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.
  
  

This section contains the different objects to be displayed on screen, each having its corresponding properties, including timing.

The following are the fields available to ASS:

The following are the Event section descriptors: