Image translation. Translator from photo online

There are situations when you need to translate some text, but you do not know how to enter it in the translator field, or you are too lazy to drive it in. Especially for such cases, some translators have acquired the function of translating text from photographs.

About the function of translation from a picture

This function began to appear recently, so it still does not work quite stable. To avoid mishaps when translating, you need to take a high-quality photo of the text to be translated. Also, the text should be legible on the image, especially when it comes to some complex hieroglyphs or symbols. It is also worth understanding that some design fonts (for example, Gothic) may not be perceived by the translator.

Let's look at services where given function available.

Option 1: Google Translate

The most famous online translator who can translate from huge amount languages: from English, German, Chinese, French to Russian, etc. Sometimes some phrases into Russian or other languages with complex grammar may not be translated correctly, but the service copes with the translation of individual words or simple sentences without problems.

The browser version does not have the function of translating from images, but this function is available in the service's mobile applications for Android and iOS. All you have to do is click on the signature icon "Camera". The device will turn on the camera, where the area for capturing text will be indicated. Text may extend beyond this area if it has large volume(for example, you are trying to translate a photo of a page in a book). If necessary, you can load a ready-made image from the device's memory or virtual disk.

Google translator interface

After you take a picture, the program will prompt you to select the area where, according to its assumption, the text is located. Select this area (or part of it) and click the button "Translate".

Unfortunately, this functionality is only available on versions for mobile platforms.

Option 2: Yandex Translator

This service has similar functionality as Google translate. True, there are a little less languages here, and the correctness of translation into some and from some leaves much to be desired. However, translations from English, French, German, Chinese into Russian (or vice versa) are performed more correctly than in Google.

Again, the translation functionality from the image is only available in versions for mobile platforms. To use it, click on the camera icon and take a photo of the desired object, or select a photo from "Galleries".

Recently, Yandex Translator for browsers also has the ability to translate text from an image. To do this, find the button at the top of the interface. "Picture". Then, in a special field, transfer the image from the computer, or use the link "Select a file". At the top, you can select the source language and the language you want to translate into.

The translation process is similar to Google.

Option 3: Free Online OCR

This site is fully focused on the translation of photos, as it no longer offers other functions. The correctness of the translation depends on which language you are translating into. If we are talking about more or less common languages, then everything is relatively correct. However, difficulties may arise if the image contains hard-to-recognise text and/or too much of it. This site is also partly in English.

The instructions for using the service are as follows:

To get started, upload an image from your computer that you want to translate. To do this, use the button "Select a file". You can add multiple pictures.
In the lower field, indicate the original language of the original image, and then the language into which you need to translate it.
Click on the button Upload + OCR.
After that, a field will appear at the bottom where you can see the original text from the picture, and below it is its translation to the selected mode.

Unfortunately, the function of translations from a picture is just being implemented, so the user may encounter some problems. For example, incorrect translation, or incomplete capture of the text in the picture.

Not all of us have the ability or talent to learn several foreign languages, but visiting new countries, getting to know each other or getting a job, one cannot do without these skills. To make life easier for its users, Google has released a photo translator - an addition to Google Translate - Word Lens. This mobile application translates text from a photo, from a picture or other images with text. Google Photo Translator captures a photo and translates it into one of the 38 most widely spoken languages in the world.

How to use Google Translate to translate text from photos?

First of all, install google app Translate from Word Lens, you do not need to download Word Lens separately, it is already built into the Google Translate application.

Download Google Translate for free (Google Translate) for and after that you can already translate text from a photo.

