SoftSubs

A Chrome extension which uses OCR to attempt to convert "hard" subtitles (embedded subtitles) into "soft" subtitles that can be used with screen readers, popup dictionaries, clipboard managers, etc.

Installation

Install the extension itself by cloning this repository and then loading the dist/ folder as an unpacked plugin in your browser.

Note that in order for the plugin to work, you will need to run the OCR server locally, which is built upon PaddlePaddle

Prerequisites

• You must have Python installed, preferably version 3.9. Some dependencies are not supported in Python 3.12, so opt for Python 3.9.

NOTE: Make sure Python is added to your PATH! There is an option during the installer, check it

Linux/macOS

To run the server, there is a script provided for you, but you may need to execute some steps first:

1. Open a terminal
2. Navigate to the directory you extracted SoftSubs to by executing the cd <SoftSubs Directory>
3. Ensure the script is executable by running the command sudo chmod +x run-server.sh
4. Execute ./run-server.sh to run the script

Once the server's running, you should be good to go! The first run will take a minute or so to gather the OCR prerequisites, but after that each call should only take a fraction of a second.

Windows

To run the server, there is a script provided for you, but you may need to execute some steps first:

1. Open Powershell as an Administrator
2. Navigate to the directory you extracted SoftSubs to by executing the cd <SoftSubs Directory>
3. Change your execution policy for Powershell scripts by executing Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted. If you want this to persist forever, you can type Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope LocalMachine
4. Execute .\run-server.ps1 to run the script

Once the server's running, you should be good to go! The first run will take a minute or so to gather the OCR prerequisites, but after that each call should only take a fraction of a second.