Descript captions that don't look like Descript.

• 01Descript — text-based cut + captionsdaily
• 02DaVinci Resolve — final polish + kerningdaily
• 03Submagic — shorts captions onlyweekly
• 04CapCut Pro — quick mobile cutsweekly
• 05Eleven Dubs — foreign-language cutsmonthly

1. 012 min

   Custom font — anything but Inter or Atlas.

   Inter and Atlas are the two defaults. Both are everywhere. Switch to a serif you own — Source Serif 4, Domaine, or your brand font. The single biggest unmistakable change.

2. 021 min

   Cap line length at 28 characters.

   Default wraps too wide. Shorter lines read faster on mobile and avoid the "thick blocks" look. Set both line break and character limit in the caption template.

3. 0330 sec

   Kill the bounce.

   Caption animation → none. The bounce is the most-recognized Descript tell. Set the in/out to a 100ms fade if you need any motion at all.

4. 042 min

   70% bone background, 12px padding.

   Solid background plate on every caption — bone (#F4F1EC) at 70% opacity, 12px padding, no border radius (or 2px max). Reads on any video color. Looks editorial, not viral.

5. 051 min

   Position at 24% from bottom, not 8%.

   Default sits captions near the lower edge. Raise them to roughly the lower third. Faster eye trip from face to caption, less risk of UI overlay clipping them on TikTok.

• ×Auto-emphasis on every important word. Reads as marketing.
• ×Multi-color captions. One color. One background. Always.
• ×Default reading speed (180 wpm). Too fast. Set to 150.
• ×Auto-margins. Manual position, always.
• ×Bolding for emphasis. Italic instead. Once per clip.

Captions are 60% of what people remember about a short. Five overrides — font, length, animation, plate, position. Same speed. Different output.

Steal one: the font swap. Biggest visible change for thirty seconds of work.

Once the five overrides are dialed, save the caption template by name. Reapply with one click on every new project. Stops the drift where each clip ends up slightly different.

For the hero shot of a campaign, take the export into Resolve and tighten kerning on the title card by hand. Five minutes per clip. The hero is what people screenshot — let it carry.

Stop re-typing the outro card. Bake it once as a 2-second video file, import as overlay on every project. Saves time and prevents typos.

Run Descript's voice isolation before generating captions. The transcription accuracy climbs noticeably on noisy audio. Less manual fix.