Romanian Timed Text Style Guide

This document covers the language specific requirements for Romanian. Please make sure to also review
the General Requirements section and related guidelines for comprehensive instructions surrounding timed text
deliveries to Netflix.

1. Acronyms
 Acronyms should be written without periods between letters: BBC, CIA, USA, UK

2. Character Limit
 42 characters per line.

3. Character Names
 Do not translate proper names (e.g. Peter, Suzanne), unless Netflix provides approved translations.
 Nicknames should only be translated if they convey a specific meaning.

4. Continuity
 When including ellipses in subtitles, please use the single smart character (U+2026) as opposed to three
dots/periods in a row.
 Do not use ellipses when a sentence is split between two continuous subtitles.
                                     Subtitle 1    Am știut mereu
                                     Subtitle 2    că o să fii de acord cu mine în final.
 Use ellipses to indicate a pause (2 seconds or more) or an abrupt interruption:
                                      A ezitat… în legătură cu slujba.

                                      - Voiam să-ți spun că…

                                      - Nu mă interesează!
 In the case of a pause (2 seconds or more), if the sentence continues in the next subtitle, DO NOT use an
ellipsis at the beginning of the second subtitle.  
                         Subtitle 1    Dacă aș fi știut…
                         Subtitle 2    nu te-aș mai fi sunat.
 Use ellipses without a space to indicate that a subtitle is starting mid-sentence:
                                      …semnat o înțelegere.

5. Documentary/Unscripted
 Speaker’s title: only translate the title. Do not include the speaker’s name, company name or character
name as these are redundant.
 Only translate a speaker’s title once, the first time the speaker appears.
 When ongoing dialogue is interrupted by a speaker’s title, use ellipses at the end of the sentence in the
subtitle that precedes it and at the beginning of the sentence in the subtitle that follows it.
Subtitle 1     Dacă știam ce avea să urmeze…
Subtitle 2     CERCETĂTOR-ȘEF
Subtitle 3      …nu aș fi procedat așa.
  Dialogue in TV/movie clips should only be subtitled if plot-pertinent and if the rights have been granted.
 News tickers/banners from archive clips do not require subtitles unless plot-pertinent.
 Avoid going back and forth between italicized and non-italicized subtitles when the speaker is on and off
screen. If the speaker is on-camera for at least part of the scene, do not italicize. Leave italics for off-screen
narrators.

6. Dual Speakers
 Use a hyphen followed by a space to indicate two speakers in one subtitle, with a maximum of one speaker
per line.
                                       - Așteaptă!
                                       - Ai documentele?
 When a sentence continues into a second subtitle that has two speakers, the hyphen indicating the first
speaker would be followed by a space and an ellipses before the first letter of the dialog.
                                     Subtitle 1   - L-ați văzut cumva pe Zdreanță,
                                     Subtitle 2   - …cel cu ochii de faianță?
                                                        - Nu.

7. Font information
 Font style: Arial as a generic placeholder for proportional SansSerif.
 Font size: relative to video resolution and ability to fit 42 characters across the screen 
 Font color: White

8. On-screen Text
 Forced narrative titles for on-screen text should only be included if plot-pertinent.
 When on-screen text and dialogue overlap, precedence should be given to the most plot-pertinent message.
Avoid over truncating or severely reducing reading speed in order to include both dialogue and on-screen text.
 The duration of the FN subtitle should as much as possible mimic the duration of the on-screen text, except
for cases where reading speed and/or surrounding dialogue takes precedence.
 Forced narratives that are redundant (e.g. identical to onscreen text or covered in the dialogue) must be
deleted.
 Forced narratives for on-screen text should be in ALL CAPS, except for long passages of on screen text
(e.g. prologue or epilogue), which should use sentence case to improve readability.
 Never combine Forced Narratives with dialogue subtitles.
 If at all possible, try to avoid interrupting a line of dialogue with a forced narrative.
 When a forced narrative interrupts dialogue, use an ellipsis at the end of the sentence that precedes it and at
the beginning of the one that follows it.
 
Subtitle 1     Când poliția a ajuns la locuința suspectului…
Subtitle 2     CRIMA CARE A ZGUDUIT ORAȘUL
Subtitle 3    …n-a mai găsit pe nimeni acolo.

9. Foreign Dialogue
 Foreign dialogue should only be translated if the viewer was meant to understand it (i.e. if it was subtitled
in the original version). 
 When using foreign words, always verify spelling, accents and punctuation, if applicable. 
  Foreign words should be italicized, unless they have become part of regular usage (e.g. in English, the
following no longer need to be italicized: bon appétit, rendezvous, doppelgänger, zeitgeist, persona non grata)
and unless they are proper names (e.g. a company name).

10. Italics
 Italicize the following:
o Album, book, film and program titles (for song titles, use quotes instead)
o Foreign words (unless they are part of regular usage)
o Dialogue that is heard through electronic media, such as a phone, television, or computer
o Only use italics when the speaker is not in the scene(s), not merely off screen or off camera
o Song lyrics (if rights have been granted)
o Voice-overs
 Do not use italics to indicate emphasis on specific words.

11. Line Treatment

 Maximum two lines.
 Text should usually be kept to one line, unless it exceeds the character limitation.

12. Numbers
 From 1 to 10 written out: unu, doi, trei, etc. 
 Above 10 written numerically: 11, 12, 13, etc.
 When a number begins a sentence, it should always be spelled out.
 Note that the above rules may be broken due to space limitations or reading speed concerns, as well as for
consistency when listing multiple quantities, for example.
 Measurements should be converted to the metric system unless the original unit of measurement is plot
relevant.

