.ass files
.ass file
Advanced SubStation Alpha Subtitle
A styled subtitle format with fonts, positioning and karaoke effects, common in anime releases.
What opens a .ass file
- Windows
- VLC, MPC-HC, Aegisub, Notepad (built in)
- macOS
- VLC, IINA, Aegisub, TextEdit (built in)
- Linux
- VLC, mpv, Aegisub
What a .ass file is
ASS extends the older SubStation Alpha format with full styling: typefaces, colours, outlines, on-screen positioning and timed karaoke effects. Fansubbed anime uses it heavily, which is where most people meet it. Players built on libass — VLC, mpv, MPC-HC — render it correctly; simpler players fall back to bare text or ignore the file, and any custom font it references has to be installed or embedded.
Converting it
A .ass file is commonly converted to .srt, .vtt or .ssa. It is a plain text format, so any text editor can open and edit it directly.
Details
- Extension
- .ass
- Full name
- Advanced SubStation Alpha Subtitle
- Category
- Video
- MIME type
- text/x-ssa
- Created by
- SubStation Alpha / Aegisub project
- Format
- Plain text
Common questions
- How do I open a .ass file?
- On Windows use VLC; on macOS use VLC; on Linux use VLC. A styled subtitle format with fonts, positioning and karaoke effects, common in anime releases.
- What is a .ass file?
- Advanced SubStation Alpha Subtitle. ASS extends the older SubStation Alpha format with full styling: typefaces, colours, outlines, on-screen positioning and timed karaoke effects. Fansubbed anime uses it heavily, which is where most people meet it.
- Can I convert a .ass file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .srt, .vtt or .ssa, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.
Related pages
- .mp4 — MPEG-4 Part 14 Video The default video container for phones, cameras, streaming and everything else.
- .mov — QuickTime Movie Apple's video container — what an iPhone records and what Final Cut works in.
- .mkv — Matroska Video An open container that holds any codec plus multiple audio tracks and subtitles.
- .avi — Audio Video Interleave Microsoft's 1992 video container, still common in old archives and camcorder foo
- .srt — SubRip Subtitle The plain-text subtitle format almost every player understands.
- .webm — WebM Video A royalty-free video container built for the web, based on Matroska.
- .ts — MPEG Transport Stream The broadcast and streaming video segment format — also, confusingly, the TypeSc
- .wmv — Windows Media Video Microsoft's legacy video format from the Windows XP era.
- .mpg — MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 Video The original MPEG video file, from Video CDs, DVDs and old digital cameras.
- .m4v — iTunes Video Apple's MP4 variant, used for films and TV episodes bought from iTunes.
- .vtt — WebVTT Caption The W3C caption format HTML5 video uses, essentially SRT with a header and styli
- .swf — Shockwave Flash Movie A Flash animation or game — the plugin that ran these was killed off at the end
Sources
- Media Types Registry — IANA
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place