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Click on New Style and then Description. Give your subtitle style a descriptive name and then click on Done. Next, click on Font and choose a style you prefer. Make sure to set Video Overrides Style to Off. This will ensure that your subtitle choice will work with all videos and they can’t be overridden. If you don’t do this, apps such as Netflix will just show the default style.
You can set a variety of advanced options for the font, such as Monospaced Serif, Serif, etc. These allow you to further define how the font looks on the screen. Make sure to set Video Overrides Style to Off if you change any of these options. Click the Menu button on your remote until you are back on the main style options screen.
Now that you have selected a font, it’s time to set the font size. There are five options for font size, ranging from Extra Small to Extra Large. Again, make sure to turn Video Overrides Style to Off. You will need to do this for all of the subtitle customization options. For the sake of not sounding redundant, turning this option off won’t be mentioned much more going forward. When you’re finished choosing your font size, click the Menu button to return to the main style options screen.
You may have noticed that as you edit your subtitle style, a preview is shown on the left side of the screen. This helps you get a better feel for how subtitles will look. You must be aware that certain subtitle appearance options can be hard to read. Videos have dynamic colors, so if you were to create black subtitle text with no background, it would be illegible on dark video content. Make sure to think about how your subtitle choices will work with different colors.
Font Color is the next option to customize. Apple TV offers 8 different colors for subtitles, ranging from white to black. Make sure to pick a color that will work with different backgrounds. Keep in mind, you can also choose a background mask for the subtitles to help them stand out more. This is a small rectangular area that encloses the subtitle, making it easier to read. The truth is, no font color will stand out against every possible video background. Just pick a font color that’s easy to read. I prefer white or yellow, but black also works well against a white background. Experiment until you find something that works well.
The next set of style options control the subtitle background’s appearance. The subtitle background is the small rectangular region that contains the subtitles. The background makes it easier to see subtitles against the constantly changing colors of video content. You can set both the color and opacity of the background. Choose a color that contrasts with your preferred text color. Also, make sure to set the background to be transparent enough to see your video content, yet opaque enough to yield legible subtitles. You can also remove the background by setting opacity to 0%. This makes it easier to see the underlying video, however, reading the subtitles can prove challenging. There are a few tricks that can help make background-free subtitles more legible. next page →