Creating Title Safe Graphics

What are the rules for broadcast-safe graphics? What is broadcast safe? If our church isn’t actually “broadcasting,” do we even care? Today, we’ll set out to answer some of those questions. I’ll start with the last one: Do we care? If you distribute your services (with graphics) on DVD or VHS, then yes, you care. The broadcast safe rules are great rules to follow even if you’re not broadcasting. But first let’s define our terms.

There essentially 2 main rules to follow when creating graphics that will be displayed on TV sets; Title Safe and Legal Levels. We’ll tackle legal levels in another article. Note to broadcast engineers—before you go firing me nasty e-mails, yes, I know there are a lot more rules than that. Let’s just stick with the basics, OK?

The reason title safe is important is due to a concept called “overscan.” Overscan is the effect of blowing the full frame of video up larger than the actual display area of a picture tube. This is done so that the image always goes to the edge of the tube, and the viewer never sees black lines around the edge, or other non-picture data (like VITC, vertical interval time code, occasionally seen as white “marching ants” on the very top two lines of an under scanned display).

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On the one hand, overscan is good because viewers always get 100% of the image size (ie. that nice new 19" screen) they pay for. It’s bad for us however, if we fail to recognize that overscan exists and create our graphics for full raster (the entire image). At that point, things get cut off.

Safe zones are defined as 90% (action) and 80% (title) of the total picture size. Any picture element inside of action safe should make it’s way to most screens. It’s called action safe because that’s the line inside which you should keep all critical action when shooting video. Title safe is a near iron clad guarantee that anything inside this zone will make it to any screen. It’s harder to describe than illustrate, so consider this illustration:

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That’s the theory, what does it mean in real life? Consider the following graphic:

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Great looking Scripture verse, huh? Though I would argue there are too many words on the screen, it’s a good looking graphic. But let’s see what happens when Ma and Pa Pewsitter take the DVD home to watch it again:

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That’s not good! The church logo is getting cut off, as is the reference heading. Worse, so is some of the text. Sadly, this is 100% predicable. Had the graphic designer checked his safe zones, this could have been avoided. Let’s try an Extreme Makeover; Title Safe Edition!

First we’ll overlay the safe zones with our graphic to see where the problems are.

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OK, that’s easy. Now let’s fix it. By adjusting our margins, moving our graphics around and fiddling a bit, this is what we end up with.

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Now, let’s view it back at the Pewsitter’s house on their shiny new 19” TV.

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Behold, all of the elements are still on the screen! The magic of title safe!

So how do we determine (and enforce) title safe in our graphics? Back when I started doing computer graphics, I had to make my own templates by trial and error. Thankfully, today’s software makes it easy. The most popular software for graphics creating has to be Photoshop. Every version from CS1 on has included presets for video that include safe zones. To use them, simply select “New” from the file menu and choose “Film & Video,” then the format that corresponds to your output (in this case “NTSC DV”). The file is created with guides that correspond to action and title safe.

If you don’t have Photoshop, don’t despair. You can create your own templates (just like I did). You can also use this method for creating templates for non-video formats like 800x600 or 1024x768 presentations.

1. First, create a blank document.
2. Next use the rectangle shape tool to create a rectangle that is the same size as your document (say 800x600), with no fill, just a line.
3. Now duplicate that object.
4. Figure out a way to scale it to 90% (don’t worry about position yet).
5. Duplicate your full-size rectangle again, and scale it to 80%.
6. Finally, select all three rectangles, and align them horizontally and vertically.
7. If you’re using reasonably intelligent software, you should now have a rectangle centered on your frame at 90% size and at 80% size.
8. Keep the stuff that must be on the screen inside the 80% (title safe) box, and the stuff that should be on the screen inside the 90% box (action safe). I like to color my lines pink and green, but that’s just me.
9. Finally, don’t forget to delete the safe zones before you save your document.

So there you have it. Some simple ways to make sure the graphics you take so long to design actually end up being seen by your viewers!

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