SubtitleMedic

Remove Formatting from Subtitles

Seeing <i>, <font color> or {\an8} on screen? Load the file, keep italics if you want them, and download subtitles with plain text only.

Processed in your browserNo sign-up.srt, .vtt, .ass, .sbv, .sub

How to remove formatting from subtitles

  1. Open your subtitle file

    Drop one file into the box above, or click to browse: .srt, .vtt, .ass, .sbv or .sub. It’s read by your browser and never uploaded.

  2. Decide about italics

    Every tag is removed by default. Turn on “Keep italics” if you want italic text to stay italic.

  3. Check the preview and download

    Each changed line shows the old text, tags included, struck through above the clean one. The summary counts the tags taken out. The file keeps its format and gets .clean in its name.

Why subtitles show tags on screen

Subtitle formats let a line carry a little styling. SubRip borrows HTML-like tags: <i> for italics, <b> for bold, <font color="#ffff00"> for yellow text. Many files also hold codes taken from the ASS format, such as {\an8}, which moves a line to the top of the picture.

A good player applies these and hides them. Plenty of devices don’t: older TVs, car screens, some streaming boxes and many phone apps print the tag itself, and you end up reading <i>Where are you?</i> with the angle brackets in the middle of the film. Others apply the colour but in a way that is hard to read on a bright scene. Plain text is the one thing every player gets right.

What is removed

SubRip (.srt). Italic, bold and underline tags, <font> tags with their colours, sizes and faces, and {\an8}-style position and effect codes.

WebVTT (.vtt). The same basic tags, plus voice tags such as <v Mara>, class tags such as <c.yellow>, language and ruby tags, and karaoke timestamps inside a line. Cue settings on the timing line and the STYLE blocks at the top of the file are not part of the text and stay.

ASS and SSA. The override blocks inside a line, such as {\pos(320,40)\c&H00FFFF&}, and vector drawings between {\p1} and {\p0}, which are shapes rather than words. The styles defined at the top of the file stay, so the result is still a valid ASS file. Comment lines are not touched.

MicroDVD (.sub). Control codes such as {y:i} and {c:$0000FF}.

What stays. Every word, the line breaks inside a subtitle, and all the times. A subtitle made of nothing but formatting, such as a drawing, has nothing to show and is removed.

When to keep italics

Italics do real work in subtitles. They mark a voice the viewer can’t see, a narrator, a thought, a song or a foreign word. If your player shows italics properly, turn on “Keep italics” and you lose only the styling that causes trouble. Italics are written back the way the file’s format writes them, so an ASS file keeps {\i1} and a MicroDVD file keeps {y:i}.

Tips

Sound descriptions in the file too? Use Remove SDH from Subtitles for text in brackets, or Subtitle Cleaner to clear tags, descriptions and ad lines in one go.

A player that only reads SRT? Converting does the stripping for you: Convert ASS to SRT drops everything SubRip can’t show.

Strange letters instead of tags? That is an encoding problem, not formatting. Fix Subtitle Encoding repairs it.

Frequently asked questions

Why do I see tags like i or font on screen?

Some players and TVs don’t understand formatting tags, so they print them as text instead of applying them. Removing the tags leaves only the words, which every player shows correctly.

How do I remove font colour tags from an SRT file?

Open the file in the tool and download it. Font, colour, bold, underline and italic tags are removed along with position codes, and the words inside them stay where they were.

Can I keep the italics?

Yes. Turn on Keep italics and italic text stays italic while colours, fonts, bold, underline and positions are still removed. Italics often mark a narrator, a thought or a voice off screen.

What happens to an ASS or SSA file?

The override codes written inside each line are removed, along with vector drawings. The styles section at the top of the file is kept, so the file still opens as ASS. To drop the styles as well, convert the file to SRT.

Does the timing change?

No. Every line keeps its start and end time, and the file is saved in the format it came in. A line that held nothing but formatting is removed.

Are my subtitle files uploaded anywhere?

No. The file is read and cleaned by JavaScript in this browser tab. It never leaves your device, and the tool keeps working if you go offline after the page has loaded.

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