How to translate Korean manhwa to English

To translate Korean manhwa into English, add the pages, set Original language to Korean, set Translate into to English and choose Translate. Manhwa is usually already colored, and Translate leaves the colors as they are. Korean recognition is still improving in the beta, so check each page.

Step by step

1. Collect the episode as images (PNG, JPG or WebP) or as a ZIP. Name them so that they sort in order.
2. Open the WebApp and add them. Folders and ZIPs are sorted in natural order.
3. Choose Translate.
4. Set Original language to Korean. This is more reliable than Auto-detect, especially on pages with only a few lines.
5. Set Translate into to English, or the language you read, and press the button.
6. Compare Original and Result for each page and download the pages or a ZIP.

What is different about Korean

• Hangul is built from small blocks of strokes, so low-resolution images lose the details that separate similar syllables. Resolution matters more here than for most scripts.
• Webtoon lettering is often placed straight on the art with no bubble around it. Text outside bubbles is not translated yet, so some lines can stay in Korean.
• Many series use stylized or handwritten fonts for emphasis and for sound effects. These are the hardest to read and are usually left alone.
• Korean drops the subject often. The English may need a guess about who is speaking, which can go wrong in a short line.

Honorifics and address

Korean marks relationships with forms of address and speech levels: -ssi, -nim, sunbae, hyung, oppa and many more. English has no direct equivalent, so the engine either translates the meaning, keeps the word or drops it. It is not always consistent from one page to the next, so do not read too much into a single line.

Long strips

A webtoon episode is often a few very tall images. Pages up to 20 MB are accepted, and very tall strips count by their full size. If an upload is refused, split the image at a gap between panels and send the parts in order. The guide on manhwa and webtoons has the full routine.

Tips for a cleaner result

• Use images at their original size. Many sites serve smaller copies to phones, and the larger copy reads better.
• Avoid screenshots of a reader. They add scaling and compression on top of the page.
• Keep an episode in one job so that the same settings apply to every page.
• If an episode is one huge image, cut it at the gaps between scenes and keep the parts in order.
• Read the first few pages against the Korean to learn how the engine handles the tone of the series.
• Do not stitch several scenes into one image. Separate pages are processed in order with the same settings, and one problem page is easier to spot.

Reading as you browse

If you read webtoons on the reader site, the browser extension translates the pages in place as they scroll into view. It works in Chrome, Edge, Opera and Brave today. The guide on translating while you read explains how it behaves.

Common problems

• A line was not translated: it is probably outside a bubble, a sound effect or in an unusual font.
• A line was misread and the English makes no sense: try a larger or less compressed image.
• The English is smaller than the Korean: it is shrunk to fit the space.
• The page came back with no changes: set the source language to Korean and run it again.

• How to translate manhwa and webtoons to English
• Why RuneManga misses some text on a page
• Best image quality for manga translation