Aegisub is a free

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 open-source cross-platform

Cross-platform

In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...

 subtitle

Subtitle (captioning)

Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...

 editing program. It is extensively used in fansubbing

Fansub

A fansub is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language other than that of the original.-History:...

, the practice of creating or translating unofficial, noncommercial subtitles for visual media by fans

Fan (person)

A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...

. It is the successor of the original SubStation Alpha

SubStation Alpha

SubStation Alpha , abbreviated SSA, is a subtitle file format created by CS Low that allows for more advanced subtitles than the conventional SRT and similar formats. This format can be rendered with VSFilter in conjunction with a DirectShow-aware video player , or MPlayer with the SSA/ASS library...

 and Sabbu

Sabbu

Sabbu is a program used to "time" subtitles. Timing means setting start and end times for a piece of text that will appear in a video. For example, when a video has been translated into a different language the result is just text. Before the translation can be shown in a video, it must be timed so...

.

The software is considered the standard in a well-known fansubbing group, and has been recommended in the online "Guide to Fansubbing".

It has been designed for timing

Timing

Timing is the time when something happens or the spacing of events in time. Some typical uses are:* The act of measuring the elapsed time of something or someone, often at athletic events such as swimming or running, where participants are timed with a device such as a stopwatch...

 and styling of subtitles, as well as the creation of karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

. Aegisub's native subtitle format is Advanced SubStation Alpha

SubStation Alpha

SubStation Alpha , abbreviated SSA, is a subtitle file format created by CS Low that allows for more advanced subtitles than the conventional SRT and similar formats. This format can be rendered with VSFilter in conjunction with a DirectShow-aware video player , or MPlayer with the SSA/ASS library...

 text, which supports subtitle positioning and styling. The program also supports other common formats such as SubRip

SubRip

SubRip is a software program for Windows which "rips" subtitles and their timings from video. It is free software, released under the GNU GPL...

. Features include support for timing to both audio and video, and can use many video processing bindings to process those, such as FFmpeg

FFmpeg

FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...

 and Avisynth

AviSynth

AviSynth is a frameserver program for Microsoft Windows developed by Ben Rudiak-Gould, Edwin van Eggelen, Klaus Post, Richard Berg, Ian Brabham and others. It is free software under GNU GPL license.-Scripting video editor:...

. It can also be extended with the Lua

Lua

Lua may refer to:* Lua , a Roman goddess* Lua , a traditional Hawaiian martial art* Lua , a lightweight, extensible programming language* Lua , a single by the folk rock band Bright Eyes...

, Perl

Perl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...

 and Ruby

Ruby (programming language)

Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...

 scripting languages.

In fansubbing terms, Aegisub is used for translating, timing, editing, typesetting, quality checking, karaoke timing and karaoke effecting. Although, many groups use different tools for some of those steps, such as Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems, used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Its main uses are the origination of 2D and 2.5D animation, visual effects compositing and finishing...

for typesetting, or a simple text editor for translation.

External links

• Aegisub wiki at Fansubbers.org (under construction at the moment)
• [irc://irc.rizon.net/aegisub Aegisub IRC channel] on Rizon.net