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What is BallonTranslator?

BallonTranslator is a computer-aided comic/manga translation tool powered by deep learning. It automates the tedious parts of comic translation while giving you full control over the final result.
Important: If you’re sharing translated results publicly without an experienced human translator reviewing the work, please clearly mark it as machine translation.

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Key Features

BallonTranslator combines powerful automation with flexible editing tools to streamline your translation workflow.

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Fully Automated Translation

1

Text Detection

Automatically detects text in comic panels using advanced deep learning models trained specifically for Japanese and English comics.
2

Text Recognition (OCR)

Recognizes and extracts text with support for Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese characters, including color information.
3

Text Removal

Intelligently removes original text from images using state-of-the-art inpainting algorithms.
4

Translation & Typesetting

Translates text and renders it back onto the image, preserving the original formatting including color, outline, angle, orientation, and alignment.
The one-click translation works best when all modules are properly configured. English→Chinese and Japanese→English typesetting have been specifically optimized.

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Image Editing Tools

BallonTranslator includes built-in image editing capabilities:
  • Inpainting Brush: Remove unwanted text or fix imperfections (similar to Photoshop’s spot healing brush)
  • Rectangle Tool: Select and remove text regions with automatic background reconstruction
  • Mask Editing: Fine-tune text removal results with precise mask editing
  • Webtoon Support: Optimized for images with extreme aspect ratios

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Rich Text Editing

Edit translations with professional formatting controls:
  • WYSIWYG Editor: See exactly how your text will look in real-time
  • Text Formatting: Bold, italic, underline, shadows, transparency, and more
  • Font Style Presets: Save and reuse formatting configurations
  • Search & Replace: Find and replace text across the entire project or current page
  • Word Document I/O: Import/export translations to Word documents for collaboration

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Who is BallonTranslator For?

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Fan Translators

Speed up your scanlation workflow with automated detection and translation while maintaining quality through manual review and editing.

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Translation Teams

Collaborate efficiently by exporting to Word documents, distributing work among team members, and importing the results back.

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Personal Use

Quickly translate comics and manga for personal reading, even without translation experience.

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Researchers & Archivists

Batch process large collections of comics with headless mode and command-line automation.

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Supported Languages

Text Detection: Japanese, English (and other languages using similar character sets) OCR Recognition: Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese Translation: Supports 15+ translation engines including:
  • Google Translate
  • DeepL
  • Sugoi (Japanese→English)
  • OpenAI-compatible APIs (GPT, Claude, etc.)
  • Sakura-13B-Galgame (offline)
  • And many more
  • Google Translate
  • DeepL & DeepLX
  • Papago
  • Caiyun (彩云)
  • Sugoi Translator (offline, Japanese→English)
  • Sakura-13B-Galgame (offline LLM)
  • OpenAI-compatible APIs (official and third-party)
  • m2m100 (offline)
  • Starriver Cloud (Tuanzi)
  • And more via plugins

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Technology Stack

BallonTranslator is built on:
  • Deep Learning Framework: PyTorch with CUDA/ROCm support
  • UI Framework: PyQt6/PyQt5 for cross-platform compatibility
  • Text Detection: Custom-trained models (see comic-text-detector)
  • Inpainting: AOT, LaMa, and PatchMatch algorithms
  • OCR: manga-image-translator models, manga_ocr, PaddleOCR
This project is heavily dependent on manga-image-translator. If you find it useful, please consider supporting their development.

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Performance

  • GPU Acceleration: Automatic NVIDIA CUDA or AMD ROCm support when available
  • Apple Silicon: Native support for M1/M2/M3 chips with Metal acceleration
  • Batch Processing: Process entire folders of images automatically
  • Headless Mode: Run without GUI for server deployments

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Next Steps

Installation

Get BallonTranslator installed on your system

Quick Start

Translate your first comic in under 5 minutes