Subtitle Preferences - Survey

[Furienify]

ITT: I pester Anime viewers about aesthetic preferences

This question has been bothering me a long time, and I have to practically pull teeth to get an answer from 'professional fansubbing groups' because they treat this like some sort of precious, clandestine knowledge and refuse to give away their font specifics. Plus, any research I do is from very dated forum posts. So I'm asking people here. Many of you have probably watched a subbed film or program of some sort, be it a DVD or an anime. I've experimented with lots of styles but have yet to find anything that makes me very comfortable. If you could do me a favour and answer the following questions you'd definitely put my mind at ease:

A subtitle has a primary colour (inner) and a secondary/outline colour (the outline, derp).

1. Two common primary colours are WHITE or YELLOW with a black outline. Yellow is evidently a traditional sort of thing, dating back to the age of VHS subtitles, where white subs would cause colour bleeding. Which do you prefer? Do you loathe one of them, and if so, why?
2. Do you have a preference for outline colour or styles? Particularly thin or dense? Colour-coded? I've noticed three main styles:
- Plain black outline
- Outlines that distinguish based on who is currently speaking
- A tinted outline (typically blue/purple or brown/red), with the secondary colour only being used when someone is talking simultaneously over another character.
3. Is there a particular font you prefer? (Granted most people don't actually know the fonts being used, but I'll ask anyways)
4. Is there a style/font used by a fansub group that you really like? (Screenshots would be A++ if possible)
5. Are there any pet peeves you run into that detract from your enjoyment of what you're watching?
6. Do you ever put any subs under a 'test'? (One example I've heard is that if people can't read it from 6 feet away, it's bad, but I'm nearsighted so trolololol bastards)
7. Do you care either way about honorifics being translated (Miss XYZ vs. XYZ-san vs. XYZ) and if so what's your preference?

Much thanks to all responders.

[Helix ⑨]

1. I live in the netherlands, so every english program on tv has subtitles which are white (and unlike the french and germans, we rarely dub stuff). It's what I grew up with and think looks best. I don't like yellow, but that's probably because yellow subs usually mean the  video quality is bad aswell.
2. Black outline is fine I guess. I've seen some animes tough with outline colours representing the person speaking the lines (i.e. green haired girl has green outline subtitles), I don't mind this as long as the quality is decent.
3. No retard font
4. Not really
5. Some subs block an important part of the screen. Sometimes either a long sub is given or extra explanation at the top of the screen is displayed, yet you have no time to read it. Forcing you to rewind and pause to read it.
6. what.......... no
7. I grealy prefer -san behind my names. Any regular anime watcher should know these honorifics anyway and I feel part of the relationship between characters can get lost if the honorific isn't translated properly.

[hyorinryu]

1. I prefer white subs because they stand out more. Yellow subs also seem ugly to me for some reason.
2.Not familar with tinted, but I prefer plain white subs with a black outline.
3. I don't really have a preferance for fonts, as I've been okay with most of the fonts I've seen so far.
4. Not really
5. Localization can. I don't really care if I don't know exactly what it is as long I know what it is in context (a food, a technique, etc.) One time I was watching Star Driver and it annoyed me that they called kendo fencing(I'm pretty sure it was kendo, they had those bamboo swords.)
6. As long as I can read it, I'm happy.
7. I really don't care about honorifics, I'm fine with localizations or just leaving it there, as long as it doesn't become relevent(i.e. dropping the suffix, stuff like that.)

[jigglyppuff8]

