Online translation from English to Russian with photographs. Quickly translate text from photos on Android, iOC, Windows Phone

Technologies do not stand still and what seemed impossible to do yesterday is becoming commonplace today. And now I want to tell you how you can translate text from a picture online for free, spending a small amount of time on it. In this article I will be guided by two online service ami. The first is Free Online OCR, and the second is Yandex Translator.

Translating text from photos online

The procedure will take place in two stages. First we need to recognize and copy the caption from the image. Here you can resort to Internet resources, for example, OCR Convert, i2OCR, NewOCR, OnlineOcr, FreeOcr, OCRonline. And programs, say, ABBYY FineReader. And then the actual translation will follow.

Before starting work, important points should be emphasized:

• The font in the photo should look distinct and not blend too much with the design.
• The file extension must have the graphic extension PCX, GIF, BMP, JPG, JPEG, PNG, ICO, SVG, TIFF, AI, PSD, RAW, PSP, etc.
• Do not download huge pixel formats.
• Since machine translation is used, the output may not be perfect and may need some work.

Free Online OCR

I want to say right away that this service is more suitable for ordinary pictures, I mean those in which the background, there is no pronounced and multi-element noise behind the inscription; in other words, it is a single color.

Let's say this is an option.

Go to the website, click “Browse” and download required document in order to translate words from a photograph. Yes, I almost forgot, you need to set the recognition language a little lower. In my case, these are “English” and “Russian”.

Now click the “Upload + OCR” button.

In the new window that opens, we see the following - the file that we downloaded, and below is the text from it.

Now what we do is translation. Click on the “Google Translate” link (I showed it in the screenshot above) to get the result.

How to translate text from a picture using Yandex Translator

To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by this opportunity, because I had not previously suspected or even noticed that such a service was available from Yandex, and initially wanted to write about a program that translates text in a foreign language from a photograph.

Follow the link, select the language (if you have trouble choosing? I recommend setting “Auto-detect”), I noted from English to Russian, click on “Select file” and upload the document.

The copied text will be shown in a new window. It is important to take into account the fact that text detected by the system will be highlighted in a different color, accordingly, if a word is not marked, then its translation will not be displayed.

That's all. If you know of free utilities and other online resources, write in the comments.

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Technology has turned the fantasies of the past into reality. Today, people no longer have to learn a foreign language or understand the peculiarities of its alphabet in order to translate information signs and labels in a foreign language. All you need is a device with a good camera and an online application that will translate the information you need from a picture or even directly from the camera. This saves time by not forcing users to enter information for translation, especially when it comes to large chunks of text in a foreign language.

The principle of operation of a translator from English into Russian (and vice versa) using a photo

Many people are familiar with the so-called optical character recognition (OCR) mechanisms. These are programs that are capable of recognizing typewritten text from photographs, pictures, pdf files, etc. The same mechanisms are used in modern translators.

The principle of translation from a photograph is simple. The image that the user uploads to the server goes through OCR. It automatically detects the typewritten text area and recognizes the written lines.

After the system detects the text and you select the fragment you need, the text will be automatically translated as normal, typed in the usual way. It should be remembered that the quality of the translation depends on the picture. If the text on it is barely readable, it most likely will not cope with its task.

Translating text from a photo using Google Translator

Google Translator is developing by leaps and bounds, adding new tools and features. Thus, the developers at one time added the ability to enter handwritten text, which could be written directly on the screen, followed by text recognition from a microphone and from a photograph.

In 2014, the company acquired the instant translation service Word Lens. This is undoubtedly one of the most advanced applications that allows you to recognize text from your mobile phone camera, instantly. You don't even need to take a photo of what you need to translate. You should start by translating the text from the photograph. This feature is not available in the browser, but works great on mobile devices.

Step 1. Download Google's online translator to your phone via the AppStore or Google Play. Install and run it.

Step 2. In the area above the text input field, configure the languages ​​for translation, in our case - from English to Russian. And click on the camera icon in the lower left corner.

Step 3: The app will launch your phone's camera. Point it at the text you need to translate. Once all the text fits on the screen, click on the red button and take a photo of the text.

Step 4. The application will immediately begin to recognize the text of your photo.

Step 5. Once the photo is processed, select the area you need, or all the text at once.

Step 6: Click on the blue arrow button to have the app translate all the text. As soon as you click on it, the system will take you to the familiar interface, where in the source text field there will be everything that the application was able to recognize, and just below it will be its translation.

Photo translator of text from a photograph or picture from a gallery

Everything we discussed above concerns texts translated using your camera. Translating text from photos already stored on your phone, taken earlier, or downloaded from the Internet is also easy. Repeat the same thing, but instead of taking a photo yourself, click on the button indicated by the arrow in the screenshot below. She will direct you to the Gallery, where you will be asked to select a photo. Find it and open it.

Next, the system will recognize and translate the text in the same way as in the previous case. Since the text in the example is much shorter this time, the application will translate it automatically. Go to the standard view by clicking the blue button again.

Instant translation from camera

Much has already been said about this function above. This is very convenient in cases where you quickly need to find out what is written on information signs if you are traveling abroad, or the composition of shampoo in a store if it is written in English.

To enable instant translation, you will have to open the camera again, then instead of the red button to take a photo or the button to access the gallery, click on the eye symbol in the lower right corner. The program will automatically begin to recognize individual words, translate and replace them with the result.

This translation is not the most correct and you will not be able to copy it, but it is instant because it is designed to satisfy current needs. This function will not cope with voluminous texts or if the mobile device’s camera leaves much to be desired. The translation is not always correct, since instant translation works separately for each word. However, in the case of information signs and individual words, this amazing tool will do a great job.

