Use Your Own Font for Video Captions in DepCut

A brand font makes captions look like part of your channel. DepCut lets you add a font file to a project and use it for captions in a single step.

Before you start

The caption settings live in the Options tab of the Subtitles panel, and that tab appears once the video has captions. Run Generate subtitles first if you have not.

Upload a font

1. Open Subtitles and switch to the Options tab.
2. Open the Font menu.
3. Scroll to the end of the list and choose Upload font….
4. Pick a .ttf or .otf file from your computer.

DepCut checks that the file loads as a font before it joins the project, and an Adding font… note shows while it works. A file of another type gets the message to choose a .ttf or .otf file, and a damaged file is reported as an unusable font. When the font loads, it is applied to your captions straight away. It appears in the Font menu under the file name, without the extension.

Fonts already in the menu

You can skip the upload when one of the built-in choices fits. The menu includes SF Pro, New York, Rounded, Mono and Impact, along with Inter, Montserrat, Poppins, Oswald, Space Grotesk, Playfair Display, Caveat, Bebas Neue, Anton, Archivo Black, Bangers, Lobster, Pacifico, Permanent Marker and DM Serif Display. Each name is drawn in its own face, so you can compare them at a glance.

The first entry, Style's font, follows whatever font the caption style uses.

How your font behaves

• It belongs to the project. An uploaded font is stored as a project file and appears in that project's title and subtitle font menus. Upload it again in the next project.
• It applies to every subtitle track. If you have captions in two languages, both use the font.
• A new style takes the font back. Picking a style in the Styles tab hands the font to that style. Choose the style first and the font second.
• You can step back. Choosing Style's font returns to the style's own font. Reset to style clears the font along with your size and word highlight changes.

Choosing a font that reads well

Viewers get a fraction of a second to read each caption, so favor clarity.

• Pick a medium or bold weight with open, simple letter shapes.
• Be careful with thin strokes and ornate scripts. They break up over moving footage.
• Check that the font has every character you need, including accents and punctuation, especially for captions in other languages.
• Confirm the license allows use in video before you publish.
• Use one font for the whole video.

After uploading, use the Size slider in the same tab to find a size that reads at a glance, and scrub across a bright shot and a dark one. A plate style such as Clean or Block gives a lighter font extra contrast.

Bring your font in

Upload the font your channel already uses from Subtitles, Options in DepCut and see how your captions look in it.