1. White only because yellow is god awful. There is the rare occasion where white doesn't show up well, but it's still more aesthetically pleasing than yellow.
2. I like something not too thick but not too thin either. More closer to thin than thick. As for styling, I'm fine with Black and tints. I used to think color-coordinated subs were cool once, but then I realized that they were just overkill. Two colors two differentiate when two people are talking at the same time should be the modern day limit.
3. I prefer reading minimalistic, sans serif fonts. Pretentious fonts like old script are just no. Save that stuff for karaoke if you're going to use it.
4. I have no favorites really.
5. Direct translation of verbal tics. It's fine if they have some kind of relevance to the character's speech, on the contrary. Otherwise, I prefer to have the verbal tic ignored in subs, left as is, or incorporated into their general speech pattern.
For example, there are two ways I have seen "de gozaru" handled. One was in Rumbel's Gintama where the subs just added "I daresay" to the end of everything. Nutbladder's Arakawa Under the Bridge translations, on the other hand, incorporated "de gozaru" into a old fashioned tone of speaking so that it read like Middle English.
Another example would be Marisa's "ze", where a boyish tone of speaking would be preferable over constant use of "yo".
6. The only standard for my subs are their ratings on MAL and their availability on bakabt.
7. -san, -chan, -kun, and -senpai are all fine to leave alone, since natural sounding English doesn't usually incorporate constant use of "Mr." or "Senior". Additionally, it's fine to leave them out as well.
-sama is kind of a gray area. I'm used to seeing it in subs, but I'm not averse to things like "lord" or "master".
-sensei I like to see translated if it is referring to modern profession. Teachers, doctors, writers, those kind of things I like to see "Mr. or Dr." in behind. When used as a standalone, I like to see it translated as teacher, doctor, etc.
The major exceptions to -sensei would be if it is used out of respect or a traditional profession such as martial arts instruction.

[Fightest]

White is best due to its neutrality and likelihood of contrast with the rest of the scene. A light black outline is good for establishing borders and for when the background is whiter than usual. A small shadow can actually help, I feel, to add impact to the subs without disturbing the rest of the image.

Fonts should be simple sans serif - arial, calibri, tahoma. If you use comic sans I kill you. Size is indeed important, and I'd actually prefer a larger font size for ease of legibility, even if it might obscure some of the picture, as a smaller font is harder to read, so one ends up spending more time reading the sub than watching the action.

Pet peeves? Spelling and grammar. Nothing is worse than getting those wrong.

As for honorifics, I'd say do away with them, unless they're really important, for some reason, at which point localise them. Otherwise I don't care if someone is a -sempai or a -san or a -dono. Speech mannerisms and behaviour are sufficient to get across how a character feels about another.

As an added point, there is a magnificent sub of Shinryaku! Ika Musume that takes the -de geso verbal tic of the main character and actually turns it into genuine squid puns, in the vein of Persona 4's Teddie and his bear puns. Sure, it might come on a bit too strong sometimes, and othertimes might not work too well, but it added a phenomenal amount of character to the sub. More of that is absolutely welcome.

[Kasu]

1.  Doesn't really matter to me about the colour or outline as long as they're readable.
2. I don't mind if the outline colours are different for specific characters or if they use a single colour outline for the whole thing.  Same for if the colour in general is different as well.
3. Preferable Arial or Times New Roman, but as long as I don't need to strain to see them or if the font bares a resemblance to the aforementioned two its all good.
4. Not really.
5. Spelling and grammar.  Also, though it rarely happens, when they attempt to translate a verbal tic.
6. Nope.
7. I prefer it if they leave the honorifics in the translation, but it doesn't bother me too much if they don't or if they sub in the English honorifics.

[helvetica]

I override all your stupid gimmick settings so it honestly doesn't matter to me.  Waste all that time doing colored karaoke stuff because it just looks white on black to me :smug:
(it's because I reencode to watch on my PSP please don't hurt me ;____;)

Only pet peeve is obvious grammatical errors or translation errors that any idiot who bothered to look at any sort of context could fix.

[Grand Octopus]

Eins -  Half my DVDs have ugly yellow subs and it bugs the hell out of me. White is superior.
Zwei - Personally, I think that using different outlines when characters are speaking simultaneously should be the fansubbers' standard. Outlines that consistently distinguish individual speakers are just going the extra mile. No real preference for outline colour.
Drei - IMPACT. Nah, as long as the font is reasonably standard or complements the show if it's unusual, then it's fine.
Vier - Nope.
F?nf - Spelling/grammar/obvious translation errors. Something being translated too literally. Also if a character is 'de arimasu'-ing or whatever every 5 seconds and it's included in the subs.
Sechs - See 4.
Sieben - No real preference for what's done with them.

