Convert ASS to TXT
Turn an ASS subtitle file into plain text. The styling, override tags and timings come out and the dialogue stays.
- Free
- No upload, no signup
- Timecodes on or off
How to convert ASS to TXT
Choose your .ass file
Press the box at the top of this page and pick your ASS file, or drop it on. It is read in your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is no account to make.
Pick how the text is laid out
One line per cue, one paragraph, or one line per cue with its start time in front. The preview shows the first lines of the TXT file as they will be saved.
Download the .txt file
Save the text file to your device, or press Copy text to paste it straight into a document. Your ASS file is left as it was.
Getting the words out of a heavily marked-up file
An ASS file is the least readable of the caption formats by hand. Each line is a Dialogue event with ten comma-separated fields before the text even starts, and the text itself can be full of override tags in braces controlling colour, position and timing.
Converting to plain text strips the script headers, the style definitions, the event fields and the override tags, and returns the spoken lines. Vector drawings and Comment lines are left out as well. For a typeset file this is a substantial reduction, which is the point.
If the file contains signs and typesetting as well as dialogue, expect those lines in the output too: they are Dialogue events like any other, and nothing in the format marks them as scenery rather than speech.
ASS and TXT, side by side
The timings go away. A plain text file is the words in order and nothing else, which is what you want for a transcript, a script or a caption file you are about to rewrite - and not what you want if the file still has to sit under a video.
Both samples below hold the same two cues, so the difference you can see is the whole difference between the formats.
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:01.00,0:00:03.50,Default,,0,0,0,,This is the first line.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:03.50,0:00:06.00,Default,,0,0,0,,And this is the second.
This is the first line.
And this is the second.
ASS to TXT: questions
Do the override tags come through?
No. Anything in braces controlling colour, position or timing is markup and is removed, leaving the readable line.
Why does my transcript contain sign translations?
Because ASS stores typesetting as ordinary Dialogue events. Nothing in the file distinguishes a translated sign from a spoken line, so both come through.
Can I convert ASS to TXT with the timecodes kept?
Yes. Pick With timecodes above the preview and each line opens with the time its cue starts, written as [00:01:05]. The other two layouts are one line per cue and one paragraph.
Should I convert ASS to SRT or to TXT?
It depends on whether the words still have to sit under a video. SRT keeps the dialogue and the timings and drops the styling, so it still works as captions. TXT keeps only the dialogue, for reading, quoting or pasting into a document.
What about the style and format headers?
The [Script Info], [V4+ Styles] and Format lines describe how the file should look and say nothing about what was said, so none of it appears in the text. Only the Dialogue text comes out.
Is this a good way to get a transcript?
It is a good start. The words come out in order, broken where the subtitles were broken rather than where the sentences end, so expect to join a few lines up before it reads as prose.
Other caption conversions
Everything else you can do here.
Convert the video too
Convert ASS to TXT now
Free, in your browser. The file is converted on your device and is not uploaded.