SME Accessibility

Positioning

Horizontal alignment and vertical positioning of subtitles for precise on-screen placement control.

Positioning goes beyond a simple "top or bottom" choice. Scene Cut offers precise control over the placement of each subtitle: horizontal alignment (left, center, right) and vertical position across 23 levels, all exportable to EBU-STL, TTML, DCP, and WebVTT.

Horizontal alignment

Each subtitle can be aligned left, center, or right. The default alignment is centered — the standard for most content.

How to change alignment:

Method	Detail
Action bar menu	Click the alignment icon in the SME group
Keyboard shortcuts	`Opt + ←` left · `Opt + ↓` center · `Opt + →` right
Batch action	Select multiple subtitles, then choose the alignment

The alignment icon is displayed in cyan when the alignment differs from center, making it easy to spot subtitles with special alignment at a glance.

In SME subtitling, left alignment is sometimes used for sound effects or music cues to visually distinguish them from centered dialogue.

Vertical position

Vertical position uses a 23-level system (VP 1 to 23), directly compatible with the Teletext rows of the EBU-STL format. Position 0 corresponds to the default placement (bottom of screen).

Screen zones

Zone	VP positions	Typical usage
Top	1 – 11	Off-screen speaker, sound effects, secondary dialogue
Center	12 – 19	Intermediate positioning, narration
Bottom	0, 20 – 23	Main dialogue (default position)

Quick presets

The vertical position menu offers presets for the most common placements:

Preset	VP position	Description
Bottom (default)	0	Standard bottom-of-screen placement
Top	1	Top of screen
Top-center	6	Between top and middle
Center	12	Middle of screen
Center-bottom	17	Between middle and bottom
Bottom	20	Explicit bottom zone

For finer control, stepper buttons (↑ and ↓) adjust the position one step at a time.

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Move up one position	`Cmd + Opt + ↑`
Move down one position	`Cmd + Opt + ↓`

From the default position (0), moving up goes to VP 1 (top) and moving down goes to VP 23 (bottom).

Timeline indicators

When SME mode is active and the view is zoomed in enough, the timeline displays cyan visual indicators on each block:

Alignment — a left or right icon appears when alignment is not centered
Vertical position — a ↑N (top zone) or ↓N (bottom zone) label indicates the VP position

These indicators allow you to verify the positioning across the entire project without opening each subtitle.

Positioning indicators only appear when the zoom factor is sufficient (≥ 50). On an overview, only validation indicators remain visible.

Export compatibility

Positioning is exported to all professional formats that support it:

Format	Alignment	Vertical position	Detail
EBU-STL	JC code (01/02/03)	VP byte (1-23)	Full native support
TTML/IMSC	`tts:textAlign`	`tts:origin` percentage	Proportional conversion
DCP Interop	`HAlign` attribute	`VPosition` percentage	Proportional conversion
WebVTT	`align:left/right`	`line:N%`	Percentage conversion
SRT	Not supported	Not supported	Text-only format

When importing an EBU-STL file, VP positions and alignment codes are read directly. For TTML, WebVTT, and DCP files, percentages are automatically converted to the VP 1-23 scale.

Speakers and colors

Speaker identification by name and color following the BBC/Ofcom palette, with autocomplete and persisted mapping.

Entry types

Classify subtitles as dialogue, sound effect, music, or narrator for SME subtitling.