Glossary
Characters per second (CPS)
Also called: CPS, Reading speed.
Characters per second is a measure of how fast a subtitle asks the viewer to read: the characters on screen divided by the seconds the subtitle is displayed. Most adult specifications sit between 15 and 20 CPS, and children’s content lower.
It is the single most common reason a subtitle file is rejected. Translations usually run longer than the original, so a faithful translation that is not condensed will breach the limit — condensing without losing the meaning is the skill being paid for.
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