Systems and methods are provided for applying attributes to subtitles. One example method includes accessing a subtitle file, wherein the subtitle file comprises one or more subtitles, and identifying an attribute to apply to at least a subset of the subtitles. The subtitle file is amended indicate an attribute to apply to at least a subset of the subtitles to create an amended subtitle file. At a computing device, the subtitles of the amended subtitle file are generated for display, wherein the attribute is applied to the subset of the subtitles.