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Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: Terrill Thompson
Date: Wed, May 27 2009 2:55PM
Subject: YouTube caption fonts
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Anyone adding captions to YouTube videos? YouTube's video that they used to
launch this feature has a really large font:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRS8MkLhQmM

I know the user can increase font size with the + key (after clicking on the
media player to give it focus). However, this particular YouTube video has a
larger default font than any others I've seen, and when if I increase it to
+3 (the maximum allowed), that is larger than +3 on other captioned videos.

I've tried a larger value for [size] in the [subtitle] section of my
subViewer file, as documented here:
http://wiki.videolan.org/SubViewer

However, that has no effect.

Thanks!

Terrill Thompson
Technology Accessibility Specialist
DO-IT, Accessible Technology
UW Technology Services
University of Washington
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206/221-4168

From: Jim Allan
Date: Wed, May 27 2009 3:50PM
Subject: Re: YouTube caption fonts
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A great feature.
I tested with IE8, I can tab to the video, and access/operate all controls
EXCEPT the caption button to turn on/off or select languages. When any of
the buttons has focus the = and - keys also function to increase/decrease
the size of the captions.

Also tested with FF3. No keyboard access to the video. A known bug.

Anyone been able to get to the CC button with the keyboard in IE8?


Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964

From: Terrill Thompson
Date: Wed, May 27 2009 6:50PM
Subject: Re: YouTube caption fonts
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The keyboard shortcuts are documented here:
http://www.youtube.com/t/captions_about

This is quotable: "While you can choose a caption track in the sub-menu, you
can also control captions with various keyboard short-cuts." Its true you
can control the size (with + and -) and background (with B) of the caption
text, but as far as I can tell Jim there's no keyboard shortcut for toggling
the captions off/on. The caption icon doesn't receive tab focus in either
IE7 or IE8.

Re-reading my original post, I see that I didn't really express that as a
question, but there is one in there. I'm wondering: How did the folks at
YouTube attain such a large default font on their captioned video?

Thanks,
Terrill

>

From: Jim Allan
Date: Thu, May 28 2009 8:55AM
Subject: Re: YouTube caption fonts
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Did some rooting around. YouTube is using this
http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/subtitle_module-vfl99400.swf which I opened in
Flash CS4 and poked around in the debugger. I don't know much about Flash,
but I did not see any overt declaration of base caption/subtitle size.
Perhaps someone who knows more can find it.

From: Terrill Thompson
Date: Tue, Jun 02 2009 2:45PM
Subject: Re: YouTube caption fonts
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Just an update on the YouTube caption font size issue: I've been told by a
source within Google/YouTube that this is a "known bug. At this time, font
sizing is not an option."

I'm not 100% satisfied, since the YouTube video I cited as an example was
somehow able to work around this "bug". If anyone has any further insights,
please let me know. Meanwhile I'll just accept the default font size and
take comfort knowing that users can increase this if needed.

Thanks!
Terrill

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