To use the Google Translate app as a photo translator, you need to launch the app, allow access to the camera on mobile phone, point your smartphone camera at a picture with, for example, English or German. It's all. The online application will translate the text in the picture and display it for you. At the very beginning, when the application was first released, only a few languages were available (Russian, English, French, Spanish, German and Italian), but now this list has been expanded to 38 languages, including the following translations:

from Portuguese to Russian;
from Japanese to Russian;
from Chinese to Russian,
from Arabic to Russian;
even from Ukrainian to Russian;
from Croatian to Russian;
from Danish to Russian;
from Mongolian to Russian;
from French to Russian;
and so on

But the developers of the translator of text from photographs do not intend to stop there either. It is worth noting that all users were waiting for the release of simultaneous translation. Translation from pictures in real time is promised to be further improved so that it takes no more than a couple of seconds. There are other features of the program:

users can hear how the text from the translated language sounds;
synchronization with other applications and social. networks;
work offline, but only for iOS. To do this, you must first download the dictionary to your phone;
translated into Simplified Chinese.

What it looks like in action translating text from a photo with Google Translate

The only negative is that the translation of text from a photo, where the handwritten test is carried out with difficulties, because it is difficult for the application to recognize it. Now you can only work in tandem with English, but later you can choose sets of languages yourself. In Google Translate, for communication, for now, you have to enter and translate text in turn, but they promise to change this, and then the languages \u200b\u200bwill be detected automatically, which will also be applied to Word Lens.

On the video you can see the principle of operation of the mobile application - a translator with a photo:

Recall that earlier it was necessary to buy languages for translating text from photographs for money, but after acquiring Quest Visual, any linguistic set became free, although not for long. Therefore, it is worth downloading Google Translate from Word Lens to your phone as soon as possible if you are going on a trip, and you are not doing well with English, Spanish or French.

From personal experience of using an online photo translator

I recently went on a trip to Hungary. The Hungarian language itself is very difficult, and Hungarians are in no hurry to learn English. Therefore, the application very often helped out, especially in the store, when choosing goods and souvenirs. A small life hack— I recommend downloading the dictionary into the application in advance so that you can translate the text from the photo without the Internet (offline).

I was visited by the thought that how much the world is improving. Of course, knowledge of languages is useful and necessary in itself, but thanks to new technologies, this knowledge is not something unique. And if you look into the future for 10-20 years, then I see a picture where not only texts from photos and images are translated online, but also voice. When the profession of translator will be transferred to robots or such applications for the first text in the photo, they will still have to look for a new application. Alas.

Translation of voice or sound online

Among other things, the Google Translate app supports voice translation. So, while traveling, you can speak in the application in your language, and it will translate into the desired one and vice versa. The world is changing.

Help in learning a foreign language

I thought that the article would not be complete if I did not recommend an application that would help you not to use all kinds of online translators from a photo or image, you will just immediately understand the words. The application is as simple as possible. You learn only 10 words a day.

Easy Ten - 10 words a day is 70 new words per week, 300 new words per month, 3650 new words per year. At the same time, a native speaker uses an average of 3,000 words in everyday life.

And finally start learning 10 words a day. That's 5 minutes a day!

That's all for sure now 🙂

Many of us have an endless passion for travel and basically we need to translate from of English language into Russian. We want to visit new cities and countries, get acquainted with other cultures, communicate with many new and interesting people. Of all the barriers that prevent us from fully enjoying new, exciting travel experiences, the language barrier is one of the most important. Our inability to understand someone else's speech becomes a significant obstacle to communication, which inspires us to find ways, if not eliminate, then at least smooth out this shortcoming. One of these ways is the use of auxiliary programs that turn our smartphone into a fast and convenient translator of spoken and written speech. In this article, I will consider one of these mobile programs- “Google Translator”, which allows not only to perform the usual oral and written translation, but also to translate the text on the photo we have. But first things first.

The advent of the ability in Google to translate using the camera

Google launched its translation web service back in 2006, and a few years later saw the light of day. mobile forms translator for Android and iOS. At first, the application was criticized for a rather rigid, "machine" translation text, limited features and unstable functionality. But the constant work carried out by the developers in improving the capabilities of the application, as well as the transfer of the translator engine to "GNTP" (neural machine translation) in 2016, significantly improved its position, and now this tool not only one of the most popular, but also one of the most reliable.

an important step in the development of the application was the purchase by Google of the company "Quest Visual" - the developer mobile application"Word Lens", which allows using the camera to translate any foreign text. Google first made the mentioned program free, and then included it in the functionality of its translator, who learned not only to translate written and spoken language, but also to translate using a mobile phone camera.

