Glossary
Manhwa
Manhwa is the Korean word for comics. It is written 만화 in Hangul and uses the same characters, 漫畫, as Japanese manga and Chinese manhua. Today most manhwa is published as webtoons: full-color comics in long vertical strips made for scrolling on a phone.
How manhwa is read
Manhwa reads from left to right, like English. Print manhwa exists, but a large part of what readers call manhwa today is published online as vertical strips, with one tall image or a few tall images per episode and panels separated by gaps. The format is usually colored from the start.
Manhwa and webtoons
Webtoon names the vertical-scroll format. Many webtoons are manhwa, but the format is also used by comics from other countries. Webtoon is also the name of a well-known publishing platform.
Manhwa, manga and manhua
The three words share the same Chinese characters and mean comics in Korean, Japanese and Chinese. In English they usually name where a comic comes from: manga from Japan, manhwa from Korea, manhua from China. The differences that matter for translation are the script, the reading direction and whether the pages are in color.
Translating manhwa
- Hangul lettering often sits directly on the art with no bubble, and text outside bubbles is not translated yet in RuneManga.
- Stylized fonts and sound effects are the hardest cases.
- Korean recognition is still improving in RuneManga, so check each page.
- Because manhwa is usually in color, use Translate and the colors stay exactly as they are.
How RuneManga handles manhwa
In the WebApp, add the episode's images in order, up to 20 MB each. In a Chromium browser on a computer, the extension translates the images on the page as they scroll into view.
Common problems and fixes
- A tall strip is refused: split it at a gap between panels.
- A line stays in Korean: it is usually outside a bubble or a sound effect.
- Honorifics such as hyung or noona read oddly: machine translation can render them in several ways.
Related terms
A webtoon is the scrolling format most manhwa now uses. Manhua is the Chinese word for comics, and honorifics such as hyung and noona are a common translation problem in Korean dialogue.
Is manhwa read right to left?
No. Manhwa reads from left to right, like English, and webtoons are read from top to bottom.
Will RuneManga change the colors of a manhwa?
No. Translate only replaces the lettering in speech bubbles; the colors stay as they are.