Highlighter Captions for Tips, Quotes and Key Phrases

Highlighter looks like a marker stroke laid over your video: dark letters on a bright yellow plate. It is easy to spot on screen, which makes it a strong match for short, self-contained captions that deserve a second look.

The look

• The letters are near-black, in SF Pro bold at 42 px.
• The plate is bright yellow and almost solid.
• There is no shadow. The dark-on-yellow contrast does the work.
• With Highlight spoken word on, the word being said gets a pink box with white letters.

Where it fits

• Tip videos where every caption is a standalone step or rule.
• Quotes pulled out of an interview.
• Review and reaction clips where you want certain phrases to land.
• Product highlights with a short line for each feature.

Long, flowing speech suits it less. A wide yellow plate across several lines covers a large part of the frame. For talks and interviews, a plain style such as Clean usually stays out of the way.

Highlighter has an upbeat, casual tone. It fits a creator speaking to the camera and a quick-tips format. A sober topic such as a legal explainer or a memorial video reads better in Editorial or Clean, where the plate does not announce itself.

Apply it and turn on the spoken-word box

1. Open the Subtitles tab, then Styles, and select Highlighter.
2. Open Options and switch on Highlight spoken word.
3. Three buttons appear: Color, Underline and Highlight. The style starts on Highlight, which draws a box behind the current word.
4. Use the color swatch beside the buttons to change the pink. The letters inside the box switch between dark and white so they stay readable.
5. Play a few seconds and watch the box move from word to word.

The style is called Highlighter, and the box treatment is labeled Highlight. They are two separate settings. You can pick Underline or Color and keep the yellow plate.

Keep captions short

Highlighter works best when a caption is one thought. The Content tab shows each caption as a line of text with a time chip. To split a long line, click in the text where the break should fall and press Enter. To join two lines, put the cursor at the start of the second one and press Backspace.

Short lines also keep the yellow plate small, so less of the frame is covered.

Watch the frame

A yellow plate stands out on most footage, and it can hide a face or a detail you care about. If it does, drag the caption on the video to a clearer spot. The new position applies to every caption in the track.

Yellow footage deserves a second look. A sunny wall, a lemon, a yellow jacket and the plate can blend at the edges. The letters stay readable, but the plate loses its outline. If that happens, move the caption or try Block.

Test it on a tips video

Take a short tips video into DepCut, generate captions, and switch to Highlighter with the spoken-word box on. Play it once with the sound off to see how the captions carry each tip.