How to use google translator

The translator capabilities allow you to use your smartphone's camera to translate text in real time, as well as translate text from a photo you have already captured.

To take advantage of the translator's capabilities, first of all, download it to your gadget ("Android" or iOS).

After starting, on the top left, select the language from which the translation will be performed, and on the right, the language into which the translation will be performed.

To translate using the camera, click on the corresponding camera icon in the program menu on the left.
Then point your phone's camera at the text you want to translate, and you'll see the translation on your device's screen almost immediately.

Visually it looks like this:

The second option translating text from a photo is taking a photo, followed by the translation of a foreign text on it.

You can also translate text from English into Russian (for example) from a picture already on your phone. Why you need to launch the application, click on the mentioned camera button, and then tap on the picture button to the left of the red bottom button (this will allow you to select a photo from the phone’s memory).

Other features of the translator allow you to use voice translation (a button with a microphone image), as well as text translation (a button with a snake image).

Is it possible to use translations by image on a PC?

The best way to do this on a computer is to use the . Google Version translator on a PC in the form of a popular network service https://translate.google.com/?hl=ru does not allow processing photos with further translation of the text on them. Therefore, an alternative option is to use any Android emulator for Windows OS, which allows you to install on your computer this application and continue to use its capabilities.

Install one of the popular Android emulators on your PC (for example, Bluestacks 2 or Nox Player).
Run the emulator, go through the authorization in it, enter the data of your Google account.
Then, using the search, find Google translator, and install it.
After that, find its icon on the desktop of the emulator, click on it, and use its features on the PC (as far as it is functional).

Alternative solutions are to use a number of stationary programs of the "Screen Translator" level (you select a part of the screen with the text, and the translator performs its translation). "Translator", "Photron Image Translator" and other analogues that allow you to translate text from an existing image into the language we need.

The capabilities of "Photron Image Translator" announced the translation of text from the image loaded into the program

Conclusion

The capabilities of Google translator allow you to perform quick transfer the text we need, simply by pointing the camera of our smartphone at such text. Among other features of the application, one can note the translation of text on the photo already in the device’s memory, as well as the usual voice and text translation. If you are looking for alternatives to such a translator on a PC, then I recommend trying the stationary alternatives listed above, which in some cases are not inferior to their mobile counterpart.

Good day everyone!

Probably, almost every one of us came across photos, pictures, and just saw posters somewhere on foreign language. And almost always, I would like to quickly translate and find out what is written there ...

In general, in this case, you can go three ways:

open some and manually enter the desired text (this option is long, painful and dreary);
use programs for converting pictures into text (for example, ABBYY Fine Reader), and then copy the resulting text into a translator and find out the result;
use special applications and services that allow you to automatically translate text from a picture (or photo) (i.e., do what is described in paragraph 2 on your own, without your participation).

Actually, this article will be just about the third option. I note that in the article I will consider translators with photos for both PC and smartphone.

Note: I will immediately note that the better the quality of the original photo (picture), the better will be the quality of the recognized text from it, and the translation itself.

Online Services (for PC)

Yandex translator

An excellent translation service from one language to another (it already supports more than 95 languages!). As for text recognition in the picture, the Yandex service does an excellent job of this task (it is in no way inferior to the famous Fine Reader program).

In my example, I used a photo of a book page (in English). The steps to translate are quite simple:

follow the link given above;
upload your picture with foreign text;
specify the language (usually the service detects automatically. In my case, "English -> Russian");
then just click on the "Open in Translator" link (see screenshot below).

On the left: the original text that was in the photo is presented, on the right - its translation. Of course, machine translation needs to be improved: you can copy the finished text and transfer it to Word for further processing. (I note that the quality of the translation also depends on the subject matter of the text. And since I took fiction, it is not translated very well).

Free Online OCR

Supports formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PDF, DjVu

Unlike Yandex, this service is less picky - it even supports Djvu format(and it contains a lot of English books, magazines, articles).