[Tengukami]

I prefer subs that are light-colored with a dark outline. Doesn't matter which colors, so long as it's easy on the eyes.

Honorifics don't bother me if they're there or not.

My one pet peeve with subs is when subbers decide to be cute with the localization. Like one episode of Ika Musume had her say "Come at me, bro!", which I thought was just stupid. I think localization should be kept to a minimum, but if it must be used, try to avoid using some tangentially related meme.

On the other hand, Pani Poni Dash made so many references - which the subbers were kind enough to footnote on-screen - that I frequently needed to pause the episode in order to read these footnotes. I think instead such footnotes should be put on a separate text or pdf file, episode by episode.

[_Zac_]

I prefer subs that are light-colored with a dark outline. Doesn't matter which colors, so long as it's easy on the eyes.

I've been seeing this quite a lot and prefer it over the standard white with black outline.

Other than that I really don't care as long as it's consistent.

[Sen]

Something you might want to check out: The Rise and Fall of Anime Subs.


1. Use white. Yellow is just...hideous.

2. Generally it should be kept light on the inside, black on the outline. White works best, I think. I remember how Higurashi's subs were color-coded for each character's hair color, which was nice at first, but that got old really fast, especially when characters with similar hair colors showed up (Shion = light green, Mion = dark green. Both of them talking at the same time = ). Special effects on subs are usually distracting and irritating.

3.A simple Arial is fine. Shouldn't be distracting or pretentious.

4.Just to contradict what I've been saying so far, I actually really like what HorribleSubs did with Panty and Stocking. It's a fun and ridiculous series, so the blue coloring with the fun font actually works really well. But that's the only example I can think of where it works.

5.The whole reason I'm watching a sub is because I don't know Japanese well enough to understand it myself. Don't leave unnecessary Japanese. Translator's notes on the top of the screen are distracting; I'd be fine with a separate readme.txt explaining the stuff, like what Gensokyo.org did with the SWR English patch. Stuff like attack names in general should be translated as well; "Gomu Gomu no Rocket" (see below) works perfectly fine as "Gum Gum Rocket."
Also, overly-fancy subs are irritating and fucking stupid. There is no reason for this to exist.

7. Generally leaving in the -sans and -chans just reeks of kawaii desu ne. If you can localize it to Mr/Mrs/whatever, that works. If they're just using it to be respectful and not actually as a Mr/Ms, it should be fine to leave it out completely. In general, localizations are better than literal translations.

[Bias Bus]

Only pet peeve is obvious grammatical errors or translation errors that any idiot who bothered to look at any sort of context could fix.

This is really the only thing that actually matters to me. Otherwise, I generally don't care and will roll with anything.

Colors tend to help me better associate with what character is speaking. If subs are in black and white, I won't mind but it'll take me a bit longer to figure out who's saying what and all that.

[trancehime]

My one pet peeve with subs is when subbers decide to be cute with the localization. Like one episode of Ika Musume had her say "Come at me, bro!", which I thought was just stupid. I think localization should be kept to a minimum, but if it must be used, try to avoid using some tangentially related meme.

I... honestly have to disagree here with regards to "localization should be kept to a minimum." As a former serious translator of visual novels and an amateur translator of comics and the like, I always try to incorporate Woolseyisms wherever appropriate, because literal translations tend to be horribly awkward and aren't a very good way to convey meaning behind what characters in said anime or manga are saying. While I can see where you're coming from and yes, using such memes aren't very good idea, it's also a pretty solid idea not to rely on literal translations ever, because half the time they aren't even the correct meaning. :/

Sadly for me, I only watch raws so I can only answer one question here:

7. Do you care either way about honorifics being translated (Miss XYZ vs. XYZ-san vs. XYZ) and if so what's your preference?

