Subtitles iMovie: How to add subtitles and captions to iMovie?
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Subtitles iMovie: How to add subtitles and captions to iMovie?

Even though iMovie does not have a subtitle or caption functionality, and uploading SRT files is not possible, there is still a way to manually add subtitles to your iMovie video project. 

It is cumbersome and time consuming, but it is possible to add subtitles. It would save you a lot of time if you already have a SRT file. Don’t have one yet? First go to our blog post what is an SRT file? to learn how to create SRT files easily using Triple8.

If you already have the SRT file, read on.

Manually add and edit subtitles in iMovie

  1. Open your project in iMovie
  2. Go to Titles and choose the “default lower third” title
  3. Adjust the style of the title
  4. Insert the text and adjust the visibility to the audio (in your SRT file you will find the text and time of the subtitles per line)
  5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each new sentence
  6. Export your iMovie project as a video file. The subtitles are automatically rendered in the video.

More tips for subtitling videos?

Want to know more about how to add subtitles to social media channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook? Or how to add subtitles in other video editing programs like Premiere Pro? Read our ultimate guide to video subtitling where we explain all of this.