ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) is a newer version of SSA (SubStation Alpha); technically version 4+).

• SubStation Alpha (SSA) is a subtitling / script format that supports text formatting, animation, graphics and karaoke.

SSA and ASS files are plain text files.

• ASS added Unicode support.

ASS is an improvement upon the SSA V4 specification.

• ASS files have INI-style sections: each section is preceded by a line containing the sections name, in square brackets.
• Aside from this, each line is generally composed of: a line descriptor, which tells about what the line is about; a colon; and the line data itself.
• Any whitespace between these parts are allowed.
• Blank lines are also allowed.
• Hard comment lines are preceded by either a semicolon or !: (with “!” as the line descriptor).
• Unrecognized and incorrect line formats are ignored.

Fields on the line data are separated by a comma and, with the exception of the Text field, which should be the last field, must not contain any commas.

<td Original Script Original Translation Original Editing Original Timing Script Updated By (mostly optional) >Contributors to the production of the script. <td PlayResX PlayResY >The resolution of the script.

A comment line. A description of the script. The version of the file format. For ASS, this is v4.00+. Details regarding updates made to the script can be placed here. Where in the video will the script begin playback How collisions are managed. Possible values are: Normal - subtitles are stacked onto each other, and Reverse - subtitles are shifted to make way for new ones. The speed of the script. This value is a multiplier times 100 of the speed of the script playback. 0 - Smart wrapping, lines are evenly broken 1 - End of line word wrapping, hard breaks only. 2 - No word wrapping. Both line breaks allowed. 3 - Smart wrapping with lower lines wider.

The Styles section defines different preset styles that can be used to adjust the appearance of individual lines in the script.

• The actual name of the section depends on the file version, for ASS this is [V4+ Styles].
• In the Events section, unrecognized styles are styled with the “Default” style.
• Unrecognized fonts are assigned to Arial - this may occur when the font is not installed in a target system.

The following is a sample Styles section:

{{c|directive|[V4+ Styles]}}
{{c|key1|Format:}} Name{{c|key|,}} Fontname{{c|key|,}} Fontsize{{c|key|,}} PrimaryColour{{c|key|,}} SecondaryColour{{c|key|,}} OutlineColour{{c|key|,}} BackColour{{c|key|,}} Bold{{c|key|,}} Italic{{c|key|,}} Underline{{c|key|,}} StrikeOut{{c|key|,}} ScaleX{{c|key|,}} ScaleY{{c|key|,}} Spacing{{c|key|,}} Angle{{c|key|,}} BorderStyle{{c|key|,}} Outline{{c|key|,}} Shadow{{c|key|,}} Alignment{{c|key|,}} MarginL{{c|key|,}} MarginR{{c|key|,}} MarginV{{c|key|,}} Encoding
{{c|key1|Style:}} Default{{c|key|,}}Arial{{c|key|,}}28{{c|key|,}}&H00FFFFFF{{c|key|,}}&H1EFFFFFF{{c|key|,}}&H0048001C{{c|key|,}}&H7F000000{{c|key|,}}-1{{c|key|,}}0{{c|key|,}}0{{c|key|,}}0{{c|key|,}}100{{c|key|,}}100{{c|key|,}}0{{c|key|,}}0{{c|key|,}}1{{c|key|,}}1.5{{c|key|,}}0.5{{c|key|,}}2{{c|key|,}}10{{c|key|,}}10{{c|key|,}}10{{c|key|,}}1

Format

  Defines the format of subsequent Style lines. This is provided for backward-compatibility.

Style

  Defines a style. The style is subsequently identified by its Name field.