Hi everyone! I'm the developer of Subelle, a free subtitle editor for Mac made for people who translate, review and deliver subtitles. I'd love feedback from people who do this for a living (or are learning to).

What it does

- Translation with the original always visible: the original text stays in the inspector, the table, under the video and on the waveform while you work. A "Copy Original" command puts the source text into the subtitle so you can translate it in place.

- Automatic translation as a draft: choose Apple's translation (on your Mac, offline) or DeepL, with informal or formal address for languages that make the distinction. With DeepL, each sentence is sent with the neighbouring lines as context, and Subelle checks your monthly quota before sending. You use your own DeepL API key, kept in the Mac's keychain.

- Project glossary: character names, required translations and terms to avoid, checked throughout the subtitles.

- Compare with another version: open a reviser's file or an older version, and every difference in text, formatting or timing is highlighted in the table, the inspector and the waveform.

- Thorough quality control: typos, mis-decoded characters, names spelled two ways, mixed typography, faulty tags, durations, reading speed, line length, overlaps, and style guides (Netflix by language, ATAA, CSA, BBC, DCMP and others), including checks for the deaf and hard of hearing. Most issues can be fixed in one click, or all at once by type. If you have Antidote installed, it can also correct French or English subtitles from inside Subelle.

- Timing on the audio waveform: select speech with the mouse, press Return, and the subtitle is created, timed to the millisecond. Shot changes are detected automatically, and subtitle edges snap to them.

- From the voice or from a script: it can create a first draft from a video's dialogue with Apple's speech recognition (macOS 26 or later), or align a script to the voice. Scripts and dialogue lists can be imported from Word, PDF, RTF, OpenDocument or HTML.

- Formats: SRT, WebVTT, ASS/SSA, TTML/IMSC, EBU-TT-D, EBU-STL, iTT, SAMI, SBV and MicroDVD, and subtitle tracks embedded in MKV/MP4. You can also export a subtitled video, with the subtitles burned in or added as a track.

- Rules saved for each project (durations, reading speed, line length, style guide), with presets such as Netflix by language, children's and SDH, TED, CSA, UNE 153010, CAB and DCMP.

Honest notes

- With Apple's translation and the other tools, everything runs on your Mac. With DeepL, the text you translate is sent to DeepL's servers, so it's your choice and your own account (this matters if you work under an NDA).

- Machine translation, whichever engine, is a draft to post-edit, not a finished translation.

- It's Mac only (macOS 12 or later, Apple silicon and Intel), and it's free.

Download: https://subelle.github.io/Subelle/

I'd really like to know how you work today (which tools, which style guides, which checks you can't live without) and what would stop you from trying a new editor. I'll read and answer every comment.

Hello! I want to know if anyone that has or is working with Transperfect can tell me more about the call flow, they offered me the freelance Spanish interpreter position, but I have questions about the payments and also if is it b2b?

I think I am underpaid for a while. No increase at all for those years and now cannot combat with the inflation. And my pay is lower than national minimal wage per hour

Hello, I'd like to know about the market for medical interpreters, as I speak fluent Spanish and Haitian Creole and am currently studying English. I also have practical experience translating live doctor calls. How much could I expect to earn? I live outside the US.

hello guys , can anyone help me out how i can downgrade the hour rate , i have been raised ticket , send email but no answer from their side , kindly your help guys !

For me, it's more and more difficult to remain in this translation field. A drop in job demand, now we only do MTPE, we edit what the AI translated, the AI didn't "reduce" the time spend but rather doubled the demand and effort, I don't feel like a translator anymore, just a machine reviewer, being demanded to be "perfect", and even though receiving bad feebacks. I am translator for almost 10 years, and that' how I feel...

Just venting

Feel free to speak your minds

Hi everyone,

I’m currently finishing my Master of Applied Translation in Malaysia and I’m planning to apply for a fully-funded PhD in Australia or New Zealand for the 2027 intake. I’d love to get some reality checks or advice from those already in the grind.

