HikariSubASS override tags
Every override tag libass renders, with a live preview of each.
Override tags change how part of a line looks. They go in braces in the line's text, each starting with a backslash: {\b1\fs80}Big and bold. Every preview below renders with libass, as HikariSub does. Edit a line to try a variation, and use Copy line to paste it into a script.
The previews use a 1280×720 script with a Default style in K2D SemiBold 64, white with a dark border, at the bottom centre.
How tags work
- A tag changes the text from where it is written to the end of the line, or until another tag changes the same thing.
{\b1}Bold {\b0}regularmakes one word bold. - A tag with no value goes back to the line's style:
{\fs}restores the style's font size. - Some tags apply to the whole line, wherever they are written, and only the first counts:
\pos,\move,\org,\an,\a,\fad,\fadeand the vector\clip. For the rectangle\clipand\iclip, the last one counts. - Positions, sizes and drawings are in script pixels, the PlayResX × PlayResY grid of the script, whatever the video's size.
- Colours are written blue, green, red:
&HBBGGRR&.&H0000FF&is red. Alpha is a separate tag, from&H00&(opaque) to&HFF&(invisible). - Tag names are case-sensitive, and an unknown tag is ignored. Text in braces that is not a tag is a comment and does not show.
Text
\b: bold
\b1 is bold and \b0 is not. A value of 100 or more asks for that font weight, such as \b300 for light.
\i: italic
\i1 is italic and \i0 is not. A font without an italic face is slanted.
\u, \s: underline and strikeout
\u1 underlines and \s1 strikes the text out; 0 turns them off.
\fn: font
\fn<name> sets the font family. The name runs up to the next backslash or brace, spaces included. HikariSub's Font collector gathers the fonts a script uses.
\fs: font size
\fs<size> in script pixels. \fs+<n> and \fs-<n> change the size by n tenths: \fs+2 is 20% larger.
\fsp: letter spacing
\fsp<n> adds n script pixels between letters; a negative value draws them closer.
\fe: encoding
\fe<n> sets the font encoding (charset) for the line. libass only uses it to set the text direction: \fe-1 detects it from the text. Rarely needed.
\q: wrapping
How a long line wraps, for the whole line: \q0 wraps evenly with the top line wider, \q1 wraps at the end of the line, \q2 does not wrap (only \N and \n break it), and \q3 wraps evenly with the bottom line wider. Without it the script's Wrap style applies.
\r: reset
\r resets the tags before it to the line's style; \r<style> resets them to another style. It leaves the line-wide tags (\pos, \move, \clip, \an and so on) alone.
Scale, rotation and shear
\fscx, \fscy: scale
Horizontal and vertical scale in percent; 100 is normal.
\frz: rotation
\frz<degrees> turns the text in the plane of the screen; positive turns it counter-clockwise. \fr is the same tag. It turns about the line's alignment point, or about \org.
\frx, \fry: 3D rotation
\frx turns the text about the horizontal axis, tilting it away; \fry turns it about the vertical axis. Both rotate about the alignment point or \org, with a fixed perspective.
\fax, \fay: shear
\fax<factor> slants the text horizontally and \fay<factor> vertically. The value is a factor, not an angle: \fax0.5 shifts each row by half its height.
\org: origin of rotation
\org(x,y) sets the point \frx, \fry and \frz turn about. Only the first \org counts. Play this one to see the text swing about a point to its left:
Position and alignment
\pos: position
\pos(x,y) puts the line's alignment point at (x, y). Only the first \pos or \move counts. A positioned line does not move aside for other lines.
\move: movement
\move(x1,y1,x2,y2) moves the line from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) over its whole duration. \move(x1,y1,x2,y2,t1,t2) moves it between t1 and t2, in milliseconds from the line's start; before t1 it waits at the start and after t2 at the end.
\an: alignment
\an1 to \an9 place the line like the keys of a numeric keypad: 1 to 3 at the bottom, 4 to 6 in the middle, 7 to 9 at the top, each left, centre and right. The margins apply. It also decides which point of the text \pos places. Only the first \an counts.
\a: alignment, old style
The SSA numbering: \a1, \a2, \a3 are bottom left, centre and right; add 4 for the top (\a5 to \a7) and 8 for the middle (\a9 to \a11). Prefer \an.
Colour and transparency
\1c, \2c, \3c, \4c: colours
\1c is the fill, \2c the karaoke colour before a syllable is sung, \3c the border and \4c the shadow. \c is \1c. Write the colour as &HBBGGRR&.
