ELAN

ELAN lets users attach an unlimited number of textual annotations to audio and video recordings. Annotations may be sentences, words, glosses, comments, translations or any descriptive note, and they are stored as Unicode text in XML‑based EAF files. Users can create multiple annotation layers, called tiers, which can be arranged hierarchically and linked to each other, with annotations either time‑aligned to the media or referencing other annotations.

The tool offers several synchronized views of the media timeline, supporting tier creation, controlled vocabularies, and the ability to associate up to four video files with a single annotation document. Media playback relies on native frameworks such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime or VLC, and format support depends on the underlying operating system.

ELAN is written in Java and distributed for Windows, macOS and Linux under a GPL 3 license, with source code publicly available. It is intended for researchers and professionals who need detailed, multilayered annotation of audio‑visual material.