I was watching a video in VLC Player the other day, and the subtitles were huge. Not a little bit too big, but taking-up-a-third-of-the-screen huge. The weird part: the font size in the VLC settings was already set to Smaller.
So why did VLC ignore my settings? Turns out it didn’t. It was showing a different subtitle file than I thought.
What I tried
I’ve tried a few things to get the subtitles smaller:
- Set the font size in Tools → Preferences → Subtitles/OSD to Smaller
- Switched to Show settings: All and checked Video → Subtitles / OSD → Text renderer, setting Font size (pixels) to 0 so the relative size is used
- Saved and restarted VLC Player (subtitle settings don’t apply to a video that’s already playing)
Nothing changed. The subtitles stayed huge.
The cause
In the folder with the video there were two subtitle files with the same name as the video: an .srt file and an .ass file. The .ass file was saved by me after using Aegisub.
VLC Player automatically loads subtitle files that match the video filename. With both present, it picked the .ass file. And here’s the catch: ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) subtitles carry their own styling, including font, colors, position and font size. VLC uses that styling and ignores the font size you set in the preferences.
So my settings were fine. They just didn’t apply to the file VLC was showing.
The solution
There are three ways to fix this, depending on what you want.
Option 1: Switch to the SRT track (quick fix)
- While the video is playing, go to Subtitle → Sub Track
- Both subtitle files are listed, select the
.srtone
The font size from your preferences now applies. This only works for the current playback though. Next time you open the video, VLC may pick the .ass file again.
Option 2: Rename or move the .ass file (permanent fix)
- Move the
.assfile to another folder, or - Rename it to something like
movie_old.ass
Now VLC only finds the .srt file and loads that one every time.
Option 3: Edit the font size in the .ass file
If you like the styling of the .ass subtitles (positioning, colors), you can also lower the font size in the file itself.
- Open the
.assfile in a text editor - Look for the line(s) starting with
Style:, for example:
Style: Default,Arial,72,...- The number after the font name is the font size. Lower it to something like 40–50
- Save the file and reopen the video in VLC
If you prefer a visual editor, Aegisub can do this too through Subtitle → Styles Manager.
Summary
If your VLC subtitles stay huge no matter what you set in the preferences, check the video folder for an .ass file with the same name. VLC loads it automatically, and its built-in styling wins over your settings. Switch to the .srt track for a quick fix, move or rename the .ass file for a permanent one, or lower the font size in the .ass file if you want to keep its styling.
Photo by Peter Stumpf
Leave a Reply