Overview

What is Subtitle Edit?

Subtitle Edit is a free, open-source editor for video subtitles. It allows you to create, edit, adjust, and convert subtitles in a wide variety of formats.

Subtitle Edit 5 is the latest generation, built with Avalonia UI for cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, macOS).

Key Features

• Create and edit subtitles in 380+ formats
• Synchronize subtitles to video with visual tools
• Speech to Text — transcribe audio using Whisper, Qwen3 ASR, Crisp ASR, and other local/cloud engines
• Text to Speech — generate audio from subtitle text
• Translate subtitles automatically
• OCR — convert image-based subtitles (Blu-ray, DVD, etc.) to text
• Fix common errors automatically
• Spell check with dictionary support
• Burn-in subtitles into video
• Batch convert multiple files
• ASSA/SSA styling with advanced override tags, drawing, and positioning
• Waveform/spectrogram for precise timing
• Shot change detection for professional workflows
• Export to image based subtitles (Blu-ray SUP, BDN-xml, VobSub, etc.)

System Requirements

• Windows 10 (version 22H2 / build 19045) or newer, Linux, or macOS 12 (Monterey) or newer
• FFmpeg (for audio/video processing)
• libmpv for video playback

Getting Started

Follow these simple steps to begin working with subtitles in Subtitle Edit:

1. Install Subtitle Edit
   Download and install the latest version from the official website.

2. Open a video file
   Go to Video → Open video file... and select your video.
   This allows you to preview and sync subtitles accurately.

3. Open, create, or generate a subtitle file

   • Open an existing file via File → Open
   • Create a new one via File → New
   • Or generate subtitles automatically using speech-to-text (Video → Speech to text)

4. Edit your subtitles
   Use the subtitle grid and text editor to:

   • Adjust text
   • Split or merge lines
   • Fine-tune timing

5. Adjust timing visually
   Use the waveform display to precisely sync subtitles with audio.

6. Save your work
   Go to File → Save (or press Ctrl+S) to save your subtitle file.

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Main Window Layout

The main window consists of several key areas:

• Menu Bar — Access all features
• Toolbar — Quick access to common actions
• Subtitle Grid — List of all subtitle lines with timing and text
• Text Editor — Edit the currently selected subtitle text
• Video Player — Preview video with subtitles
• Audio Visualizer — Waveform/spectrogram for precise timing adjustments

Subtitle Edit offers 12 different layouts for arranging these areas. You can choose and customize the layout via Options → Choose layout.

For a detailed guide to each area, mouse interactions, and keyboard shortcuts, see the Main Window documentation.

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