Eva is a Mac OS X-based script editing application. Designed from the ground up to be the best solution for serious subtitle creation, it offers everything that you need to translate, time, and edit your video program scripts. It is currently still under development; we are using it internally on some of our own projects, but there is certainly a lot of work left to be done. Once it is ready for release, it will be made freely available for download.

Do be aware that Eva is not a video editing or encoding application. It is not a subtitle overlay generator. It is a sophisticated script editing tool, but it is designed to create script data that will be applied to video by some other application.

Currently, Eva is being localized for use in English and Japanese operating environments; additional interface languages may be added in the future. Of course, you can run it under any OS language, and scripts can always be edited in any language that is supported by your system, regardless of which interface language you are using. (Operating system support for additional languages can be enabled or disabled via the “International” item in System Preferences, which you can find under the Apple menu.)

Look it up.
From the beginning, Eva was designed as a translator’s tool. In order to assist in the creation of translated scripts for subtitling foreign-language programs, Eva includes an integrated cross-language dictionary system and support for user-customizable dictionary files.

The default installation includes dictionary data from the EDICT/JMDict projects (produced, maintained, and copyrighted by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University). The dictionary files are stored as standard JMDict-format XML files, which the user can easily modify or replace if desired (for example, as new versions of the JMDict files are released).

Additionally, the user may choose to add new words and definitions, which are then stored into a separate dictionary file that can be easily shared with other translators. (This can be especially useful for group projects when translating a program with a large amount of jargon or other specialized vocabulary.)

The user can easily load and search across multiple dictionaries, and can enable or disable specific dictionaries with a single click. And of course, the dictionaries can support any languages that the user’s system is configured to handle.

Perfect timing.
If you have your audio stream in a format that is readable by QuickTime (and most formats are), then you can use it as a basis for timing your script. Eva supports time bases of 24, 25, 30, and 60 frames per second (fps), including the NTSC variants (23.976, 29.97, and 59.94 fps). You can also choose to time in absolute units of 1/1000th of a second.

Working from a noisy source? Trying to pick out one voice in the crowd? If your audio source contains multiple tracks (for example, a stereo pair), Eva allows you to silence a track at the click of a button, which can help immensely when working with heavily directional sources. You can also choose to downmix the sources into a single monaural stream if you would prefer to eliminate all directionality without disabling any channels.

Of course, audio isn’t the only thing that matters when timing a subtitle script. A subtitle that disappears only a frame or two before or after a scene shift can be jarring to a viewer. Furthermore, there are sometimes signs or other on-screen texts that need to be translated. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a video reference handy while you work? Eva offers an optional video preview area to meet just such a need. You can either load a single file containing both video and audio, or load separate assets for the two. Either way, Eva will provide a video reference, frame-synchronized to your current editing point in the audio track, allowing you to “see the whole picture” as you work.

Plays well with others.
Eva’s native file format is defined as an XML DTD (document type definition), and native Eva scripts are stored as XML files. Any application that can read and process XML files can operate on Eva script files. Additionally, the DTD is (we hope) well-documented, and freely available XML tools and libraries can be used to verify that a given file is compliant with the specification; thus it is not too difficult for other applications to easily incorporate native Eva script format support.

Of course, there are many other file formats out there. Fortunately, Eva is able to handle them with ease. Eva includes native (import and export) support for the popular SubStation Alpha (SSA) version 4 subtitle script format, as well as the common tab-delimited text format used to create subtitle tracks in many DVD mastering tools (such as Apple’s DVD Studio Pro). Eva also includes limited support for importing XML project files from Apple’s Final Cut Pro (version 4.0 and later). Finally, Eva can also export plain, human-readable text files, with a variety of formatting options — ideal for producing scripts to be read aloud, or for offline reading and reference.

Furthermore, Eva’s file format was designed to be able to preserve script information that is present in other script formats, even if Eva itself does not understand or utilize the information. For example, since Eva does not perform any actual video overlaying or other titling functions, it has no use for font, text placement, or other layout directives. Nonetheless, Eva can preserve these style directives, allowing smooth cooperation in a multi-application environment.