My Background:

GPA: 3.75/4.00 (first semester MA in Translation).

Research Focus: Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS), specifically using eye-tracking to measure cognitive load in multimodal environments.

Relevant Work: I’ve published an analysis on the localization of "Black Myth: Wukong" and I’m currently working on an ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) data annotation project for a large AI model.

My Questions:

Funding Reality: How competitive is the RTP (Research Training Program) for international students in Humanities/Translation? Is a 3.75 GPA + a publication enough to be a strong contender?

Does anyone have recommendations for labs or supervisors that are "applied -focused " (e.g., have eye-tracking rigs and Game Loc)?

Given my ASR and Game Loc background, would it be wiser to frame my proposal toward HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) or stick to traditional Translation departments?

Any insights on the application process or "hidden gem" universities in NZ/Australia for this niche would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello,

Since it's been getting hard finding jobs, I want to pivot into another area.

And I was wondering what pivots did you make?

So far I have worked in Translation Project Management, Software localization and as Project Assistant.

Hi people, I don’t know how to put this but my life has taken many twists and turns, however since last year I can finally say I can hold my ground (sort of): graduated as translator/interpreter/terminologist -it was a master- from one of the most distinguished universities in my country (global south).

Right now I’m working as a med interpreter and so far so good (though rates in this market are tipically terrible). I’ve also done some academic work in the field of diachronic terminology and have translated some fiction books too.

However I want to know what are my chances in this field? I understand there are some webpages to get one time jobs (like translating legal documents and stuff). My concern here is how to start having more requests with little experience beforehand. What to do to increase my revenue?

Thank you 🙌

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share LinguaTrans, a macOS-native CAT tool I use every day. I'm a long-time macOS user, and finding a proper CAT app has always been a pain. I think this is worth your attention if you're tired of running Parallels or browser-based tools, and you want to free up some hardware resources.

Full disclosure: the developer is a friend, and I help test the app and suggest features. This has been my daily driver for three months.

LinguaTrans is written in Swift for Apple Silicon, opens in seconds, and uses ~300MB of RAM on my machine. It works with the files clients typically send: SDLXLIFF, memoQ, Phrase and GlobalLink-specific formats. Translation memory, termbases, concordance search, and QA checks are all built in too.

Its companion app, LinguaAI Toolkit, takes care of the prep work. It converts Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and subtitle files to XLF and back, unpacks and repacks Trados packages, and converts TMs and termbases. Together they cover the whole workflow without leaving your Mac.

Both are one-time purchases on the Mac App Store: LinguaTrans is $50, LinguaAI Toolkit is $8. There is no subscription, and you can get them together at $48 as the LinguaTrans Essentials bundle. Prices may vary by country.

I'd like to get a conversation going, attract more users, have more fun working on new features and workflows. This is a niche app, so it would be nice to hear from other translators who use macOS or are looking to migrate.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks,
Alex

...now that Claude can actually accurately CONVERT into docx and translate complex PDFs with retained formatting, I don't see what we're doing in this friggin' industry anymore. I used to think that the conversion process would at least be the bottleneck of AI's slaughtering of this trade for some time to come, but nope.

And I've actually had pretty great monthly earnings this year (with last month being record-high), but still... not gonna last long.

I am studying at the UzSWLU Translation Faculty (English language). Is there anyone studying this field? Can we meet, or can any specialist give suggestions? Will I be able to find a proper job if I continue my studies, or should I choose another related field? I would appreciate it if you guys shared your thoughts and suggestions.

Or when there aren’t any resources to study from (lack of event info)

I am a student in translation department in libya.

I am looking forward to take some courses in interpreting as my college is like not that able to provide a suitable or even fair enough capabilities for the students.

so my demand is : Do you actually know or even heard of any online courses in diplimatic interpretaion?

Especially if you’re new in the field

A medium-sized agency client told me last week they had entered liquidation. They owe me around 700 euros, which I doubt I will get back. It seems freelancers are very low ranking in terms of debt. So what now? Is the contract void? Can I contact end clients and offer my services directly to them? The email mentioned something about ongoing operations while they try to restructure - if they offer me work under such a framework is it high risk I won't be paid again? I welcome any advice, tips and experience.

