What is an SRT file?
SRT(SubRip file format) is a simple subtitle file saved in the SubRip file format with the .srt extension. It contains a sequential number of subtitles, start and end timestamps, and subtitle text. SRT files make it possible to add subtitles to video content after it is produced.
SRT file Structure
Each subtitle has four parts in the SRT file.
- A numeric counter indicating the number or position of the subtitle.
- Start and end time of the subtitle separated by –> characters
- Subtitle text in one or more lines.
- A blank line indicating the end of the subtitle.
Example of SRT
1
00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:15,300
This is an example of
a subtitle.
2
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:25,300
This is an example of
a subtitle - 2nd subtitle.
To specify the time hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds (00:00:00,000) format is used.
Formatting of SRT files
The formatting of SRT files is derived from HTML tags. The formatting tags for the SRT file are listed below.
| Effect | Tags |
|---|---|
| Bold | <b>…</b> or {b}…{/b} |
| Italic | <i>…</i> or {i}…{/i} |
| Underline | <u>…</u> or {u}…{/u} |
| Font Color | <font color="white">…</font> |
| Line Position | {\a3} (indicates that the text should start appearing on line 3) |
How to open SRT files
SRT files are plain text files and can be opened with any text editor to view its contents like Notepad. But the main purpose for someone to open SRT files is so that the subtitles would play along with the video. SRT files are supported by most of the video players. Some of the video players that support SRT files are listed below.
- VLC Media Player
- Media Player Classic
- MPlayer KMPlayer
- Microsoft Windows Media Player with VobSub plugin
SubRip Software
SubRip is a free software program that runs on Windows. It extracts subtitles and their timings from different video formats and saves the subtitles in SRT format. SubRip uses optical character recognition to extract subtitles from live video, other video files, and DVDs.