Templates
Malayalam subtitle & caption generator
Malayalam subtitles can be written in മലയാളം, in Manglish-style English letters, or translated into English. Malayalam words run long, so a style that shows fewer words at a time usually fits a vertical video better.
No Malayalam templates have been published yet. Any template in the full gallery can still caption Malayalam: letters its own font cannot draw come from the Malayalam fallback face.
Captioning in Malayalam
Malayalam captions have to handle two things at once. Words grow long as endings join them, which decides how much fits on a row. And the script can be written with consonant clusters joined into single shapes or with more of them spelt out, which decides how the same word looks from one font to the next.
Long words in a vertical frame
Malayalam builds meaning onto a word rather than beside it, so a single word can carry what English spreads over several: വരുന്നുണ്ടായിരുന്നു, roughly 'was coming', is one word. Rows are built from whole words, and a style that groups four words to a row can push a sentence of them past the edges of a 9:16 frame.
When that happens, choose a style with fewer words per caption, or lower the font size, before trimming the words themselves. Preview the busiest sentence in the clip rather than the first one, since a single long verb can be the only thing that overflows.
Joined clusters or spelt-out letters
Malayalam fonts disagree about how many consonant clusters to draw as one shape. Gayathri, Manjari and Chilanka carry several hundred joined forms, in the manner of older printing. Noto Sans Malayalam and Noto Serif Malayalam carry fewer. Baloo Chettan 2, Anek Malayalam and Arima carry only a few dozen, and write many clusters with the chandrakkala (്) showing between the letters.
Neither approach is a mistake, but switching between them within one video looks careless, so choose a face your viewers read comfortably and keep it. A template whose own font is Latin draws Malayalam in Baloo Chettan 2; for the joined look, choose Gayathri or Manjari under Native script font. The eight faces fall into three groups:
- Noto Sans Malayalam, Anek Malayalam, Manjari and Gayathri: plain faces for subtitles that carry full sentences.
- Noto Serif Malayalam: the one serif.
- Chilanka, which is handwritten, and Arima and Baloo Chettan 2, which are display faces: better kept for short lines.
Chillu letters, Manglish and translation
All eight faces include the chillu letters ൺ, ൻ, ർ, ൽ and ൾ, consonants that close a syllable with no vowel after them, so words such as അവൻ and അവൾ display properly in any of them.
Malayalam written in English letters, often called Manglish, is how many people type on their phones. Romanised output is converted from the Malayalam transcript, and doubled consonants and long vowels are where spellings drift: പാട്ട് turns up as both paattu and pattu. Agree on one spelling for each name and keep to it. An English translation is made from the speech itself, with word timings estimated inside each phrase, so check that highlighted words sit near their moment in the audio.
The automatic emphasis mark prefers long words, and in Malayalam the longest word in a caption can be a verb carrying several endings rather than the word you would stress. Pressing E on a selected word moves the mark there.
Questions
Why does the same Malayalam word look different in two fonts?
The fonts join different numbers of consonant clusters into single shapes. Gayathri and Manjari keep many joined forms, while Baloo Chettan 2 and Arima show the chandrakkala in more of them.
Can a Hindi or Tamil template carry Malayalam captions?
Yes. Letters a template's font cannot draw come from a Malayalam face, Baloo Chettan 2 unless another is chosen under Native script font, so any template can show Malayalam text.