Translate ASS subtitles to Arabic with the right-to-left order intact
Upload .ass or .ssa scripts and get the dialogue in Arabic, inside the same files, with each line marked so players show it right to left and put punctuation at the correct end. Styles, positions and override tags stay where they were. The first part is free on screen with no account, and a job of up to 30 files and 10,000 lines is $5, one payment.
- An invisible right-to-left mark after the leading tags and at the end of every Arabic line
- Tags such as {\an8} or {\i1} stay outside the marks, so they keep working
- UTF-8 with a byte order mark, which players and TVs recognize as Arabic
- Persian, Urdu, Hebrew and other right-to-left languages are separate targets
- $5 once for up to 30 files and 10,000 lines
Where right-to-left subtitles go wrong
An Arabic line that ends with a question mark or a full stop often shows the punctuation at the wrong side, and a line starting with a dash or a number can look scrambled. The player is guessing the direction from the first characters it meets, and in an ASS line those are often tags, digits or Latin names.
The fix is an invisible right-to-left mark at the start and end of the text. Where it goes matters in ASS: placed before a {\an8} or {\pos} block, it would sit outside the text the player draws. The tool keeps leading and trailing tag blocks out of the translation and places the marks between those blocks and the Arabic words, on every translated line.
Fonts that have Arabic letters
Your styles, and any fonts embedded in [Fonts], are copied unchanged. A script typeset for English or Japanese often names a font with no Arabic letters. Players built on libass, such as mpv and VLC, then look for a substitute, and depending on the system the result can be a plain fallback font or empty boxes. If that happens, open the script in a text editor or Aegisub and set the Fontname in the style lines to a font that covers Arabic.
Who translates ASS into Arabic
- Arabic fansub groups working from an English release
- Viewers who want anime or drama in Arabic with the original styling
- Parents preparing a series for children who read Arabic better than English
- Translators who want a first draft inside the script before editing
How the tool works, what it costs and how your files are handled is on the Translate ASS Subtitles page; prices for every tool are on the pricing page.
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Questions and answers
Can ChatGPT translate an ASS file into Arabic?
The Arabic in a short excerpt is usually readable. On a full script the reply tends to stop partway, tags can be lost or moved, and nothing places right-to-left marks around the text, so punctuation often lands at the wrong end in the player.
Which kind of Arabic does it write?
There is one Arabic target, and the model is asked for Arabic without a dialect, so the result is usually Modern Standard Arabic, the form subtitles normally use.
Do the right-to-left marks break the tags?
No. The marks go after the leading tag blocks and before the trailing ones, right around the words, so position, fade and italic tags keep working.
Can I download SRT instead?
Yes. The SRT and VTT downloads keep the right-to-left marks, italics and a top position; positioned signs and fades are left out.
What is the price?
The first block is free on screen. A whole job, up to 30 files and 10,000 lines, is $5 paid once; jobs of 150 lines or fewer are free in full. Unlimited at $19 a week allows 30,000 lines per job.
Is my upload private?
Only you see the job, the text is not used to train AI models, and jobs created without an account are deleted after 7 days.