Brand-color captions: punch and tiktok-green skip design

If you want to change the caption color for one request, do not use punch or tiktok-green. The Sume docs say those two styles do not support design and render on a path that reads none of its tokens. Use slam for Latin text, or a Hangul style for Korean text, and set the color in design.colors. A standalone caption job costs $0.20 whichever style you use.

What design can change

A style is a set of design tokens, and design overrides some of them for one request. Sume merges each field over the value of the style, so one key changes one thing. The docs list five groups.

Which styles read it

The docs name two exceptions and give one working example. This table does not claim more than that.

Ask for a color, pay nothing for a typo

Colors must be hex, rgb() or rgba(), or transparent. Sume rejects other CSS syntax and does not put it into the render document. A number outside its documented range returns 400. The docs state the reason: an incorrect look fails at request time, and you do not pay for an incorrect render. So a name such as cyan is rejected before any money moves. Use #22D3EE.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-captions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: slam-brand-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/example/clean.mp4",
    "style": "slam",
    "design": { "colors": { "active": "#22D3EE" } }
  }'

Where the line between presets and tokens falls

The docs describe design as a way to change the look of a style for one request without changing the style name. That is why the brand-color route is slam with design.colors.active, not a custom name. The reverse also holds: if your brand color is already close to the preset, punch and tiktok-green save you a request field, but they cannot be tuned afterwards. If a client later asks for a different emphasis color, you will need to switch the style, not just the token.

Phrasing is also a token group. phrasing.max_words, max_chars and pause_seconds set how many words appear at once, so a Latin style with a design override gives you control of both color and pace. The presets give you neither.

A decision rule

• Need an exact brand color on Latin captions: slam plus design.colors.active.
• Want the preset punch or tiktok-green look unchanged: use it as is, and know that no token changes it.
• Want to compare looks without paying for a second transcription: use source_caption_id and restyle.
• Korean text: pick a Hangul style, because Korean text on a Latin style returns caption_hangul_text_latin_style.