Translating text from a photo using Yandex Translator

Russian developers are not lagging behind foreign ones. Recently, the Yandex translator has added a function for translating text from photographs. Unlike Google, you can use it from your computer. It works on approximately the same principle.

Step 1. Go to the translator's website.

Step 2. Go to online photo translator. You will see a “Picture” link in the top horizontal menu. So, a field for inserting an image will appear on your computer screen. Click on the “Select file” button or drag the image into the field on the site.

Step 3. As soon as you insert a photo, the service will begin automatic text recognition, after which you can see the translation by clicking on the “Open in Translator” button.

Yandex offers three options for text recognition and translation:

• by words, when the system identifies each word individually. In this case, they will be translated each on a new line;
• by lines;
• by blocks, as in the example under consideration.

Step 4. A new window will open in your browser with the recognized source text and its translation. Again, the quality of the translation largely depends on the resolution of the camera with which the photograph was taken, and even how evenly the lines are located in the photograph.

So, both translators do a good job with their main task— translation of information from photographs and both of them are available completely free of charge. One service is exclusively for mobile devices, and the other is for desktops. They complement each other.

Not all of us have the opportunity or talent to study several foreign languages, but when visiting new countries, making acquaintances or getting a job, you cannot do without these skills. To make life easier for your users, Google company released a photo translator - an addition to Google Translate - Word Lens. This mobile application translates text from a photograph, picture or other images with text. Google Photo Translator takes a photo and translates it into one of the 38 most common languages ​​in the world.

How to use Google Translate as a text translator with photos?

First of all, install the Google Translate application with 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 and after that you can translate text from photos.

To use the Google Translate application as a photo translator, you need to launch the application, allow access to the camera on mobile phone, point your smartphone camera at a picture with, for example, English or German languages. This is all. The online application will translate the text in the picture and display it to 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 photo text translator do not intend to stop there either. It is worth noting that all users were waiting for the release of simultaneous translation. They promise to further improve translation from pictures in real time so that it takes no more than a couple of seconds. Other features of the program are highlighted:

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

What does translating text from a photo with Google Translate look like in action?

The only negative is that translating text from a photo containing a handwritten test is difficult because it is difficult for the application to recognize it. Now you can only work in pairs with the English language, but later you can choose sets of languages ​​yourself. In Google Translate, for communication, you currently have to enter and translate text one by one, but they promise to change this, and then languages ​​will be detected automatically, which will also be applied to Word Lens.

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

Let us remind you that previously you had to pay money to buy languages ​​for translating text from photographs, but after purchasing Quest Visual, any linguistic set became free, although not for long. Therefore, you should quickly download Google Translate from Word Lens to your phone if you are going on a trip and your English, Spanish or French is not good.

From personal experience of using an online photo translator

Quite recently I went on a trip to Hungary. On my own Hungarian very difficult, and Hungarians are in no hurry to learn English. Therefore, the application often came to the rescue, especially in the store, when choosing goods and souvenirs. A small life hack— I recommend uploading the dictionary to the application in advance so that you can translate text from photos without the Internet (offline).

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

Translation of voice or sound online

Among other things, the Google Translate application supports voice translation. So, while traveling, you can speak into 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 applications that would help not to use all kinds of online translators with a photo or image, you will simply understand the words immediately. The application is as simple as possible. You learn only 10 words a day.

Easy Ten - 10 words a day - that's 70 new words a week, 300 new words a month, 3650 new words a 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 mostly we have a need to translate from in English 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, vibrant travel experiences, the language barrier is one of the most important. Our inability to understand speech that is foreign to us becomes a significant obstacle to communication, which inspires us to search for ways to, if not eliminate, then at least smooth out this deficiency. One of these methods is the use of auxiliary programs that turn our smartphone into a fast and convenient translator of spoken and written speech. In this material I will consider one of these mobile programs— “Translator from Google”, 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.

Google launched its web translation service back in 2006, and a few years later mobile forms of the translator for Android and iOS saw the light. At first, the application was criticized for its rather rigid, “machine” translation text, limited opportunities and unstable functionality. But the constant work carried out by the developers to improve 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 is not only one of the most popular, but also one of the most reliable.

An important step in the development of the application was Google’s purchase of Quest Visual, the developer mobile application“Word Lens”, which allows you to translate any foreign text using the camera. 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 oral speech, but also carry out translation using a mobile phone camera.

How to use Google Translator

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

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

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

1. To translate using a camera, click on the corresponding camera icon in the program menu on the left.
2. Then point your phone camera at the text you need to translate, and you will almost immediately see its translation on the screen of your device.

Visually it looks something like this:

The second option Translating text from a photo involves taking a photograph and then translating the foreign text on it.

You can also translate text from English into Russian (for example) from an image already on your phone. To do this, 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 (a button with a snake image).

Is it possible to use image translations on a PC?

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

1. Install one of the popular Android emulators on your PC (for example, Bluestacks 2 or Nox Player).
2. Launch the emulator, log in, enter your Google account information.
3. Then use the search to find Google Translator and install it.
4. After that, find its icon on the emulator desktop, click on it, and use its capabilities on your PC (as far as it is functional).

Alternative solutions are to use a number of stationary programs at the “Screen Translator” level (you select a part of the screen with 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.

Conclusion

The capabilities of Google Translator allow us to quickly translate the text we need by simply pointing the camera of our smartphone at such text. Other features of the application include the translation of text on a 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.