Automatic Hebrew subtitles — transcribe, edit, and burn them in

How to produce accurate Hebrew captions for a video, correct them, choose a style, and burn them in — including what really goes wrong with right-to-left text.

Updated 2026-09-08 · 2 min read

Hebrew is hard for automatic captions, and not because of the transcription. The real difficulty is direction: right-to-left text mixed with numbers, Latin names and punctuation, each of which behaves differently. The system is built around that problem.

How it works

1. Transcription — speech becomes text with a timestamp for every word, not just every sentence. That per-word timing is what makes it possible to highlight a word as it is spoken.
2. Sentence splitting — the text is broken into lines by meaning and by real pauses in speech, rather than by counting characters.
3. Translation — if you asked for a target language, whole sentences are translated rather than word by word, so meaning survives.
4. Alignment — each line is snapped to the moment speech actually begins.

Getting started

Open a video in the editor. In the side panel choose Translation, pick a source and target language, and start. A ten-minute video usually takes a few minutes.

If the source and target language are the same you get a transcript — captions in the original language.

Editing the captions

Every line appears in a list beside the video. Clicking a line jumps to its moment. You can correct text, split a line, merge two lines, and drag either edge to change its timing.

Changes save as you make them. There is no save button to forget.

Choosing a style

The Templates tab holds dozens of ready styles. Clicking one applies it to the preview immediately, so you judge the result before committing to it.

What you can change on any template:

• Font, size and weight
• Text colour, outline colour and thickness
• A plate behind the text, and its corner radius
• Position on screen — drag it directly in the preview
• Animation: fade in, pop, or highlight the word being spoken (karaoke)
• The karaoke highlight colour — on the Style tab, under the text colour

Worth knowing: not every font covers Hebrew. When you pick a template whose font is Latin-only, a suitable Hebrew face is substituted automatically rather than showing you boxes.

Punctuation and direction

A full stop at the end of a Hebrew sentence belongs on the left. Some fonts place it correctly on their own and some do not, so an invisible direction mark is added to every line. It applies to the preview and to the exported file alike.

If you see a question mark or full stop on the wrong side of an exported file, that is the chosen font ordering punctuation itself. Changing the font resolves it.

Exporting

Two ways:

• A subtitle file — SRT, VTT or ASS. These are separate files you can upload to YouTube or Facebook, and a viewer can switch them off. They download directly without opening the export panel.
• Burned into the video — the captions become part of the picture. That is what networks which do not show subtitle files need, such as Instagram and TikTok, and it is what preserves your design exactly as the editor showed it.

Burning uses the same measurements the preview used, so text size, position and outline in the file match what you saw.

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is Hebrew transcription?

On clear speech with reasonable audio it is high. Background noise, several people talking at once, and rare terms are what reduce it — which is why there is an editor to correct the result.

Can I translate into several languages at once?

Yes. You can produce several translated versions of the same video and export each separately.

Why do captions appear just after the speech?

Timing is snapped to where speech actually starts. If something looks shifted, drag the line's edge in the editor.

What is the difference between a subtitle file and burning?

A separate file can be switched off and helps YouTube search. Burned captions are guaranteed to appear in every player and on every network, but cannot be removed afterwards.

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