Glossary
Machine translation
Machine translation is the automatic translation of text from one language into another by software, with no human translator involved. In a manga translator it is the step between reading the text and putting the translation back into the speech bubble.
What it is good at
Machine translation is good at plain sentences and at speed. Modern engines handle ordinary dialogue well and work in seconds, so for a quick understanding of what a line says it is often enough.
Where it is weakest in comics
- Slang, jokes and wordplay.
- Short exclamations with no sentence around them.
- Honorifics and forms of address that have no direct equivalent in English.
- Who is speaking, because Japanese and Korean often drop the subject.
- Keeping names and terms the same from page to page.
It only sees text
The engine receives the text, not the picture. It cannot see the scene, the character or the tone unless the program passes that along, which is why the same line can read differently from the way a human translator would handle it.
How RuneManga handles it
RuneManga translates with RuneLingua, our own AI translator for manga and manhwa dialogue, on every plan, Free included. Only the text found on the page goes to the engine, not the image. Treat the result as a reading aid, not as an official release.
Any direction, not only into English
RuneManga reads Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai, and translates into 89 languages. That covers Japanese manga into Spanish as well as an English comic into Turkish or German.
Common problems and fixes
- A line is nonsense: it was probably misread before it was translated. Try a larger, cleaner scan.
- A name changes spelling between pages: each line is translated on its own. Keep a short list of names while you read.
Related terms
Machine translation sits in the middle of the pipeline. OCR gives it the text, and typesetting puts its output back in the bubble. Honorifics are one of the classic cases where a machine and a human translator choose differently.
Is RuneLingua better than other translators?
We built it for manga and manhwa dialogue and it is still improving. We do not claim it beats other translators; try it on your own series.
Is machine translation good enough to read a whole series?
For following the story, often yes. For jokes, wordplay and careful tone, expect lines that a human translator would write differently.