In addition, I note that some photos (where rare fonts are used) - the service recognizes much better! And one more thing: the service allows you to use two translation options: using Google technology and using help from Microsoft translator. So, if there are such pictures or photos that Yandex translator could not handle, try this service!

How to use it:

go to the main page of the site (the address is indicated just above);
choose the file you want to recognize;
indicate two languages: one, which is in the photo (English, for example); the second - to which you want to translate (Russian).
press the "Upload + OCR" button (that is, upload and recognize the text on the photo).

After a while (depending on the size of the uploaded file), you will see the received text and several links from above: you can select Google translator, Bing, just download the received text.

By choosing Bing, I received a translation of my text (the quality is not high, because it is a work of art).

Smartphone applications (Android)

Google Translate

A very worthy smartphone application that allows you to translate text into 103 languages (I note that it supports 59 languages offline - i.e. the Internet is not needed!)!

The application has a built-in camera translation function in real time: i.e. just point your phone's camera at the English text - and you will see the text in Russian in the translator window! Nevertheless, there is also a classic work in the arsenal: this is when a picture is photographed in a foreign language, and then the text is processed and issued in Russian (for example).

It is quite simple to use:

launch the application and select two languages: the source (which is in the picture), and your native language, into which you want to translate;
then click on the "camera" icon (see the screen below, arrow number 1);
then you need to point the camera at a foreign text (note that the application immediately issues a translation). However, if the text is long, I recommend taking a picture of it (see the screenshot below, arrow number 2).

Then click on the "Select All" button and click on the blue arrow. Next, you will see your translation of the text. See screenshots below.

In general, everything is done very high quality and comfortable. As a rule, almost everyone carries a phone with them, which means that you can always quickly translate a poster or photo. I recommend to get acquainted!

ABBYY Lingvo

For free use Several languages are available: Russian, English, German, French, Spanish.

This smartphone application allows you to translate many sentences, phrases and words without access to the Internet. In total, the application supports three types of translation:

classic manual input: when you yourself type the desired text;
from an already taken screenshot, picture or photo;
and using the phone's camera (in 1 click!).

In general, a good assistant for travel, study and work. You can quickly translate a small text, a postcard, a newspaper article, correspondence with a colleague/friend, etc.

Peculiarities:

"live translation": hover over a word from the displayed text on the screen - immediately get its translation;
photo-translation: select a screen or photo and get the translation of the words on it;
11 dictionaries are available for download to everyone (for free!);
convenient hints when searching for words;
the dictionary contains not only the translation of the word, but also its transcription, grammatical information about it, examples of use (you can also listen to it - very useful for those who learn a foreign language);
the history of the words that you requested earlier is kept (it is convenient to learn words by rechecking your memory from time to time!).

If you have something to add - thanks in advance!

That's all, all the best!

In this article, I will introduce you to the best online photo translators. Knowledge of foreign languages is the key to the full use of all opportunities modern world. But many users own it at the initial level, which is enough for spending time online and playing games. At the same time, in the process of learning or working, it is sometimes necessary to translate text, and not just printed text, which can be inserted into an online translator using the ctrl + c / ctrl + v commands, but depicted in electronic or printed form. This can be documentation in a foreign language, text on photographs, pictures, signs, posters, and much more.

Translation from foreign languages

How to translate text from a photo?

Using programs and services that recognize text from an image, you can first extract what needs to be translated, and then apply an online translator. After that, the text must be manually converted to readable and use where required. The original image must be clear so that free programs there were no difficulties with recognition, since not all users have the opportunity to use paid services that work even with poor quality pictures. Developers software We also thought about combining two functions into one, that is, for a program or service to recognize text and immediately translate it. Online photo translators for mobile platforms are more common, but there is an option for desktop computers as well.

Photo translator online for mobile platforms: Android, iOS, Windows Phone

Google Translate

In the shop Google Play The most popular application is Google Translate. So let's put it in the search bar. The next image will come out.

