You can't move subtitles/captions below a fixed point in Premiere Pro 2021?

[Roger Overall]

Hi,

Can anyone help.

The new subtitling/captioning option in Premiere Pro 2021 doesn't allow you to move captions to the bottome of the frame. Previously, the freedom to do so was provided by the Effects Control tab. The new version means you have to work with the Essential Graphics panel and it doesn't allow you to drop your captions/subtitles below a certain point, it seems.

Regardless of the anchor point I choose or the value I enter on the verticle axis, Premiere Pro refuses to place captions as

Does anyone know how to place the subtitles/captions lower in the screen?

R

[Roger Overall]

FOLLOW UP:

It seems the problem is only with captions that run over two lines.

It is possible to manipulate the captions as long as they are over a single line.

R

[Stan Jones]

Yes, Caption Tracks being on their own and NOT video tracks meant they were not subject to workarounds that used the Effect Controls. See my comment below for a general workaround to this issue.

I don't think there is really a difference between single and multiple line captions regarding the bottom (or top, left, or right). There are a variety of other differences, particularly paragraph alignment.

PR 2021 moved the minimum distance from the actual edge of the frame, compared to PR 2020. In 2020, using only the Caption controls, you could get to about 90%. With 2021,you can get to 95%. For most users, that will be fine.

If not, see "To Adjust Caption Track Position" in this post:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-workaround-nesting-to-apply-effect-controls-to-capti...

Stan

[Roger Overall]

Hi Stan,

Thank you for this workaround. I'm very grateful.

It definitely works for captions that appear consistently on a single line.

Bests,

Roger

[Stan Jones]

That's good. What do you see as not working, for example, with multiline captions?

Stan

[Roger Overall]

Hi Stan,

It's more a case of when captions alternate between running over one and two lines, depending on the amount of text being shown.

In the previous version of Premiere Pro, the combination of the Effects Control and Essential Graphics tabs meant that captions stayed centred on a particular spot, regardless of whether a caption was one or two lines. It meant that as the video progressed, we were able to place the text on a narrow coloured background strip, and the text would never venture outside that strip, regardless of whether a particular piece of captioning was one or two lines.

I haven't been able to replicate that in the new version. The text jumps about, depending on whether it is a single or double line. If I set it up to accommodate a single line, the text jumps outside the strip as soon as a caption appears with a second line. And if I set it up to accommodate a double lines of text, then single lines of text don't fit properly on the strip.

So our solution now is to manually adjust for individual segments of captioning.

It's a shame. Before, we'd simply centre the caption where we needed it and Premiere Pro would centre it regardless of the text going over one or two lines.

It's a shame. From a personal  point of view, I can't see that this change has improved the captioning function really. It is less flexible than before in terms of effects and I can't see (yet) that the new function is superior and let's us do things we couldn't before. But that is, of course, a highly personal perspective based on our workflow.

Thanks again for your help,

Roger

[Stan Jones]

So the background box stays the same size, and the one-, or two-, line text is centered vertically in the box?

In the Text Panel (or drag in the timeline), select all captions on the track. In the EGP Text section, not Align and Transform, set the vertical "paragraph" alignment to centered. Then make your adjustments in the nested sequence.

Note that this is centering on the bounding box, which can be adjusted in the EGP Align and Transform section. But if you only have one and two line captions, I don't think you'll need to.

This paragraph alignment always confused me because you see nothing if there is only one line. And when you adjust a multiline caption, you don't see the bounding box point of reference.

Captions were painful before, and I think more users than Adobe knew, were using the Effect Controls to get the workflow they wanted. Put in feature requests for what you need. Adding more flexibility for the background would make this even easier for you than before. And there are many users that want more flexibility in the background settings.

Bug report/Feature request:
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro

Stan

[Roger Overall]

Cheers, Stan.

Apologies for the slow response.

I haven't yet had time to implement your suggestion, but I will certainly do so. I'm grateful for your time.

Thank you also for the feature request link.

Bests,

Roger