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Saladict (A cute translator)

A cross-platform translator application

License Tauri JavaScript Rust Windows MacOS Linux


中文 | English | 한글

Table of Contents

Why is Saladict a better alternative to Pot Translate?

Saladict is a fork of Pot Translation. Since Pot Translation is already excellent, why choose Saladict instead? Here are the main reasons:

  • More stable functionality: Many pull requests in Pot remain unmerged, including important bug fixes. Saladict regularly syncs bug-fix code from the upstream Pot repository and selectively integrates new features to ensure overall stability.

  • Broader AI translation integration: Starting from version 4.0.0, Saladict offers built‑in online translation services. Users no longer need to apply for their own API keys, making it easier to use.

  • Unified product ecosystem: Our long‑term vision is to maintain consistency and complementarity between the browser extension and desktop application, delivering the most complete text‑selection translation solution. Many users first encounter Saladict through the Chrome extension before downloading the desktop app.

  • Longer support cycle: Pot’s maintenance frequency has been declining, and volunteer‑driven projects are difficult to sustain. Saladict generates revenue through ads and online translation services, giving us the motivation to continue maintaining the product while keeping the code open.

Usage

Translation by selection Translate by input External calls
Select text and press the shortcut or click translation icon to translate Press shortcut to open translation window, translate by hitting Enter More efficient workflow by integrating other apps, see External Calls
Clipboard Listening Screenshot OCR Screenshot Translation
Right click the menu bar icon to select Clipboard Listening to start clipboard listening. Copied text will be translated automatically. Press shortcut, select area to OCR Press shortcut, select area to translate

Features

Supported Services

Translation

More Services see Plugin System

Text Recognize

More Services see Plugin System

Text-to-Speech

More Services see Plugin System

Collection

More Services see Plugin System

Plugin System

The built-in services are limited. But you can expand the app's functionality through the plugin system.

Install Plugin

You can find plugins you need in the Plugin List, and then go to the plugin repo to download it.

The file extension of Saladict plugin is .potext. After downloading the .potext file, go to Preferences - Service Settings - Add External Plugin - Install External Plugin to select the corresponding .potext to install it. It will then be added to the service list and can be used like a built-in service.

Troubleshooting

  • The specified module could not be found (Windows)

    Errors like this occur because the system lacks C++ libraries，Go to here download and install it.

  • Not a valid Win32 application (Windows)

    An error like this indicates that you did not download the plugin for the corresponding system or architecture. Go to the plugin repository and download the correct plugin to solve the problem.

Develop Plugin

The Template section in the Plugin List provides plugin development templates for various plugins. Please check the corresponding template repo for specific documentation.

Installation

Windows

Microsoft Store Installation

Download on the Microsoft Store

Install via Winget

winget install allentown521.Saladict

Install Manually

  1. Download the installation package ending in .exe from the Latest Release page.

    • 64-bit machine download saladict_{version}_x64-setup.exe
    • 32-bit machine download saladict_{version}_x86-setup.exe
    • arm64 machine download saladict_{version}_arm64-setup.exe

  2. Double click the downloaded file to install it.

Troubleshooting

  • There is no interface after startup, and there is no response when clicking the tray icon.

    Check if WebView2 is uninstalled/disabled, if so, install WebView2 manually or restore it.

    If the enterprise edition system is inconvenient to install or cannot install WebView2, please try to download the fix WebView2 version saladict_{version} at [Release](https://github.com/allentown521/saladict/releases/latest) _{arch}_fix_webview2_runtime-setup.exe

    If the issue persists, please try starting in Windows 7 compatibility mode.

MacOS

Mac App Store Installation

For M-series Macs, you can install it from Mac App Store

Download on the Mac App Store

Due to technical limitations, the Mac App Store version does not support Selection Translation and Translation Using Shortcuts After Selection.

Install via Brew

  1. Add our tap:
brew tap allentown521/homebrew-saladict
  1. Install Saladict:
brew install --cask saladict
  1. Upgrade Saladict
brew upgrade --cask saladict

Install Manually

  1. Download the installation package ending in .dmg from the Latest Release page. (If you are using M1, please download the installation package named saladict_{version}_aarch64.dmg, otherwise download the installation package named saladict_{version}_x64.dmg)
  2. Double click the downloaded file to install it.

Troubleshooting

  • If you encounter a permission prompt every time you open it, or if you cannot perform a shortcut translation, please go to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Supporting Features to remove Saladict, and then re-add Saladict.

Linux

Debian/Ubuntu

We provide deb packages for Linux.

Please note that: There are two deb package, universal is based on glibc2.28 and openssl-1.1, If the regular deb package can't run on your machine due to dependency problems, please download the universal package, Due to its low version dependency, it can run on most systems.

External Calls

Saladict provides a complete HTTP interface for integration with other software. You can call Saladict by sending HTTP requests to 127.0.0.1:port, where port is the listening port of Saladict, default to 60606, and can be changed in the app settings.