Google Translate

The English to Russian translation app has the following advantages:

works with 103 languages of the world;
offline supports 59 languages (for this you need to download additional dictionaries);
automatically translates speech (from 32 languages and vice versa);
translates text to high speed(both copied from any application and photographed).

You can also enter a sentence by hand, Google Translate successfully recognizes and translates handwritten text.

ABBYY Lingvo Dictionaries

The application installed on a mobile gadget offers users an excellent opportunity to carry out various translations texts, including from photos, screenshots and using a video camera.

Abbyy Lingvo dictionaries work even when the Internet is turned off, which allows you to use them anywhere. In the application, you can create your own set of necessary dictionaries (out of 11 freely available and 200 paid ones). Of the advantages of the program, one can also note its ability to memorize new words and add them to the database. When shooting with a video camera, the latter must be kept as even as possible and provide good lighting. Otherwise, the application will not even try to perform OCR.

TextGrabber: OCR Text Recognition + Translator

Unlike the two translators discussed above, this program paid. Take a photo using the camera, TextGrabber: OCR will recognize it and translate it from / to 100 or more languages of the world.

Paid application TextGrabber: OCR

The application also works with any printed sources - announcements, books, documents, etc. After translation, the text can be edited and sent either by SMS and e-mail, or through popular instant messengers installed on a tablet or smartphone. No purchase additional packages the user has the opportunity to use translation from 60 or more languages. To make the application run faster, do not use the language auto-recognition function, but choose it yourself before you start working. The text is not formatted during the translation process - you will arrange the paragraphs, lists and other details yourself.

Photo Translate

Photo Translate is another online program for photo processing and recognition. It does not have its own database of languages, therefore it uses a connection to the Web for translation. All functionality is limited only to working with images.

translator

Translator is a simple app name for gadget users on the platform Windows phone. It is a basic online photo translator from Bing. In addition to performing basic functions, it helps users learn the language using the “word of the day” on the main screen. This application differs from other programs in one interesting detail - it writes a translation over the image. If this function interferes (the source text is written in small print or consists of a large number of words), then it can be disabled.

Translation over text

iSignTranslate (iOS)

iSignTranslate is a Russian development that you can be proud of. The application was created to translate various banners, signs, signs using a phone or tablet camera. It is enough to point the camera at the target, wait a bit and the translation is placed on top of the captured image. English and Russian are available free of charge, the rest can be purchased for a fee. The program also does not have its own language base and uses Google, Bing and Yandex translators to translate text from images, so it can only work when connected to the Internet.

Online services for photo translations for desktop computers and laptops

Let's try to make a translation from a photo on a desktop computer. Before starting work, you should perform several actions:

make sure that the required picture has good clarity, since it depends on how well the service recognizes the text;
make sure that the image is saved in one of the common formats: gif, jpeg, png, bmp and others;
if possible, check the text for errors for the correctness of the machine translation.

After that, you can start working with the online services themselves. Let's take Yandex Translator as an example.

Go to Yandex Translator. In the upper left corner of the page you will find the words “Text”, “Site” and “Picture”, by clicking on which you can go to other tabs. We need a picture. We press and a screen like this appears in front of us.

Selecting a file or dragging a picture

Select a file from hard drive or just drag it with LMB into the field. The next screen comes up with our photo.

Recognized Image

To the right of the text in the upper corner is the inscription “Open in Translator”. We click on it, and the next page in a new tab splits the screen into two parts. On the left is the text extracted from the image, on the right is the translation. Note! The translation is machine-made and requires mandatory correction.

Text translation

The example shows a translation from English to Russian, but you can choose any of the supported languages or use the auto-detect feature.

Look carefully at the right side. There is a switch at the bottom New technology translation". By transferring it to the active position, you will take advantage of the fact that the transfer will be carried out according to a statistical model and with the help of neural networks. A particular algorithm will choose the best option and offer it to you. Thanks to this technology, Yandex Translator is able to cope even with low-quality images. This service also has an Android version.

Follow the simple requirements for image quality, and using online services for translating text from a photo on your own will not be difficult for you.