Subtitling software comparison

From Aegisub Wiki

This is a comparison of general-purpose subtitle editors that deal with the [Advanced] Substation Alpha format. While SSATool is not a general purpose program, it was also included in the comparison because it has many unique features.

	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Version	2.00 alpha	0.3.0	0.1.2.0	4.08	4.3	2.51
Development status	active	dropped	dropped	dropped	active	unknown
Focus	General purpose	Timing	Timing/typesetting	Timing	Utilities	Timing
License	BSD (but ruled by GPL)	GPL	Closed	Closed	GPL	Closed
Source Distribution	svn	cvs	no	no	with Aegisub	no
Language/Toolkit	C++/wxWidgets	C++/GTK	Visual Basic	Visual Basic	C#	Delphi
Stability	good	good	unstable	unstable	very good	?
Subtitle formats	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
SSA	yes	yes	yes	yes (native)	yes	broken
ASS	yes (native)	yes (native)	yes (native)	no	yes	broken
ASS2	read only	no	no	no	broken?	no
AS5	no	no	no	no	no	no
SRT	yes	yes	yes	no	no	yes
Plain text	yes, parsed	yes, parsed	read only, parsed	read only, parsed?	no	read only
MPEG-4 TTXT	unformatted	no	no	no	no	no
USF	no	no	no	no	no	no
SSF	no	no	no	no	no	no
MicroDVD	yes	no	yes	no	no	yes
Adobe Encore	write only	write only, with issues	no	no	no	yes, with issues
DVD Studio Pro 4	no	no	no	no	no	yes
DVD Studio Pro 3	no	no	no	no	no	yes
XombieSub	no	no	read only	no	no	no
Power DivX	no	no	yes	no	no	yes
JacoSUB	no	no	no	yes	no	broken?
ZeroG	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
Subsonic	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
Macsub	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
Phoenix Japanimation	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
RealText	no	no	no	yes	no	broken?
Turbotitler	no	no	no	yes	no	broken?
PRS	no	no	no	no	no	no
ASS/SSA in MKV	read only	no	no	no	no	no
Timed text in MKV	read only	no	no	no	no	no
Other through scripting	no	no	no	no	no	limited
Character encodings	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Local	yes	read only	yes (native)	yes (native)	yes	yes (native)
Unicode UTF-7	yes	no	no	no	no	garbage
Unicode UTF-8	yes (native)	yes (native)	no	no	yes	garbage
Unicode UTF-16	yes	yes	no	no	yes	no
Unicode UTF-32	no	no	no	no	no	no
Non-local encodings	dozens	no	no	no	Shift-JIS and EUC-Jp	dozens
Autodetection	yes	no	no	no	Shift-JIS and EUC-Jp	no
OS support	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Windows 3.1	no	no	no	older version	no	no?
Windows 95/98/Me	no	no	yes	yes	no	yes
Windows 2000/XP/2003	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Windows Vista 32-bit	yes	?	?	?	yes	yes
Windows Vista 64-bit	yes	reported unstable	crashes	won't load	yes	yes
Linux	incomplete	yes	no	no	no	no
FreeBSD	incomplete	yes	no	no	no	no
Mac OS X	incomplete	yes	no	no	no	no
Mac OS <= 9	maybe	no?	no	no	no	no
Architecture	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
x86-16	no	no	no	yes?	no	no?
x86-32	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
x86-64	yes	no	no	no	yes?	no
PowerPC	no	no	no	no	no	no
Video features	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
DirectShow	yes	yes	yes	no	no	yes
Avisynth	yes	no	no	no	no	no
FFmpeg	incomplete	yes	no	no	no	no
Dummy	yes	no?	no	no	no	no
Win32 Subtitle rendering	VSFilter/asa/libass	VSFilter	VSFilter	internal (SSA only)	no	internal
Unix Subtitle rendering	asa/libass	none	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Toggleable subtitle display	no	no	no	no	no	yes
Variable frame rate	via timecodes/MKV	no	by DirectShow	no	via timecodes	by DirectShow?
Zoom levels	yes	yes	no	no	no	yes (indirect)
Override Aspect Ratio	yes	no?	no	no	no	no
Playback	bad audio sync	yes	yes	no	no	yes
Keyframes	from AVI, MKV, file	from AVI, file	no	no	no	no
Snap navigation to keyframes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Save keyframes	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Override keyframes	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Video rendering	OpenGL	software/overlay	overlay	no	no	overlay
Copy video frame to clipboard	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Save snapshot	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Detach video window	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Change playback rate	no	no	no	no	no	yes
Audio features	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
PCM wave	yes	yes	yes	8 bit mono only	no	yes
MP3	yes	no	yes	no	no	yes
Ogg Vorbis	yes	no	yes	no	no	yes
AAC	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
AC3	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
From video	yes	no	no	yes	no	yes
Any other via DirectShow	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
Waveform display	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Spectrum display	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Playback	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