\alpha, \1a to \4a: transparency
\alpha sets the transparency of all four colours; \1a to \4a set one each. &H00& is opaque and &HFF& invisible. A colour tag never changes transparency, so set it with these tags rather than inside \c.
Border, shadow and blur
\bord: border
\bord<width> sets the border width; \bord0 removes it. \xbord and \ybord set it horizontally and vertically.
\shad: shadow
\shad<distance> moves the shadow down and to the right; \shad0 removes it. \xshad and \yshad set each direction and can be negative.
\be: soft edges
\be<n> softens the edges n times. It takes whole numbers, up to 127. With a border, it softens the border rather than the text.
\blur: blur
\blur<radius> blurs the edges smoothly; it takes decimals, up to 100. With a border, it blurs the border, so a glow is a thick, coloured, blurred border. Blur is costly to render: Video › Show / hide render cost counts the lines that use it.
Animation
\t: animated tags
\t(t1,t2,accel,\tags) changes the tags inside it gradually from t1 to t2, in milliseconds from the line's start. t2 of 0 means the end of the line. Leave out t1 and t2 to animate over the whole line, and accel to animate evenly; accel above 1 starts slow, below 1 starts fast. Several \t can follow each other.
Tags that can be animated: \fs, \fsp, \fscx, \fscy, \frx, \fry, \frz, \fax, \fay, the colours and alphas, \bord, \xbord, \ybord, \shad, \xshad, \yshad, \be, \blur, and the rectangle \clip and \iclip.
\fad: fade in and out
\fad(in,out) fades the line in over its first in milliseconds and out over its last out. It needs no \t.
\fade: fade, in detail
\fade(a1,a2,a3,t1,t2,t3,t4) goes from transparency a1 to a2 between t1 and t2, then to a3 between t3 and t4. Here the values are decimal, 0 (opaque) to 255 (invisible).
Karaoke
Each karaoke tag starts a syllable and gives its duration in centiseconds: \k50 is half a second. Syllables follow one another from the start of the line. Before its time a syllable shows the secondary colour (\2c), and the primary colour (\1c) once sung. HikariSub's Audio panel times syllables; see the karaoke guides.
\k: karaoke
The syllable changes colour all at once.
\kf, \K: karaoke fill
The colour sweeps across the syllable from left to right over its duration. \K is the same tag.
\ko: karaoke outline
Like \k, but the syllable's border appears only when it is sung.
\kt: karaoke start time
\kt<cs> starts the next syllable that many centiseconds from the line's start, instead of where the previous one ended.
Clipping
\clip, \iclip: rectangle
\clip(x1,y1,x2,y2) shows only the part of the line inside the rectangle; \iclip hides that part instead. The values are whole script pixels. Both can be animated with \t.
\clip, \iclip: shape
\clip(<drawing>) clips to a shape drawn with the drawing commands below, and \iclip(<drawing>) hides the shape. \clip(<scale>,<drawing>) gives the drawing a scale as \p does. Only the first shape clip counts, and it cannot be animated.
Drawing
\p: drawing mode
\p1 turns the text after it into a drawing, until \p0. A drawing takes the line's colours, border, shadow, blur, scale and rotation, and \pos places it. \p2 and up draw at half, quarter and so on of the size, for finer coordinates.
| Command | Draws |
|---|---|
m x y | Moves to (x, y) and starts a new shape. |
n x y | Moves to (x, y) without closing the shape. |
l x y … | Lines to each point. |
b x1 y1 x2 y2 x3 y3 … | A cubic Bézier curve. |
s x1 y1 x2 y2 x3 y3 … | A B-spline through three or more points; p … extends it and c closes it. |
\pbo: drawing baseline
\pbo<n> moves a drawing down by n of its units, to line it up with text.
Line breaks and spaces
These go in the text, not in braces:
\Nalways breaks the line.\nbreaks it only with wrap style 2 (\q2); otherwise it is a space.\his a space that never breaks.
Tags libass does not draw
VSFilterMod adds tags such as \fsvp, \frs, \rnd, \z, \distort, \jitter, \moves3, \1img and the gradient tags \1vc and \1va. libass does not render them, and some are mistaken for its own tags: \frs is read as \frz0 and \rnd as \r. They render only with VSFilterMod, which HikariSub offers on Windows as a slower renderer. HikariSub's tag list in the Line editor shows them with Show VSFilterMod tags.