The paper traces a short history of subtitling and explores its most recent developments. The proliferation of audiovisual (AV) media, the need to access original versions of AV products as soon as possible and the newly-acquired flexibility of dubbing countries have recently led to an increase in the volume and a change in the nature of such activity. Subtitling started to be used in diverse and creative ways, and its originally primary role (i.e. a means for overcoming language barriers) is today just one of many. The forms and the applications of subtitling are depicted drawing from both established and fresh literature in the filed of audiovisual translation.