My personal opinion is that it ultimately doesn't matter, and instead one should look at the character themselves. Is the honorific being used by a character who is very likely to use the honorific "Miss" or "Sir" or "Mister?" If so, then it will be done. If not, omit the honorific completely. Translation is a thankless and difficult job where interpretation is the god stat and failing that you really should be doing it with other translators or getting them to proofread your work, like I have my crap proofread very often for instance.

[Furienify]

Something you might want to check out: The Rise and Fall of Anime Subs.

This is paafecto. Thank you! :*

(And thank you to everyone that's responded thus far!)

[Tengukami]

I... honestly have to disagree here with regards to "localization should be kept to a minimum." As a former serious translator of visual novels and an amateur translator of comics and the like, I always try to incorporate Woolseyisms wherever appropriate, because literal translations tend to be horribly awkward and aren't a very good way to convey meaning behind what characters in said anime or manga are saying.

That's pretty much what I mean about keeping localization to a minimum. Convey meaning swiftly, but don't use it as a chance to show what imageboards you hang out on.

[Stuffman]

1. White plz
2. I actually like different color outlines for different characters, unless it's a gritty show where being too colorful would be out of place, in which case black is fine.
3. Don't care
4. Don't care
5. Nothing infuriates me more than personal commentary from translators or editors inserted into the content, although this is a thing I see in scanlations, not fansubs really. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, be professional and impersonal in your presentation.
6. Nah
7. Please leave out the honorifics. It is my personal opinion that the best way to translate is to have the character say what they would say if they spoke fluent english. Any information about a character's relationship that would be delivered by using honorifics can instead be delivered with other cues in tone of voice and choice of words.

[Wark]

1&2. White subs with black outline (not too thick) are preferred. Yellow subs are acceptable as well, provided that the color is not too bright. Tints are excess in my opinion.
3. Unnecessary complexity should be avoided. Personal favorite is DejaVu Sans, but any simple sans-serif font will do. This should apply to openings and endings as well, as I greatly prefer simple translation to some fancy and bizarre karaoke.
4. No favorite here. Subtitles are displayed in accordance with the player's settings anyway, so they all look the same to me.
5. Having to stop the playback in order to read a huge translation note or explanation, only to find out that it is totally irrelevant and doesn't contribute anything to the actual story.
6. No.
7. In most cases honorifics can be left out, or translated if it sounds natural and appropriate. Hearing what honorific was used is more than enough, there is no need to constantly add -chan, -san, etc.

[Lloyd Dunamis]

Oh, subtitle details talk. I love this! >w<

• For thin/normal-sized fonts, I prefer Yellow. For fat fonts, I go for White.
  I have no complaints about either color.
• Plain black outline is fine for the most part.
  Distinguished outlines may be crucial for videos with many scenes of multiple/simultaneous people talking and/or many scenes where the person currently talking is not shown on the current screen.
• I prefer fat (but not too fat) fonts instead of thin-lined ones. Kind of like "for Kids" type of fat, but not necessarily a "for Kids" font style, if you get what I mean.
  Tints also kinda set the mood/feeling for that speaking character/the anime itself. I think they're fine, as long as it has enough contrast to the font color.
  

  Pretentious fonts like old script are just no.
  

  as long as the font is reasonably standard or complements the show if it's unusual, then it's fine.
  
• This would have to wait. Need time to review them >.<
• ...Are these about fansubs etc., like translating Japanese texts in the background and putting translations next to them? :ohdear:
  No complaints yet. I oughtta take notes when watching...
• This is probably a must. We siblings watch Anime mostly on a *measures* 19" CRT TV at roughly 6" distance, if that matters. For having 20-20 vision, I can read most subtitles just fine, but my sisters aren't 20-20. They prefer not wearing glasses when watching.
  That is why I prefer fat fonts.
  If not for 6-feet-distanced TV-watching, I still think it needs a test. Probably show it to people attentive to details and common mistakes before totally releasing it to the public. Seeing the video with different versions/remasterings in public kinda makes it difficult for the viewer to be monitored of or something.
• I'm alright with translated honorifics, but I'd prefer them untranslated. That's coming from someone who likes/pleasures from reading them Japanese honorifics though. "3
  I support Ammy & Trance's thoughts for this though.