Subtitle Workshop & Burn-in

Subwright keeps transcription, proofreading, the subtitle workshop, export, and burn-in on one local pipeline. After transcription, edit subtitles line by line, run checks, shape the timing, then export the finished file or burn it into video.

Subtitle workshop

Open the Table / Paragraph view in the inspector and expand the editing timeline at the bottom.

• Subtitle table: start, end, duration, and text for every cue; edit the time cells directly and press ▶ to play only that cue.
• Editing timeline: zoomable waveform; drag cue edges to change timing, drag cues to shift them, snap to neighbours and the playhead, and undo in one step.
• Cue issues: QC v2 flags empty cues, invalid or short durations, overlaps, reading speed, line length, long gaps, and out-of-bounds timing, with an issue histogram at the top.
• Beautify: Netflix profile (1–7s, 2-frame gap, 2 lines) with 24/25/30fps snapping; preview up to eight changes and undo the whole pass in one step.
• Spellcheck (macOS): extracts Latin words, offers per-word guesses, and applies replacements through undo.
• Playlists: add media to a playlist in the library, play in order, reorder, or remove items.

ASS import and export

• Import: bring a .ass / .ssa file in as a transcript and align it by time; drop a same-stem subtitle next to a source file to pair them.
• Export: Watch and Batch both export .ass, with built-in Clean / Cinema / High-contrast styles or a custom template saved from the burn-in drawer.
• Styling: <i> / <b> / <u> and speaker names in the Name field; the canvas is proportional to 1920×1080 and opens in players, Aegisub, and libass.
• Batch: select ASS in the batch queue and export it alongside SRT/VTT.

Generate subtitle files

1. Click “Export” in the toolbar
2. Choose SRT, VTT, ASS, FCPXML, or TXT / DOCX / Markdown / JSON / CSV / HTML / PDF
3. Set max characters per line, display duration, and speaker labels
4. Save the file

Watch and Batch each support 11 export formats; the CLI keeps SRT / VTT / TXT / JSON. Engines without timestamps hide timed formats automatically.

Subtitle burn-in

1. Click “Burn Subtitles” on the transcript page
2. Pick a style template, or adjust font, position, color, outline, and size
3. Click “Preview Frame” to confirm the look
4. Click “Start Burn” — ffmpeg re-encodes and outputs

SRT vs VTT

Best practices

• Run QC v2 first to catch long gaps, overlaps, and reading-speed issues
• Press ⌘Z after timeline edits to undo the whole change in one step
• Shape long lines with Beautify before adjusting breaks by hand
• Use “Preview Frame” before burn-in to confirm font, position, and outline
• After speaker diarization, exported subtitles include a Speaker 1: prefix