FreeTubeApp
[Feature Request]: Captions Styling
Guidelines
- [X] I have searched the issue tracker for open and closed issues that are similar to the feature request I want to file, without success.
- [X] I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the feature request I want to file, without success.
- [X] This issue contains only one feature request.
Problem Description
First let me thank you all for the time and effort put into the app. The latest update was amazing! The new player looks and feels great!! I know is just brand new and mostly the work of a single chad (thank you @absidue!) and you'll all continue to improve it as time goes on.
This time seems the new captions don't support any kind of styling. The current default one is white text with a black background. While might work wonders for reading, not so much for enjoying that subtitle with video. It might already be in the to-do list but I really miss the white text with black edge or shadow.
Thanks again for the love and care for the app. Wish you the best in life. Have a wonderful day!!!
Proposed Solution
Styling options like color, shadow, contour and size.
Alternatives Considered
Using the previous version if really necesary
Issue Labels
improvement to existing feature, visual improvement
Additional Information
No response
I just want to put it here that I cannot read white on black captions, like at all. It is extremely hard for me to read because the contrast between the text and the video itself (which are often bright themselves) is too low, and I cannot make out the text unless it is a bright uncommon color, like yellow, neon green, or orange. It may not look pretty or aesthetic to neurotypicals without visual issues like this, but it doesn't have to be the default either. I just would like to return to the old ability of changing the color of the text, as well as the opacity of the background. I imagine I am not the only one with this issue.
For reference as well this is usually what I set: Yellow text, card background instead of line background, opacity to 75%, and a drop shadow on the text to help outline it (actual outline is too much and hurts my eyes).
Thank you for reading.
I'm not sure if the ability to resize captions is the same issue or a different issue. I don't mind white on black, but would appreciate the ability to make the captions a bit bigger. (But preferably not a return to the previous version, as the ability to resize them was fairly broken there lol.)
Seconding this. I can't watch with captions in fullscreen because they're gigantic, and cover a huge portion of the bottom of the screen. I much preferred the old caption system with the ability to change size, font, colour etc, even if it was a tad buggy at times. That was better than not being able to use captions at all because of how much they cover :(
I subscribe this. Its an essential feature to tune the subtitles, size, color, background, etc... By now I must see some videos downloading them with subtitles to see them easily.
I'm hard of hearing, so good caption support is absolutely critical for me.
While (for me) the white on black captions are great -- this is what I've used since the first TeleCaption decoders in the late 80s and early 90s and are readable against any background -- they're too small on my screen. I cannot find a way to make them larger.
Being able to increase their size, change their font, and make their background semitransparent (say, 80% opacity or so) would be fantastic as everyone could get the style that works for them -- but I cannot find the settings to do this, and I seem to remember being able to do so before.
Additionally, sometimes they cover other important information in a video (text or something going on in the frame) and I'd like to be able to move them as default YouTube allows me to do.
Yeah the default size and appearance is awful, it'd be nice to customize the appearance of subtitles like any other video player in existence. Why this wasn't there from the start, I don't know.
on the desktop, subtitle size is too small, and the only way to enlarge them is to zoom up the entire interface, messing everything
Seconding this. I can't watch with captions in fullscreen because they're gigantic, and cover a huge portion of the bottom of the screen. I much preferred the old caption system with the ability to change size, font, colour etc, even if it was a tad buggy at times. That was better than not being able to use captions at all because of how much they cover :(
on the desktop, subtitle size is too small, and the only way to enlarge them is to zoom up the entire interface, messing everything
In full screen mode, the caption size is way too big on displays lesser than 17 inches. I have checked on both 17 and 14 inches. If the caption contains 2 or more sentences or more than 15 words, the background doesn't wrap around the text, instead forming an entirely black background and covers the bottom portion of the video, a good 15%+ (vertically) the size of the screen, ie the black background forms a box when its not needed (less caption text than needed to make it a full black box) instead of wrapping around the text dynamically. This blocks video when not needed ranging from about 40% horizontally wasted to 0% horizontally wasted as more and more text is added ( this is all within the previously mentioned 15% vertically of the screen size, and not referencing the entire display itself)
In picture-in-picture mode, the captions are rendered on the freetube app itself rather than the mini-player. There is no background wrapping text issue on this rendering.
In classic and theatre mode, the caption size is much more manageable and the captions float here too without touching the bottom of the player and there is no background wrapping text issue on this rendering.
So the only workaround for caption size for me is theatre and classic mode. Felt this comment is not a duplicate as it adds more information and brings out issues about background wrapping text in full screen mode and in picture in picture mode.
