1. Prepare the text
- Put one subtitle per line, or separate subtitles with a blank line if a subtitle has two lines.
- Keep each line to roughly 42 characters and each subtitle to two lines at most; this is a common broadcast guideline.
- Break at natural pauses: after punctuation, before conjunctions, never between an article and its noun.
- If your text came from a PDF with broken lines, clean it first with remove line breaks.
2. Generate timings
Open the TXT to SRT converter. Choose fixed duration if every subtitle should last the same time, or reading speed to make longer lines stay on screen longer. Set the start time to where speech begins in your video and add a short gap between cues.
3. Convert and download
Click Convert, read through the output, and download the .srt file. Give it the same base name as your video (for example talk.mp4 and talk.srt) so players pick it up automatically.
4. Sync with the audio
Automatic timing is an estimate, not real sync. Load the file into your video editor or YouTube Studio's subtitle editor and drag cues to match the speech. YouTube can also auto-sync a plain transcript if you upload it as a transcript instead of a timed file.
5. Export other formats
For web players convert the result with SRT to VTT.
Frequently asked questions
Can the tool detect when people speak?
No. It does not listen to audio; it spaces subtitles by the duration you choose. Use an editor to sync to speech.
What reading speed should I use?
Around 15–17 characters per second is a comfortable, commonly used speed.