Captions burned into a screen recording, from a transcript made on your Mac
Many viewers watch with the sound off: in a help widget, in a chat preview, at a desk in an open office. Turn on “Captions in video” and Qreata draws your narration onto the picture, four words at a time, without sending the audio anywhere.
7-day trial · $49 once · no subscription · Apple Silicon · macOS 14+The short answer
Qreata adds captions to a Mac screen recording with one switch: “Captions in video” in the “Script” panel. The captions come from a transcript made on your Mac and are burned into the exported MP4 at the bottom centre, as white text on a dark rounded box, four words at a time, with the spoken word highlighted. The style is fixed, the caption text can’t be edited, and there is no SRT or VTT export. The app costs $49 once.
Use burned-in captions when
The video has to be readable with the sound off, in any player.
- The video plays muted by default where you publish it: a helpdesk widget, a chat, a social feed.
- The player has no caption support, so a caption file would have nowhere to go.
- You want captions without uploading the recording to a captioning service.
- You send one MP4 and it has to work for everyone who opens it.
It won’t help when
You need a caption file, your own styling, or corrected text.
- Your platform or accessibility policy requires captions the viewer can switch on and off. Qreata exports no SRT or VTT.
- You need your brand’s font, colors or a different position. There is one fixed style.
- A product name is transcribed wrongly and must be spelled right. Caption text can’t be edited.
- You need translated subtitles. Captions show the words you said.
How to add captions to a screen recording on Mac
Say you have a 4-minute help video on resetting a password that will sit in a help center article, where most people watch without sound.
- Record the video in Qreata with your microphone on. Captions need a Microphone track and are made from your narration, so speak the steps aloud.
- Open the recording in the editor and open the “Script” panel. The transcript is produced on your Mac by a Whisper model that ships with the app; the language is detected automatically.
- Read the transcript once. Look at product names, menu labels and numbers: these are what a speech model gets wrong.
- Make your cuts: remove false starts with “Cut”, then use “Remove filler words” in the “Script” panel and “Remove silences” in the “Trim” tool if the take needs them. Captions follow the cuts in timing.
- Turn on “Captions in video”. The captions appear at the bottom centre of the preview.
- Play the video with the sound off. Captions show four words at a time, grouped from the original transcript, so a word you cut can still appear in its group: read the captions around each cut. Check also that the captions do not sit on top of a button or field you are pointing at near the bottom edge of the screen.
- Export the MP4. The captions are part of the picture and show in every player.
What the captions look like
There is one style: white text on a dark rounded box, placed at the bottom centre. The text appears in groups of four words, with the word being spoken highlighted as you say it. The highlight lets a muted viewer follow your pace and match each sentence to the click it describes.
You don’t choose a font, a size, colors or a position, and you can’t edit the caption text. The trade is speed: there is nothing to configure, and one switch turns them on or off before export.
- Position: bottom centre of the frame.
- Look: white text on a dark rounded box.
- Text: groups of four words, with the active word highlighted.
- Language: the language you spoke, detected automatically. There is no language picker.
- Camera-only “Just me” recordings have captions on by default.
Burned-in captions or an SRT file: which do you need?
The two do different jobs. Burned-in captions are pixels in the video. A caption file (SRT or VTT) is text the player draws on top, which the viewer can switch off. Qreata makes the first kind only.
| Question | Burned-in (Qreata) | SRT or VTT file |
|---|---|---|
| Shows in every player | Yes, part of the picture | Only where the player supports caption files |
| Viewer can turn it off | No | Yes |
| Text can be corrected after export | No | Yes, it is a text file |
| Style | One fixed style | Set by the player |
| Made by Qreata | Yes | No |
What to do about a misheard word
Caption text can’t be edited, so a wrongly transcribed word appears in the video as the model heard it. That matters most for product names and for anything the viewer has to type.
You have three options. “Refresh transcript” runs the transcription again; it is the only way to change the text, and you can’t type a correction. If the name appears once and reads close enough, leave it. If accuracy is required throughout, export without captions and caption the MP4 in a tool that lets you edit the text; “Copy text” gives you the transcript as a starting point. Cutting the word is not a reliable fix: captions follow cuts in timing, but the cut word can still appear in its four-word group.
Limits of captions in Qreata
Captions are burned in, in one fixed style, with no styling controls and no editing of the text. They need a Microphone track. The text is shown in four-word groups from the original transcript, so a word you cut can still appear in its group, and captions are hidden over ranges where the voice was replaced or removed. Qreata exports no SRT or VTT file, so it can’t feed the caption track of YouTube, a course platform or any player that expects one. There is no translation.
Captions are available for recordings made in Qreata, since the app doesn’t import video files. Export is always an H.264 MP4. The app runs on Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later, and the transcription model needs no network connection.
Captions with the free Mac tools, and a 10-minute test
The built-in recorder (Shift-Command-5) saves a plain .mov, and Apple’s list of QuickTime Player editing features (trim, split into clips, rearrange, rotate or flip, add a clip, remove audio or video) has no captions. On the free route, captions come from a second tool or from the site you upload to.
A quick test in the trial: record 2 minutes that include your product’s name and two menu labels, turn on “Captions in video”, export, and watch the MP4 muted on your phone. If the names read correctly and the box does not cover what you click, the feature fits your videos. The trial runs 7 days with every feature and no account; the license is $49 once for 3 Macs, with no monthly fee for captions.
Questions worth asking
How do I add captions to a screen recording on Mac?
In Qreata, open the “Script” panel in the editor and turn on “Captions in video”. The captions are made from a transcript produced on your Mac and are burned into the exported MP4. QuickTime Player has no caption feature.
Can I change the caption font, color or position?
No. There is one fixed style: white text on a dark rounded box at the bottom centre, with the active word highlighted.
Can I edit the caption text?
No. The captions show the transcript as recognized. “Refresh transcript” runs the transcription again, but you can’t retype a word, and a word you cut from the video can still appear in its four-word caption group.
Can I export SRT or VTT subtitles?
No. Qreata burns captions into the picture and exports no caption files. You can copy the transcript text with “Copy text”.
Are captions generated offline?
Yes. The Whisper model is bundled with the app and runs on your Mac without a network connection. The audio is not uploaded.
Do captions cost extra?
No. They are part of the app: $49 once for the Personal license on 3 Macs, and the 7-day trial includes every feature.