Recording	no	no	no	yes	no	no
Keyframe display	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Audio display zoom	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Volume control	yes	no	with video loaded	no	no	no
Typesetting	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Visual positioning	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Visual Z-rotation	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Visual XY-rotation	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Visual Scaling	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Visual Rectangle Clipping	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Video frame/subs sync	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
Snap subs to keyframes	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Motion tracking	no	no	no	no	no	no
Colour picker	custom	GTK's	Windows'	Windows'	no	Windows'
Grab colour from screen	yes	same window only	no	no	no	no
Colour history	yes	no	yes	no	no	no
Colour hex input	VB/HTML	HTML	no	no	no	no
Resolution resampling	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
Gradient generation	no	no	no	no	yes	no
Blur generation	with script	no	no	no	yes	no
Styles editor	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Styles manager	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Styles preview	yes	yes	no	yes	no	no
Call tips	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Audio timing	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Single-click timing	yes	yes	no	yes	no	no
Drag timing	yes	yes	yes	no	no	no
Dialogue timing	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Karaoke timing	yes	broken	yes	rudimentary	no	no
Karaoke timing copy (Kanji timer)	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
Add lead-in/lead-out	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Automatic lead-in/lead-out	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
Automatic proximity snap	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Subtitles manipulation	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Undo	multilevel	no	no	buggy?	multilevel	multilevel
Redo	multilevel	no	no	buggy?	multilevel
Shift times	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Manipulate by frames	yes	no	no	no	yes	yes
Split	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
Join	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
Duplicate	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Duplicate and shift	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Swap	yes	no	yes	yes	no	no
OCR recombination fixing	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Copy/Paste	yes	internal	internal	internal	no	yes
Paste over	yes	no	no	no	no	import text from file
Syntax highlighting	yes	yes, two modes	yes	no	no	no
Find	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Replace	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
Regular expressions	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Make continuous	yes	no	no	yes	no	yes
Tools	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Translation assistant	yes	no	no	no	no	yes
Spell checker	yes, hunspell	yes, aspell	no	yes	no	yes
Thesaurus	yes, MyThes	no	no	no	no	no
Enforce timing standards	no	no	no	no	no	yes
Enforce line length standards	no	no	no	no	no	yes
Scripting	yes, Lua and Ruby	no	no	no	no	yes, Pascal
Karaoke effects	yes, scripted	no	Simple \k replacer	no	yes, scripted	no
Fonts collector	yes	no	no	no	check only	no
Options GUI	yes	yes	yes	yes	no	yes
Syntax checking	no	yes	no	no	yes	no?
Manual transform	with script	no	no	no	yes	no
Font attachment support	yes	no	no	yes	no	no
Languages	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
I18N support	yes	yes	no	no	no	yes
Translations	English Portuguese French Russian Spanish German Danish Korean Italian Catalan Hungarian	English Portuguese Spanish Japanese	English only	English only	English only	English And 35 more
Miscellanea	Aegisub	Sabbu	Medusa	Substation Alpha	SSATool	Subtitle Workshop
Auto save	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes
Auto backup	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Crash handling	emergency save	none	none	none	partially managed	none?
Framerate transformation	yes	no	no	no	yes	yes
VFR transformation	yes	no	no	no	yes	no
Drag-and-drop open	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Customisable hotkeys	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
Macros	scriptable	no	no	text insertion	no	scriptable
Genlock support	no	no	no	yes	no	no
Multi-document	no	no	no	no	no	no
Pretty file formatting	no	yes	no	no	no	yes?
Documentation	exhaustive	no	basic	exhaustive	exhaustive	exhaustive

Styling ruthlessly stolen from asa wiki.

No guarantee of NPOV.