Making a subtitles -- Help ?

[bearmon2010]

Hi!

Please bear with my English. I translate from Portuguese to English. I know how to make a subtitles from notepad like this:

2
00:00:06,699 --> 00:00:10,699
"Cores" (it was already hard subtitle)
"Colors" (I add it for soft subtitle)

The problem is...

Cores and colors are closer to each others. I want to separate them. And also I need to move fonts to left, center, right, top, or bottom of the screen as well.. How ? If you dont understand what I mean then I will try my best for next sentence. Cheers.

[Baldrick]

Make ssa/ass subtitles with Aegisub. You can then put the soft subtitles in different positions.

[bearmon2010]

Hi. I can't do that with just regular notepad and srt ?? If not, this is not familiar to me. Is there a tutorial or instruction how to do them in different positions ? Thanks.

[redwudz]

.srt subs are displayed by the program or player and only those programs or players can make changes like position or color. That's why Baldrick suggested using a different type of sub that can be set for position, color or font type and that can be coded with the video.

There is a user manual and other info for Aegisub on their site: http://www.aegisub.org/

[bearmon2010]

Thanks. I tried it and save to .ssa then I put files of .ssa and .avi as an example: world.avi and world.ssa. It is running just fine but not what I expect.. It is just regular subtitles like a .srt. I don't understand.

[Ai Haibara]

You need to edit the subtitles to insert the necessary formatting commands (positioning, fonts, colors, etc.). You can do that in Aegisub.

.srt subtitles, as-is, are just plain-text lines with timecodes; no other formatting. Converting them to .ssa/.ass won't automatically change or add the formatting commands.

[bearmon2010]

It works for me but one problem is:

Translation:
Cores
Colors

In the screen like this:

Cores (it was already hard subtitle)
Colors (I translate it for .ssa in English)

I dont want that.. How do I move one of them away from it ? For an example:

Cores

Colors

Help ? Thanks.

[Ai Haibara]

Basically, you're saying you don't want the "Colors" line to overlap the existing "Cores" hardsubbed line? (I know you also have it in your original .srt subtitle (from the first post), but I wasn't sure why you also had it in the subtitle file, when it was already hardsubbed on the video.)

...of course, you can't move the hardsub.

[bearmon2010]

Hi!

No, I removed srt and ssa seems to be a better choice. Sorry for the confusion this time. The hard-subbed was already in Portuguese and I am translating it into English for soft-subbed. The problem is that soft-subbed is almost stick to hard-subbed in each others. I need to move soft-subbed away from each others for a better readable. I hope you understand what I mean.

[Ai Haibara]

No, I was just saying that you seemed to have "Cores" timed in the original srt even though it was supposedly hardsubbed.

For experimenting with positioning in Aegisub, with your subtitle file and video loaded (Video menu > Open Video...), highlight the line you want to reposition (in the script in the bottom half of the window) and click on the "Drag subtitles." button to the left of the video display. A small crosshair will appear below the subtitle line's display on the video, which you can drag around to reposition the line.



Or, you can do it manually by adding the pos command to the beginning of the subtitle line you want to position (notice the example command in the right side of the image, above, and experiment with the values).

Edit: You may want to save using the .ass format rather than .ssa... .ass is the 'latest version'/extension of the format, and I don't know if .ssa supports all of the positioning features you can use in Aegisub.

[bearmon2010]

Hi, sorry to keep you wait. I was away for two weeks and I came back home last night.

Yes, I did those things exactly myself and I still have the subtitle on the bottom instead of top of the screen. Okay, I am using .mp4 and notepad. Could notepad be a problem? I tried to change to wordpad. It does the same as notepad. Yes, I am using the .ass format as well. I don't understand.

Did you test it ? Maybe I need other program that can be done because this program wont help me at all.

[AlanHK]

Could notepad be a problem? I tried to change to wordpad.

Use Aegisub to edit the subs.
NOT Notepad or Wordpad.
It will do the codes.

[bearmon2010]

Yes, I did that.. I save to .ass with \pos and something like that when I move subtitle around and save it and I still have subtitle remain on the bottom instead of the top that I want. *CONFUSION*

[AlanHK]

Attach the sub here and someone may be able to debug it .

[bearmon2010]

Okay.. Here it is.. I put a few for a test purpose only for now.

[bearmon2010]

Hello ? Please ?

[Baldrick]

Please wait some days before you bump.

[bearmon2010]

Oh sorry. I will wait for some days. Thank you for understanding.

[Ai Haibara]

When I viewed the subtitles in Aegisub, they seemed to display the way you intended (all but the 'colors' line displayed near the top of the screen). What player did you use to play the video with the subtitles? Did you test the subtitles by playing them with the video within Aegisub?

I'd recommend against using a regular text editor (don't use WordPad or a word processor - they may add extra garbage to the file you're editing that Aegisub or a player trying to parse the subtitles might not like), until/unless you're very familiar with the subtitle format you're editing.

[bearmon2010]

I really appreciate that you are helping me now.. I am using Gom Player and CyberLink PowerDVD and doesnt show them on the top. The Aegisub show them on the top just fine.

I am not using WordPad or a word processor anymore.. I just save subtitle in .ass according to Aegisub, of course.

EDIT: I found out that if I am using Windows Player Classic 123 and it works fine. Why does Gom Player and CyberLink doesnt have that properly ? Is there other best player that work fine with this subtitle ? The Windows Player Classic 123 works perfectly fine the way I want with the subtitles.

[Ai Haibara]

I'd wondered if whatever player(s) you were using either didn't have complete support for .ass subtitles, or something might not be configured correctly (like DirectVobSub or ffdshow's subtitle support). But as it works with Media Player Classic, Gom and PowerDVD may just not support all that you can do with .ass subtitles.

You might try Media Player Classic - HomeCinema. It's a fork of the original Media Player Classic, and is actively being developed (Gabest hasn't updated the original Media Player Classic in quite a while, unfortunately. ) I know VLC supports .ass subtitles... but I'm not sure how well. Other than that, I haven't really tried any other players.

[bearmon2010]

Yeah, it works for me. I am happy now. I cannot believe how patient and very understanding people to help me getting through it. I thank you guys for your helpful tips.

EDIT: One more thing.. How do I make fonts larger ? I cannot find this program for larger fonts.

[Ai Haibara]

Highlight a line in the script (don't do this with more than one line at a time), then press the "fn" button ("Font Face Name", to the right of the font style buttons).


This will open a dialog where you can pick the font to use for the line, and the font size. Don't forget to click "Commit" afterward, though.

Alternately, you can add the fontsize command to a line (example: {\fs48} )

[bearmon2010]

Hi. I got it now. I thank you very much. Cheers!