OOfTale

How to Import SRT Subtitles into Premiere Pro

You've got an .srt file (generate one free with OfTale). Here's how to get it onto the Premiere Pro timeline with captions synced to your voiceover. Editing on your phone instead? See the CapCut import guide.

Step-by-step

1. Import the SRT. File > Import and select your .srt file — or drag it from Explorer/Finder straight into the Project panel.
2. Add it to the timeline. Drag the SRT clip from the Project panel onto the timeline, above your video track. Premiere creates a caption track automatically.
3. Style the captions. Select a caption clip, open the Essential Graphics panel (Window > Essential Graphics), and set font, size, background and position. Styles apply per-clip; select all (Ctrl/Cmd + A in the caption track) to batch-style.
4. Check sync. Scrub through — each cue should land on the matching word. Nudge individual clips or ripple the whole track if your recording drifted from the estimate.
5. Export. File > Export > Media, open the Captions tab: choose Burn Captions Into Video for TikTok/Reels/Shorts (those platforms ignore sidecar files), or Create Sidecar File for YouTube, where viewers can toggle captions on and off.

Burned-in vs sidecar — which one?

• Burned-in (open captions): text baked into the pixels. Always visible, survives every platform. Required for vertical short-form.
• Sidecar (.srt alongside the video): viewer-toggleable, better for accessibility and SEO on YouTube. Useless on TikTok — it won't read the file.

Fixing common problems

• Garbled characters: the SRT isn't UTF-8. Re-save as UTF-8 without BOM.
• Captions drift out of sync: select all caption clips, right-click, adjust Speed/Duration proportionally — or re-check the pacing with a voiceover preview and regenerate.
• Premiere's auto-transcribe instead? Window > Text > Transcribe works from audio, but it re-times everything and mangles names. An imported SRT keeps your exact wording and timing.

FAQ

Should I burn captions into the video or export a sidecar file?

Burned-in (open captions) for TikTok/Reels/Shorts — those platforms ignore sidecar files. Sidecar (.srt) for YouTube, where viewers can toggle captions.

Why is my SRT garbled in Premiere Pro?

Encoding mismatch. Re-save the file as UTF-8 without BOM. OfTale exports UTF-8 by default.

My captions drift out of sync — how do I fix it?

Select all caption clips, right-click, and use Speed/Duration to stretch them proportionally — or re-check the pacing with a voiceover preview and regenerate the SRT.