accepts a value a type SubtitleAlignment
  • margin_l : Sets margin area on left side of Subtitle box
  • margin_r : Sets margin area on right side of Subtitle box
  • margin_v : Sets margin area of top and bottom of Subtitle box
View API Reference to know more about SubtitleAlignment Examples of subtitle positioning and margin configurations showing alignment and spacing options 
from videodb import SubtitleStyle, SubtitleAlignment

stream_url = video.add_subtitle(
    SubtitleStyle(
        alignment=SubtitleAlignment.middle_center,
        margin_l=10,
        margin_r=10,
        margin_v=20
    )
)
play_stream(stream_url)

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4. Text Transformation

Transform the text size and spacing by passing following parameters to SubtitleStyle() class
  • scale_x : Factor for scaling of the font horizontally
  • scale_y : Factor for scaling of the font vertically
  • angle : Rotation angle(degress) of the text
Examples of text transformation effects for subtitles including horizontal scaling, vertical scaling, and rotation angles 
from videodb import SubtitleStyle

stream_url = video.add_subtitle(
    SubtitleStyle(
        scale_x=1.5,
        scale_y=3,
        angle=0
    )
)

play_stream(stream_url)

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5. Borders and Shadow

Add border style, outline and shadow by passing following parameters to SubtitleStyle() class
  • border_style : Border style of subtitle. Accepts a value a type SubtitleBorderStyle
  • outline:** The width(px) of the outline around the text.
  • shadow : The depth(px) of the shadow behind the text
View API Reference to know more about SubtitleBorderStyle Examples of border styles, outlines, and shadow effects for subtitles 
from videodb import SubtitleStyle, SubtitleBorderStyle

stream_url = video.add_subtitle(
    style=SubtitleStyle(
        shadow=2,
        back_colour="&H00000000",
        border_style=SubtitleBorderStyle.no_border
    )
)
play_stream(stream_url)

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Next Steps

Subtitle Styles Reference

Complete API reference for SubtitleStyle parameters and configuration options.
 Check out other resources and tutorials using Subtitle and Subtitle Styling.

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Get Support

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us:

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