ASS / SSA subtitles
Also known as: .ass file, SubStation Alpha, Advanced SubStation Alpha, styled subtitles
ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) and its predecessor SSA are subtitle formats that add styling on top of plain text — fonts, colors, positioning, and on-screen effects. Unlike a basic SRT, an .ass file can place and animate captions anywhere on screen, which is why fansubs and anime use it.
- Adds styling, fonts, and positioning over plain SRT
- Common in anime and fansub releases
- Tiny plain-text file; often muxed into MKV
ASS/SSA vs plain SRT
A plain SRT holds only numbered lines of text and start/end timestamps — no formatting. An ASS/SSA file is far richer: it defines styles (font, size, color, outline, shadow), where each line sits on screen, and even fades, rotations, and karaoke timing.
That power is why ASS dominates anime fansubs and complex subtitling. The trade-off is compatibility: many TVs and simple players show ASS captions as plain text or skip the styling, while SRT plays almost everywhere.
Files and storage
ASS and SSA are small plain-text files you can open in any text editor, typically just a few kilobytes. They sit next to the video (same filename, .ass or .ssa extension) or are muxed inside a container such as MKV.
Because they are tiny, subtitles never meaningfully affect storage — the video file is what fills space. A folder of downloaded shows can accumulate many stray .ass and .srt sidecar files, but they are harmless to keep or delete.