Subtitle Edit supports a wide range of subtitle formats for reading and writing. Below is a summary of the major categories. For the full machine-generated list of formats the build currently knows about, run seconv formats from the command line.
Text-Based Formats
| Format |
Extension(s) |
Documentation |
| SubRip |
.srt |
Format Reference |
| WebVTT (Web Video Text Tracks) |
.vtt, .webvtt |
Format Reference |
| Advanced SubStation Alpha (ASSA) |
.ass |
Format Reference |
| SubStation Alpha (SSA) |
.ssa |
Format Reference |
| MicroDVD |
.sub |
|
| SAMI |
.smi |
|
| Timed Text (TTML) |
.ttml, .xml, .dfxp |
|
| iTunes Timed Text (iTT) |
.itt |
|
| EBU STL |
.stl |
|
| EBU-TT (Tech 3350) |
.xml |
|
| Spruce STL |
.stl |
|
| Scenarist Closed Captions (SCC) |
.scc |
|
| DVD Studio Pro |
.stl |
|
| Cavena 890 |
.890 |
|
| CANVASs SSTG1 project (SSTG1Pro/Lite, import only) |
.sdb |
|
| DVB Teletext (Manzanita; import - export via File → Export → DVB teletext (Manzanita)) |
.dvbttx |
|
| DVD Junior SPC |
.spc |
|
| Sonic DVD Producer |
.txt |
|
| PAC |
.pac |
|
| Cheetah |
.cap |
|
| Avid DVD, Avid Caption, Avid Caption Drop Frame, Avid Loc Markers |
.txt |
|
| Avid STL |
.stl |
|
| JSON (various) |
.json |
|
| Wistia json |
.json |
|
| Csv Excel |
.csv |
|
| YouTube timed text srv3 |
.xml, .ytt, .srv3 |
|
| LRC (Lyrics) |
.lrc |
|
| and many more… |
|
|
See also:
Formats used to move captions and markers between Subtitle Edit and video editors.
| Format |
Extension(s) |
| Final Cut Pro Xml Captions |
.fcpxml |
| Final Cut Pro Xml (1.3 – 1.5, X, text and marker variants) |
.xml, .fcpxml |
| DaVinci Resolve Marker EDL |
.edl |
| Csv DaVinci |
.csv |
| EDL |
.edl |
| Adobe Premiere Markers |
.csv |
| Adobe Premiere PrProj Xml |
.xml |
| Adobe Encore (tabs) |
.txt |
| Audacity / Tenacity labels |
.txt |
Spreadsheets
Import only — a spreadsheet with a header row naming start/end/text columns is read directly, and any layout can be mapped by hand in File → Import → CSV/XLSX/ODS with custom columns. See Import Spreadsheets.
| Format |
Extension(s) |
| Excel workbook (Office Open XML) |
.xlsx |
| OpenDocument spreadsheet |
.ods |
| Delimited text (comma, semicolon, tab, pipe) |
.csv, .tsv, .txt |
| Format |
Extension(s) |
| Blu-ray PGS (SUP) |
.sup |
| VobSub (DVD) |
.sub/.idx |
| BDN XML |
.xml |
| Timed Text Base64 Image (SMPTE-TT bitmap) |
.xml |
| Timed Text Image |
.xml |
| BDN XML 8-bit (palette-indexed PNGs, export) |
.xml |
| DOST |
.dost |
| Final Cut Pro Image (FCP/image) |
.xml |
| SPU Image |
.xml |
| D-Cinema interop/png, D-Cinema SMPTE 2014/png (export) |
.xml |
| Images with time codes in file name (export) |
image files |
| WebVTT Thumbnail (sprite sheet) |
.vtt |
| Format |
Extension(s) |
| Matroska (MKV/MKS/WebM) |
.mkv, .mks, .webm |
| MP4 / MOV (text tracks, including fragmented MP4/DASH — wvtt, stpp, tx3g) |
.mp4, .m4v, .m4s, .3gp, .mov |
| Transport Stream (teletext, DVB-sub, ARIB STD-B24 captions) |
.ts, .m2ts, .mts |
| AVI (XSUB) |
.avi, .divx |
| MacCaption |
.mcc |
| MXF (timed-text essences) |
.mxf |
| Format |
Extension(s) |
| Matroska |
.mkv |
| MPEG-4 |
.mp4 |
| Transport Stream |
.ts |
| QuickTime |
.mov |
| MPEG |
.mpeg |
| Blu-ray Transport Stream |
.m2ts |
Note: Subtitle Edit ships with parsers/writers for 380+ subtitle formats, including text, binary, and image-based ones. The format is auto-detected when you open a file.
- Scenarist Closed Captions (SCC): font colors are written as CEA-608 mid-row codes (a mid-row code displays as a space, so it costs one cell). A line holds at most 32 characters and a caption at most 4 rows; with Warn on save when lines exceed the format’s limits enabled (Options → Settings) a “Format limits exceeded” dialog lists the offending lines before the file is written. Import timing is frame-accurate: CEA-608 carries one byte pair per frame, so a display code takes effect at the line’s time code plus its position in the line.
- EBU STL / DVB teletext: the video preview draws the text the way a teletext decoder would, with the box behind the text and double-height rows. While EBU STL is the active format the time codes are shown frame-based (HH:MM:SS:FF) using the frame rate from the STL header; the display reverts when another format is chosen.
- Lambda Cap: ruby (furigana), emphasis marks and tate-chu-yoko are decoded to the same markup as “Netflix IMSC 1.1 Japanese”, so the video preview draws them instead of showing the control codes as text.
- EBU-TT-D / IMSC Rosetta:
<font color> tags are written as referential styles. Rosetta allows only its eight fixed foreground styles, so a color is snapped to the nearest of black, red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta and white; EBU-TT-D uses the same eight teletext colors and reads them back by name, so a round trip keeps <font color="yellow">.