API Docs:

POST "/" => Translate given text (body is text to translate)
GET "/config" => Open settings
POST "/translate" => Translate given text (same as "/")
GET "/selection_translate" => Translate selected text
GET "/input_translate" => Open input translation
GET "/ocr_recognize" => Perform OCR on screenshot
GET "/ocr_translate" => Perform translation on screenshot
GET "/ocr_recognize?screenshot=false" => OCR without taking screenshot
GET "/ocr_translate?screenshot=false" => Translate screenshot without taking screenshot
GET "/ocr_recognize?screenshot=true" => OCR with screenshot
GET "/ocr_translate?screenshot=true" => Translate screenshot

Example:

  • Call translation by selection:

    To call Saladict's translation by selection, simply send a request to 127.0.0.1:port:

    E.g. using curl:

    curl "127.0.0.1:60606/selection_translate"

OCR without internal screenshot

This allows you to perform OCR/translation without using Saladict's internal screenshot, so you can use your own screenshot tools. It also solves the problem where Saladict's internal screenshot doesn't work on some platforms.

Workflow:

  1. Take screenshot using other tool
  2. Save screenshot to $CACHE/allen.town.focus.saladict/pot_screenshot_cut.png
  3. Send request to 127.0.0.1:port/ocr_recognize?screenshot=false to call

$CACHE is the system cache dir, e.g. C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\allen.town.focus.saladict\pot_screenshot_cut.png on Windows.

Example

OCR using Flameshot on Linux:

rm ~/.cache/allen.town.focus.saladict/pot_screenshot_cut.png && flameshot gui -s -p ~/.cache/allen.town.focus.saladict/pot_screenshot_cut.png && curl "127.0.0.1:60606/ocr_recognize?screenshot=false"

Existing Usages (Quick selection translation)

SnipDo (Windows)

  1. Download and install SnipDo in the Microsoft Store
  2. Download the SnipDo extension of Saladict from the Latest Release (Saladict.pbar)
  3. Double click the downloaded file to install it.
  4. Selection some text, you can see the Saladict icon in the upper right corner of the selection, click the icon to translate.

PopClip (MacOS)

  1. Download and install PopClip in the Official Website
  2. Download the PopClip extension of Saladict from the Latest Release (Saladict.popclipextz)
  3. Double click the downloaded file to install it.
  4. Enable the Saladict extension in PopClip settings, and then you can translate by selecting text.

Starry (Linux)

Starry is still in the development stage, so you can only compile him manually

Github: ccslykx/Starry

Wayland Support

Due to the varying levels of support for Wayland among different distributions, Saladict itself cannot achieve perfect compatibility. However, here are some solutions to common issues that can be implemented through proper configuration, allowing Saladict to run flawlessly on Wayland.

Ubuntu 22.04 start using Wayland as the display server, if you need to use X11 as the display server:
1. Click the gear icon on the login interface
2. Select "Ubuntu on Xorg" (use X11 instead of Wayland)
3. Then login

This can solve the following problems

Shortcut key cannot be used

Due to Tauri's lack of support for Wayland, the shortcut key scheme in the Saladict application cannot be used under Wayland. You can set the system shortcut and send a request with curl to call Saladict, see External Calls for details

Screenshot doesn't work

In some pure Wayland desktop environments/window managers (such as Hyprland), the built-in screenshot feature of Saladict cannot be used. In this case, you can use other screenshot tools instead. For more details, please refer to the section Not Using Built-in Screenshot.

Below is a configuration example for Hyprland using grim and slurp to achieve screenshot functionality:

bind = ALT, X, exec, grim -g "$(slurp)" ~/.cache/allen.town.focus.saladict/pot_screenshot_cut.png && curl "127.0.0.1:60606/ocr_recognize?screenshot=false"
bind = ALT, C, exec, grim -g "$(slurp)" ~/.cache/allen.town.focus.saladict/pot_screenshot_cut.png && curl "127.0.0.1:60606/ocr_translate?screenshot=false"

Other desktop environments/window managers also have similar operations.

The translation window follows the mouse position.

Due to the current inability of Saladict to obtain accurate mouse coordinates under Wayland, its internal implementation cannot function properly. For certain desktop environments/window managers, it is possible to achieve window following mouse position by setting window rules. Here we take Hyprland as an example:

windowrulev2 = float, class:(saladict), title:(Translator|OCR|PopClip|Screenshot Translate) # Translation window floating
windowrulev2 = move cursor 0 0, class:(saladict), title:(Translator|PopClip|Screenshot Translate) # Translation window follows the mouse position.

Internationalization(Weblate)

Contributors

Manual compilation

Requirements

Node.js >= 18.0.0

pnpm >= 8.5.0

Rust >= 1.80.0

Start compilation

  1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/allentown521/saladict.git

  2. Install dependencies

    cd saladict
pnpm install

  3. Install dependencies(Only Linux)

    sudo apt-get install -y libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf libxdo-dev libxcb1 libxrandr2 libdbus-1-3

  4. Development (Optional)

    pnpm tauri dev # Run the app in development mode

  5. Build

    pnpm tauri build # Build into installation package

Acknowledgement