PDFs, scans and comics

• PDFs, digital or scanned, including handwritten pages.
• Pictures of pages: PNG, JPG, WebP or TIFF, such as a photo of a letter or a scanned page. Each picture becomes one page.
• Comic archives (.cbz): each image becomes a page, in the order of the file names.

A file can be up to 300 MB; a large one uploads in parts. Transept recognises a comic or a manga from a few of its pages and reads it as one.

When you upload a PDF or a picture, the upload dialog asks What do you need? and shows each choice’s price and time before anything is charged.

Pick Same pages when the translation should sit where the original text was, such as a form, a brochure or a comic. Pick Rebuilt pages when the translation runs longer than the original and needs room, as German often does. Pick Text only when you only need the words.

You can change your mind once. A Text only document offers Same pages and Rebuilt pages in Vision until you translate it; after the first translation it stays Text only. A document on Same pages offers Switch to Rebuilt pages for the difference in price.

Laying out the pages has its own fee, charged once, when AI prepares the pages after the upload. Translation is charged per source word on top, as for any document.

A 20-page digital PDF on Same pages costs 200 + 20 × 80 = 1,800 credits to lay out. If your balance doesn’t cover the pages, the document opens with the text and a Prepare now button for when it does.

In Vision, click a translated block on the translated page and type. The page sets your words as you go, in the original’s font and size, and a bar above the block says whether they fit:

• Fits: the text sits in the original’s space.
• Shrunk to 90% to fit: Transept made the type a little smaller to keep it in.
• Too long: about 15% doesn’t fit: shorten the text, or switch to Rebuilt pages, where the page makes room. A block that doesn’t fit also has a red outline.

Bold and Italic work on the selection (Cmd/Ctrl+B, Cmd/Ctrl+I). Press Enter or Done to save, Shift+Enter for a new line, Esc to cancel. Regenerate asks AI for a new translation of the block, with a note on what to change, and the … menu holds Translate, proofread and comment.

A text drawn into a picture has no letters you can click into, so its text opens in the bar instead, with the note “Its letters are drawn into the picture, so its text is edited here.”

Check layout in the Vision header compares each translated page with the original, fixes what it can and leaves a comment on the rest, such as a heading too long for its line. It costs 60 credits a page and needs a translation to compare.

Open Text areas, then drag on a page around the text that was missed. Click a text area to change it: drag it to move it, drag its corner to resize it, or press Delete to leave that text as it is. A text area you set is marked “Set by you: the AI leaves it alone”, so later runs keep your choice. Each text area also takes a note for the translator, such as what a label refers to.

Speech balloons and captions are lettered like any page. Text drawn into the art itself, such as sound effects, signs and words with no balloon, gets a choice in the Translate dialog, under Text on the art:

While the art is redrawn, the run’s card says “Redrawing 4 texts on the art with AI” and the pages update when they land. Check the spelling of a redrawn word: an image model can get a letter wrong.

To change one text, open Text areas and click it. Under How it’s drawn you can letter it in the balloon, on the art or in a display face, have AI redraw it, keep the original with the translation beside it, or leave it as drawn. A redrawn text you don’t like has Redraw again.

With a gloss, Where the translation sits puts the small translation on the side you pick: Auto, Below, Left, Right or Above. Auto takes the first side clear of other text. While the text area is open, you can also drag the small translation to any spot on the translated page. To move the original’s text area itself, click it in Text areas, then drag it, or drag its corner to resize it.

In Vision, click Share & export (the arrow button in the header). Under Export:

• PDF · Same pages: your original pages with the translation written in.
• PDF · Rebuilt pages: each page rebuilt in the original’s style. Shown for documents on Rebuilt pages.
• CBZ · Translated pages: a comic’s pages as a .cbz, one picture a page, at your pages’ own resolution, for comic reader apps.
• PDF · Text only: the translated text alone, simply formatted, without the pages.

Blocks you haven’t translated yet keep their original text on the page. Exporting is free. The same menu also exports the text as Word or Markdown.

A comic downloads either way, as a PDF or as a .cbz, whichever you uploaded.