13. Punctuation
 There should NOT be a space before interrogation and exclamation marks.

14. Quotes
 Quotes should be used at the start and end of a line of applicable dialogue and not at the start of every
subtitle.
 Use lower and upper double quotation marks („ ”) without spaces for regular quotations.
 Use quotation marks when a character is seen to be reading aloud.
 Use chevrons («») for quotes within quotes: „Steve a spus: «Totul e OK»”.
 Quotation marks should be used at the start and end of a sentence and not at the start of every subtitle. 
 Punctuation should be included within the quotation marks if the quote is an independent clause and
outside if it’s not:
                                        „Eu îmi fac treaba și atât.”
                                        George Bush a declarat: „Irakul posedă
                                        arme de distrugere în masă!”
                                        M-a întrebat: „L-ați văzut cumva pe Zdreanță,
                                        cel cu ochii de faianță?”
                                        Ceva cunoscut
                                        sub denumirea de „magnetism”.
                                        Ce înțelege președintele Bush
                                        prin „arme de distrugere în masă”?

15. Reading Speed

 Adult programs: 17 characters per second
 Children’s programs: 13 characters per second

16. Repetitions
 Do not translate words or phrases repeated more than once by the same speaker.
 If the repeated word or phrase is said twice in a row, time subtitle to the audio but translate only once.

17. Songs
 Only subtitle plot-pertinent songs if the rights have been granted. 
 Opening and ending theme songs should only be subtitled if clearly plot-pertinent (e.g. for children’s
content when the lyrics tell a story) or if instructed by Netflix. Normally, adult programs should not have the
opening songs subtitled, except for SDH.
 Italicize lyrics. 
 Use an uppercase letter at the beginning of each line. 
 Use ellipses when a song continues in the background, but is no longer subtitled to give precedence to
dialogue. 
 Punctuation: only question marks and exclamation marks should be used at the end of a line – no commas
or periods. Commas can be used within the lyric line, if necessary.
 Follow this approach for poetry also.

18. Titles
 Main titles: do not subtitle the on-screen main title card.
 Episode titles: do not subtitle episode titles if they do not appear on screen/are not voiced-over. If on-screen
(either as part of the principal photography or burned into video) or voiced-over, please reference the KNP tool
for approved translations.
 Titles of published works, existing movies and TV shows: use official or well-known translations. If none
are available, leave titles in the original language.

19. Special Instructions

 All plot-pertinent dialogue should be subtitled, and takes precedence over background dialogue.
 Dialogue must never be censored. Expletives should be rendered as faithfully as possible.
 Always match the tone of the original content, while remaining relevant to the target audience (e.g.
replicate tone, register, class, formality, etc. in the target language in an equivalent way).
 Deliberate misspellings and mispronunciations should not be reproduced in the translation unless plot-
pertinent. 
 For the characters Ș , ș, Ț, ț, the comma diacritical marks should be used. Do not use cedillas. 

Standard (Correct) Character Unicode

 Uppercase S with Comma Ș U+0218

Lowercase s with Comma ș U+0219

Uppercase T with Comma Ț U+021A

Lowercase t with Comma ț U+021B

Legacy (Incorrect) Character Unicode

Uppercase S with Cedilla Ş U+015E

Lowercase s with Cedilla ş U+015F

Uppercase T with Cedilla Ţ U+0162

Lowercase t with Cedilla ţ U+0163

20. Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) Guidelines
 Include as much of the original content as possible.
 Do not simplify or water down the original dialogue.
 Where content has been dubbed into Romanian, please refer to the dubbing script or dubbed audio as the
basis for the SDH file and ensure that the two match as much as reading speed and timings allow.
 Reading speed can be increased to:
o Adult programs: 20 characters per second
o Children’s programs: 17 characters per second
 Truncating the original dialogue should be limited to instances where reading speed and synchronicity to
the audio are an issue.
 For TV/movie clips, all audible lines should be transcribed, if possible. If the audio interferes with
dialogue, please give precedence to most plot-pertinent content.
 All same-language audible songs that do not interfere with dialogue should be titled, if the rights have been
granted.
 Use song title identifiers when applicable - song titles should be in quotes: [„Forever Your Girl" pe fundal]
 Song lyrics should be enclosed with a music note (♪) at the beginning and the end of each subtitle.
 Use brackets [ ] to enclose speaker IDs or sound effects.
 Identifiers/sound effects should be all lowercase, except for proper nouns.
 Only use speaker IDs or sound effects when they cannot be visually identified.
 When characters are not yet identified, use [bărbat], [femeie], or [voce de bărbat], [voce de femeie] so as
not to provide information that is not yet present in the narrative.
 Gender-neutral identifiers like [ospătar], [manager] or [redactor] can be used where appropriate.
 Use a generic ID to indicate and describe ambient music, e.g. [muzică rock pe fundal] or [muzică jazz la
radio]
 Plot-pertinent sound effects should always be included unless inferred by the visuals.
  Subtitle silence if plot-pertinent. For example, when plot-pertinent music ends abruptly.
 Be detailed and descriptive, use adverbs where appropriate when describing sounds and music, describe
voices, speed of speech, volume of sounds.
 Describe the sounds and audio as opposed to visual elements or actions.
 Sound effects that interrupt dialogue should be treated as follows:
Subtitle 1: Totuși, în ultima vreme, am văzut…
                  [tușește, fornăie]
Subtitle 2: …multe astfel de lucruri.
 Speaker IDs and the corresponding dialogue should ideally be on the same line.
 Never italicize speaker IDs or sound effects, even when the spoken information is italicized, such as in a
voice-over.
[narator] A fost odată ca niciodată…
 In instances of foreign dialogue being spoken:
o If foreign dialogue is translated, use [in language], for example [în spaniolă]
o If foreign dialogue is not meant to be understood, use [speaking language], for example [vorbește
spaniolă]
o Always research the language being spoken – [vorbește o limbă străină] should never be used