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SubRip

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The simplest subtitle format there is, and the one almost everything plays: numbered blocks of text, each with a start and an end time. No header, no styling to speak of, no official way to place a line. That is why it is everywhere.

At a glance

Extension.srt
Media typeapplication/x-subrip (unregistered)
SpecificationNone. Defined by what players accept.
Time precisionMilliseconds
Text encodingNot declared in the file. UTF-8 is the safe choice; a byte order mark helps some older players and TVs. Subtitld detects older encodings when it opens one.
StylingItalic, bold, underline, strikeout and colour, through unofficial tags
PositioningNone in the format. {\an8} and its kin, borrowed from SubStation Alpha, are widely read.
In containersMatroska as S_TEXT/UTF8; converted to mov_text for MP4

Anatomy of a subtitle

A file is a list of blocks. Each block has four parts, always in this order.

3
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,500
...you have your robotics, and I
just want to be awesome in space.
  1. 1 · Counter

    A number, starting at 1. Required, though most players ignore it.

  2. 2 · Timing

    Start, the arrow -->, end. Spaces around the arrow.

  3. 3 · Text

    One or more lines. Two is the usual limit for reading.

  4. 4 · Blank line

    Ends the block. Without it, many players read the next counter as text.

The timecode

A comma, not a period. 00:00:27.000 is WebVTT's way of writing it. Some players forgive the period; strict ones refuse the file. It is the most common reason an SRT "won't open". Subtitld reads either, and always writes the comma.

Formatting tags

None of these are part of a standard, but players have agreed on them over the years. Use them sparingly; not every platform shows them.

Tag Effect Support
<i>…</i> Italic, for voices off screen Almost everywhere
<b>…</b> Bold Most desktop players
<u>…</u> Underline Most desktop players
<s>…</s> Strikeout Some desktop players, VLC and mpv among them
<font color="#ffd700"> Text colour, as a hex code or a name Desktop players; often ignored online
<font face="…" size="…"> Font and size A few desktop players
{\an8} Move to the top, borrowed from SubStation Alpha VLC, mpv and others

Placing a line

{\an1} to {\an9} place a line the way a numeric keypad is laid out. The code goes at the very start of the subtitle's text.

Left Centre Right
Top {\an7} {\an8} {\an9}
Middle {\an4} {\an5} {\an6}
Bottom {\an1} {\an2}, the default {\an3}
Subtitld's subtitle editor: a line in yellow and a selected line in italic, with the formatting bar under them
Subtitld's editor shows formatting as it looks, not as tags. Select some text and use the bar under it, or Ctrl+I, Ctrl+B and Ctrl+U; the grid places the line on the screen. The preview draws it as a player would.

Opening a damaged SRT

SRT files come from everywhere, and many bend the convention. Subtitld finds each subtitle by its timing line rather than by the blank lines, so it opens files with:

  • any encoding: UTF-8 with or without a byte order mark, UTF-16, or an older one such as Windows-1252;
  • a period instead of the comma, one-digit hours, fewer or more than three decimals, or a short arrow (->);
  • missing counters, missing or extra blank lines, or a blank line inside a subtitle;
  • the coordinates some tools write after the end time;
  • subtitles out of order, which it puts in order.

SRT in Subtitld

Kept in the .srt
  • Every subtitle's text and line breaks
  • Italic, bold, underline, strikeout, colour and position
  • Start and end, to the millisecond
  • The order of subtitles
Nowhere to go
  • Speakers, their faces and colours (their names can go before the text)
  • Translations beside the original (one can take its place, or go below it)
  • Dubs and metadata

Save a .usfx project to keep them.

Subtitld's plain-text tab showing subtitles as SRT, with the SRT, MD and JSON switch at the bottom
The plain-text view writes the subtitles as SRT while you edit. Type a timecode by hand and the timeline moves with it; switch to Markdown or JSON at the bottom.

Exporting SRT

Export, then Subtitles and SRT, offers:

  • TextThe original, a translation, or both, the translation below.
  • Speaker namesLeft out, or before the text (Thom: …).
  • FormattingKept, or removed for platforms that show the tags as text.
  • Shift timesEvery subtitle earlier or later by the same amount.
  • EncodingUTF-8; with a byte order mark, for older players and TVs; UTF-16; or Windows-1252.
  • Line endingsLinux and macOS (LF), or Windows (CRLF).

Whatever the options, the file is plain SubRip: the subtitles in order of start, numbered from 1, with a comma before the milliseconds. Empty subtitles are left out, and so is a blank line inside one, which would end it early in most players.

SRT or WebVTT?

SubRip .srt WebVTT .vtt
First line The first counter WEBVTT
Milliseconds After a comma After a period
Counter Required Optional cue name
Position {\an8} and its kin, unofficially Cue settings: line, position, align
Styling Unofficial tags Tags, and CSS through ::cue
Speakers Only as part of the text Voice tags: <v Thom>
In web browsers Needs converting Native, with <track>
Pick it for Players, editors, uploads Video on the web

Trivia

~2000

The format is named after SubRip, a Windows program that read the subtitles off DVDs with OCR and wrote them out as text.

WebSRT

WebVTT began life under that name, as SubRip adapted for the web, before it grew a header, cue settings and CSS.

0 pages

No body ever published a specification. The comma, the arrow and the blank line are a convention that held for a quarter of a century.

Related formats

Have a .srt to fix?

Open it in Subtitld with the video and retime it on the waveform.

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