In motion pictures, an intertitle (also known as a title card) is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e. inter-) the photographed action, at various points, generally to convey character dialogue, or descriptive narrative material related to, but not necessarily covered by, the material photographed.
Intertitles were a mainstay of silent films once they became of sufficient length and detail to necessitate dialogue and/or narration to make sense of the enacted or documented events.
In modern film, intertitles are used to supply an epigraph, such as a poem, or to distinguish various "acts" of a film or multimedia production by use as a title card. However, they are most commonly used as part of a historical drama's epilogue to explain what happened to the depicted characters and events after the conclusion of the story proper.
The development of the soundtrack slowly eliminated their utility as a narrative device (they were common for providing narration, but not dialogue, well into the 1930s), but they are occasionally still used as an artistic device. For instance, intertitles were used as a gimmick in Frasier. The BBC's drama Threads uses them to give location, date and information on distant events beyond Sheffield. Law & Order use them to give only the location of the upcoming scene. Guy Maddin is a modern filmmaker known for recreating the style of older films, and uses intertitles appropriately. Some locally produced shows, such as quiz bowl game shows, use animated variations of intertitles to introduce the next round.
"Intertitle" is an academic term invented long after the advent of sound film (see also subtitle (captioning) and supertitle). These "titles" should not be confused with the modern-day definition of subtitle or main title.
Film preservationists know that these portions of a film are often the most highly prone to decomposition. This has been known for some time, and often intertitles are removed save for one or two frames to aid in placement. Distributors of unrestored prints of silent films sometimes are unable to replace these intertitles, and so they often flash unreadably past.