Free Overlay Mode
Some projects don't fit the broadcast subtitling mold: bilingual subtitles on the same screen, legal disclaimers, title cards, freely positioned creative text. Free overlay mode lifts the usual constraints, giving you full control over line count, text direction, and on-screen placement.
Activating the mode
View > Free Overlay Mode
The setting is saved in the project file — each project can have its own mode, independently of others.
Multiline blocks
In classic mode, each subtitle is limited to two lines (L1/L2). In free overlay mode, this limit is removed.
- The Add a line button below the last line inserts an empty line
- Each line displays its number (L1, L2, L3, L4…)
- The remove button next to each line lets you delete it (at least one line must remain)
On the timeline, blocks show a preview of all lines. A badge indicates the line count when there are more than two.
Text direction
Each entry has its own direction picker in the action bar:
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Auto | The system detects direction via the Unicode bidirectional algorithm |
| LTR → | Forces left-to-right writing |
| ← RTL | Forces right-to-left writing |
This is what makes bilingual subtitling possible: an Arabic entry (RTL) positioned at the top of the screen, a French entry (LTR) at the bottom, each with its own direction — all visible simultaneously on the same frame.
Positioning and style
The following controls are available in each entry's action bar:
Horizontal alignment — left, center, or right. Especially useful for aligning RTL text to the right and LTR text to the left on the same frame.
Vertical position (VP) — a menu offers preset placements:
| Position | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Bottom (default) | Standard subtitles |
| Top | Second language, speaker distinction |
| Top-center, Center, Center-bottom | Title cards, legal text, creative placements |
Fine-tuning buttons let you shift the position up or down by one step.
Text color — the SME color palette (white, yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red) is available per entry, letting you visually distinguish languages or speakers.
Find and replace
Search works across all lines in each entry. The field filter offers an All lines option in free overlay mode, in addition to the usual L1 and L2 filters.
Automatic corrections
The magic wand (Cmd + K) adapts its behavior to free overlay mode:
- All lines are merged into a single text
- Typographic corrections for the project language are applied (quotation marks, ellipses, capitalization…)
- The text is redistributed into balanced lines of approximately 50 characters, favoring breaks after punctuation
Timeline magnetism
Magnetism works as usual in free overlay mode. The edges of each block (start and end) serve as snap points when dragging, making it easy to precisely align overlapping subtitles — for example, syncing the start of a French subtitle with its Arabic counterpart.
Export
Video export
Standard video export (File > Export > Video with subtitles…) works with all multiline blocks and RTL/LTR directions. Subtitles are rendered exactly as shown in the preview.
Overlay export
This is the natural path from this mode: export the subtitles as a transparent layer (File > Export > Overlays) — ProRes 4444 with alpha or a TIFF sequence — for compositing in Resolve, Premiere or Avid. Composite mode automatically merges entries that overlap in time (typical of bilingual work) into a single image per moment.
See the dedicated page: overlay export.