Remove Subtitle Formatting
Processed locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Quick answer
This tool strips styling out of a subtitle file and leaves clean plain captions. It removes HTML-style tags like <i>, <b> and <font>, ASS override blocks such as {\an8} and {\pos(..)}, colour codes and drawing commands — keeping the words and the timing, dropping the markup. Useful when a player shows raw tags on screen, or before restyling from scratch. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
How to remove subtitle formatting
Load the tagged file
Drop in the subtitle file that is full of markup — SRT with <font> tags, or an ASS/SSA file with override codes — or paste the text.
Strip the formatting
The tool removes inline tags, ASS override blocks, positioning, colours and any drawing commands, while leaving every cue’s text and timing intact.
Export clean captions
The plain-text result appears in the preview. Download the cleaned file or copy it, ready for a player that was choking on the tags.
What exactly gets stripped?
Subtitle files carry two very different kinds of styling, and this tool clears both. The first is inline HTML-style tags that SubRip and WebVTT allow. The second is SubStation Alpha (ASS/SSA) override code — the curly-brace commands that control position, rotation, colour and vector drawings. What survives is the dialogue and the cue timing.
| Element | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Italic / bold / underline | <i>, <b>, <u> | Removed, text kept |
| Font & colour tags | <font color="#ff0"> | Removed, text kept |
| ASS positioning | {\an8}, {\pos(320,50)} | Removed |
| ASS colour / style overrides | {\c&HFFFFFF&}, {\b1} | Removed |
| ASS drawing commands | {\p1}m 0 0 l 100 0 ... | Removed entirely |
| Cue text and timing | The spoken line and its times | Kept |
Why would you want to remove formatting?
Two situations come up again and again:
- A player is showing the tags as literal text — you see
<i>or{\an8}on screen instead of italic or repositioned text — because it does not understand that markup. Stripping it leaves captions the player can render. - You are about to restyle from scratch and want a clean slate. Old fonts, colours and positions from a previous author only get in the way when you are applying your own look.
Does it handle karaoke and sign typesetting?
Yes. Heavily typeset ASS files — anime signs, karaoke with \k timing tags, vector drawings on a {\p1} layer — reduce to just their spoken lines. Karaoke syllable timing and the drawing shapes are removed, because they exist only to drive on-screen effects, not to convey dialogue. If you want to keep styling but only change the wording, use the subtitle editor instead of this stripper.
What does it leave alone?
The stripper is deliberately conservative about anything that is not styling. It does not touch your timestamps, it does not merge or delete cues, and it does not translate or rewrite words — apostrophes, quotation marks and accented letters all pass through as they are. Line breaks inside a cue are kept, since a two-line caption is a layout choice about the words, not a colour or position override. The result is the same script you had, only without the codes a simple player cannot render.
Is the file uploaded to clean it?
No. The tags are removed by text processing in your browser; the file is parsed, cleaned and rebuilt locally with no network request. Confirm it in DevTools → Network — nothing is sent. Your captions stay private on your device.
Related subtitle tools
If the raw tags were actually a sign the file is in the wrong format, the subtitle converter may be what you need. To pull just the words out with no timing at all, use subtitle to text. Once the captions are clean, add them to your video.
Your files never leave your device
Processed locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded. You can verify it yourself: open your browser’s developer tools, watch the Network tab, and use the tool — no upload request is ever made.
Frequently asked questions
My player shows <i> and {\an8} as text — how do I remove them?
Load the file here and strip the formatting. The tool removes HTML-style tags and ASS override blocks so the player shows clean captions instead of the raw codes.
Does removing formatting change the words or timing?
No. Only markup is removed. Every cue’s text and its start and end times are preserved exactly.
Will it remove ASS positioning like {\pos(..)} and {\an8}?
Yes. Override blocks for position, alignment, colour and style are all stripped, along with vector drawing commands, leaving plain dialogue.
Can I get the styling back afterwards?
Not from the cleaned file — stripping is one-way. Keep your original if you might want the colours and positions again, and clean a copy.
What about karaoke effects?
Karaoke syllable timing tags and any drawing layers are removed, because they only exist to drive on-screen effects. You are left with the underlying lyric or dialogue lines.
Does it keep italics if I want them?
No — this tool removes all styling, including italics. If you want to keep some tags and only fix wording, use the subtitle editor instead.
Which formats can I clean?
SRT, VTT and ASS/SSA are all supported. The cleaned result is exported in a plain form of the format you loaded.