SUBtools For Mac

The ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) and SSA (SubStation Alpha) formats are usually contained in MKV videos and include various formatting options that require a special tool to be correctly converted to the common SRT format. SUBtools is a Mac OS X utility for converting SSA and ASS subtitles to the SRT format.

In essence, the application is designed to help you access ASS and SSA subtitles on various devices that do not support these formats, such as Apple TV, iPad, PS3 or iPhone. Also, because SRT subtitles do not allow formatting, converting to this format usually ends badly.

This being said, SUBtools aims to automatically fix timing errors and to help you manually adjust timing conflicts. It features a simple user interface optimized to enable you to spot differences quickly and to correct them as you see fit. The app also supports numerous styles and encoding types.

Thus, the app can automatically detect and display time conflicts. Using a “Fix” button, you can resolve these conflicts one by one. Moreover, SUBtools provides the ability to view and edit the global time, as well as to edit each individual line’s text and start / end time.

SUBtools recognizes various SSA / ASS styles for the subtitle files you have opened. Styles are designed for excluding subtitle groups which produce time conflicts with other dialog lines. By default, every style is selected, but you can easily toggle some of them off.

In a nutshell, the SUBtools app is capable of reformatting ASS and SSA subtitles to the right SRT format. You can manually edit start / end times, dialog text or individual subtitle lines. The support for multiple styles and encodings is also a big plus.