Glossary
Manhua
Manhua is the Chinese word for comics. It is written 漫画 or 漫畫 and uses the same characters as Japanese manga and Korean manhwa. Many current manhua are published online as full-color webcomics in a vertical-scroll format, though print manhua exists too.
How manhua is read
Most current manhua read from left to right, and many are published online as long vertical strips in color. Older print editions can follow other conventions, so the direction is worth checking per series.
Where manhua is published
Most new manhua appears first on Chinese comic platforms and apps, episode by episode, and popular series are later licensed abroad. Fantasy, martial arts and cultivation stories are among the best-known genres outside China, and many are adapted into animation.
Simplified and traditional characters
Manhua can be written in simplified characters, used in mainland China, or traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The same word can look different in the two, so a translator needs to know which one a page uses. 漫画 and 漫畫 are the same word, manhua, in the two scripts.
What is different when translating
- Chinese has no spaces between words, so the engine has to decide where words begin and end.
- Many characters look alike, and a blurry image makes them easy to confuse.
- Character names have to be turned into sounds for an English reader, and different pages can get different spellings.
- Fantasy and martial arts series use fixed terms for levels and techniques that can be rendered in several ways.
How RuneManga handles it
RuneManga reads Chinese as a source language, and quality is still improving. Use Translate: the colors stay as they are. Text outside speech bubbles and sound effects are not translated yet, and the menu has Simplified and Traditional Chinese, which Auto-detect also tells apart.
Common problems and fixes
- Dense characters are misread: use the largest image you have, because thin strokes need pixels.
- A cultivation rank changes name between pages: each line is translated on its own. Keep a short list of terms.
- Vertical lettering in an older edition: it is read like vertical Japanese, and the translation is set horizontally.
Related terms
Manhwa is the Korean word for comics and webtoon the scrolling format both use online. Older manhua in vertical text are read like Japanese vertical lettering, from the right-hand column.
Do I have to say whether a page is Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
No. The original language is always detected, and the characters tell Simplified and Traditional apart.
Can I translate manhua into languages other than English?
Yes. Translate into lists 89 languages, such as Spanish, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Russian.