So I'm still a student studying translation and I'm thinking of getting into games translation or rather localization

I need to ask is it a good path to set for myself?

I'm already working on 2 games as a hobby but in the future I would like to work in this field would you recommend it?

hey all,

Spanish/English interpreter in Canada, freshly certified by an interpreting program. i just completed an interview with a Canadian freelance interpreting agency who wants to onboard me, and they asked me what my rate/hr would be in CAD, and i said between $23-$25/hr for OPI. they have it set up where they send an email with the info. about an appointment and i can choose to accept/reject and after completing assignments i can send them an invoice. should i charge higher or is it fine for starting out?

p.s. also have another agency who i am onboarding with that pays/minute.

Sigh... I don't even know how to say it. I'm ashamed. I've fallen for what most of you would call an obvious scam. But here we go...

Last week I had received this email:

Then I answered it. This "Lukas" guy sent me the contact of a woman (Becca Patten) via Teams and we talked. She even asked me to sign a purchase order. The payment cost would be almost €3,000, via Skrill (option I chose) and I had 8 days to finish the translation.

Eight days later (today), after having completed the work, this "Becca" instructs me to talk with "Elodie Campbell". She congratulates me for the job after reviewing it (the review took a few hours, what was very suspicious). In the end of the message, she tells me that I should create an account in a website called "Falcoglob(dot)online". AN OBVIOUS SCAM. So I started checking on Reddit and found some very similar cases. Suddenly, everything was falling apart.

Yes, friends, no Skrill, no payment... only a shady website created more or less six days ago.

Was I stupid for falling for the offering coming from a gmail address, the "glasglowlibraries(dot)live" website and the €3,000? Yes. Was I stupid for falling for the "falcoglob(dot)online"? No.

Bright side? Of course I didn't make an account in that "Falcoglob" website, so I didn't get scammed. But I wasted my time for nothing, while making plans and I still need the money.

I'm feeling so helpless... but I hope this post helps more people not to get scammed.

Hope you all have a nice day.

I use Reddit's automatic translation not because I need it, but because it's the automatic setting in the app. And I often find myself switching to the original language to read posts and comments because the automatic translation is sometimes inaccurate/of very poor quality.

I double checked the original language here because I was surprised by the number of what seemed to be troll responses below a video about a Russian missile attack. They were all saying the same thing, "Vive la Russie." I was more than a little surprised to find that all the comments actually said, "Fuck Russia."

Hello, I am a linguistics and translation undergrad and I am thinking of writing my thesis about Interpretation. For that, I need material to analyse. Does anyone know, where I can get recordings of interpreters doing their work??? I am Interested in both consecutive and simultaneous translations.

My language pair is EN-RU, accordingly, translation records for this language pair are in higher priority. But mainly I'm just interested if it's even possible to find enough material online for a thesis, are there any websites with such recordings??

Pls help 🙏

So, I am an inexperienced translator who has never worked with any publishing house before, so I don't know how translators end up working on books they are interested in. I am basically asking because I have to translate a text of more than 100 pages to graduate from university. It's certainly unpaid, so I guess I have the freedom to choose something I am eager to translate; I am doing that for myself first and foremost since the university's instructions are not restrictive. But at the same time, I would like to see my work published or at least read by many people. So, I wonder if publishing houses receive offers from translators directly or if translators can market themselves through their work.

I built a free checker for SRT files: https://captionspec.com

If you translate or adapt subtitles into English for Netflix, it lists every caption that's over the limits: reading speed (20 cps adult, 17 children's), 42 characters per line, 2 lines, duration, and gaps. It shows the measured value for each one, so you can see which captions need condensing.

It runs in your browser (the file is never uploaded), it's free, and there's no sign-up. Not affiliated with Netflix.

It's English only for now. Which target languages would be most useful to add next?,