How AI manga translation works, step by step

An AI manga translator does more than translate sentences. A manga page is an image, so the words have to be found, read, removed and redrawn. This is the pipeline a page goes through on AI Manga Translator.

1. Text detection

A detection model marks every region that contains lettering: speech bubbles, narration boxes and text placed over the artwork. Lines that belong to the same bubble are grouped so they are translated as one sentence instead of fragment by fragment.

2. OCR

Each region is read by an OCR model trained on comic lettering. This matters for Japanese, where text usually runs vertically, uses furigana and mixes three scripts. General-purpose OCR often misreads it.

3. Cleaning the page

The original lettering is masked and erased. Inside a white bubble that is simple. Where text sits on screentone or artwork, an inpainting model repairs the picture behind the letters.

4. Translation

The text of the page is translated into the language you chose. Bubbles are translated together, which helps keep names and tone consistent across a page.

5. Typesetting

The translation is set back into each bubble, sized and wrapped to fit, and laid out horizontally or vertically depending on the target language. For English and other Latin-script languages, the text is fitted to the whole speech bubble with one font size per page and balanced line breaks; see Manga Typesetting: How We Fit Translated Text Into Speech Bubbles.

What to expect

• Clean scans with readable text give the best result.
• Dialogue and narration translate well. Very small text and heavily stylised sound effects may be left unchanged.
• Machine translation can miss jokes, honorifics and context from earlier chapters. Treat the result as a reading aid, and check it before sharing.

Using it responsibly

Only upload pages you have the right to translate, and support official releases where they exist.