Using Novira Translate

Before you begin

The page is open to everyone, but starting a translation requires signing in. New accounts receive 30 credits, granted once. Novira Translate keeps its own balance, separate from the expansion credits used for stories published on Novira; the two cannot be exchanged.

It works on any comic you hold the rights to translate. It is not restricted to work published on Novira, and it runs in any modern browser.

Translating a chapter

1. Upload your pages

   Drag the files in, or select them from the upload area.

   Formats	JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF
   Largest file	15 MB
   Files per job	50

   Long vertical strips and single pages both work. Upload a whole chapter at once: pages are charged by total area rather than by file count, so splitting or combining your files does not change the price.

2. Choose the languages

   Set the language you are translating from and into. Leave the source on auto-detect unless it is guessing incorrectly.

   There are 23 target languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai.

3. Add a glossary

   The glossary fixes how particular words are translated — character names, places, techniques, anything that must stay consistent.

   It is worth filling in. Pages are translated independently of one another, so without a glossary the same name can come back spelled differently on different pages.

4. Decide about sound effects

   Translate sound effects is switched off by default. When enabled, Novira redraws the sound-effect lettering in your target language and matches the original styling where it can.

   It is marked beta because results vary considerably with art style. Every sound effect can be adjusted or reverted afterwards. Left off, your original sound-effect artwork is untouched.

5. Run it

   Each page is taken through the same sequence: the text areas are found and read, the reading order is worked out, the dialogue is translated, the original lettering is painted out, and the new text is set into the bubbles.

6. Correct anything that is wrong

   You do not have to accept the first result. In the editor you can:

   • Edit any bubble's text directly
   • Retranslate a single bubble, without re-running the chapter
   • Auto-fix a page
   • Retry a page that came out poorly

   Download the finished pages when you are satisfied.

How credits are charged

One credit covers one standard page, defined as 800 × 1280 pixels of image area. A job costs:

Minimum one credit per job. Because the charge is based on area, the way you split your files makes no difference:

What Novira Translate does not do

• It does not preserve the original lettering's colour or styling. Coloured bubble text returns in the standard typeset style.
• Sound-effect translation is beta. Quality depends heavily on art style, and it is off unless you enable it.
• It is not a redrawing tool. It replaces text; beyond painting out the original lettering it does not repair artwork.
• It relies on a background service. If that service is restarting you will be asked to try again shortly. No credits are consumed.

If something goes wrong

“Not enough translation credits”

The job was refused before processing and nothing was charged. Check your balance on the translate page.

Names are spelled differently on different pages

Add them to the glossary and run the chapter again. Pages are translated independently, so the glossary is what keeps them consistent.

One line came out wrong

Retranslate that single bubble rather than redoing the page.

Text has been placed in the wrong bubble

That is a reading-order problem. Retry the page; if it persists, correct the text directly in the editor.

“Translation service is starting up”

The background service is restarting. Wait around 30 seconds and try again. No credits are consumed.