🌐 Image Translation

PixWit's AI translation turns the foreign-language text in a screenshot into the language you choose: 10 target languages are available, with three styles — Literal / Free Translation / Localization; the result can be shown in the text panel or overlaid directly on the original image.

• Word explanation

Where to find it

Entry point	Location	Description
Hotkey	Ctrl+T	The default global hotkey for "🌐 Translation"; change it in Settings → Hotkey Settings → 🤖 AI Feature Hotkeys, and click the × on its right to clear it, which disables the hotkey
Toolbar button	The "Translate (Ctrl+T)" item on the editor window toolbar	Hidden by default; add it to the toolbar in Settings → Annotation settings → Toolbar buttons. You can also put it in the AI Dropdown, expand it with ▼ and pick it there, then use "⚙ Set as Default Action" in the menu to make it the main button's default action

What happens when it is triggered (the same for all 6 AI hotkeys):

• An editor window is already open: translation runs on the current image directly.
• No editor window: you first enter the screenshot region selection, and once the region is framed translation runs immediately — it does not jump to the editor window first.
• If an annotation tool is also selected for the region, the AI action does not run.

Translation settings

Settings → AI Service Config → Translation Settings:

Setting	Options	Default
Target language	Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian	Chinese
Translation style	Literal / Free Translation (recommended) / Localization	Free Translation
Translation mode	Text Translation (translation shown in the text panel) / Image Translation (translation overlaid directly on the original image)	Text Translation
Erase Source Text Background	In Image Translation mode, fills the source text area with the background color	Off
Translation Offset	In Image Translation mode, the number of pixels by which all translations are shifted down (0~200 px)	0

📷 Image placeholder (Figure 1)

Translation settings — shows the five settings Target language / Translation style / Translation mode / Erase Source Text Background / Translation Offset and their default values To add the image: put the picture at docs/public/images/translation-settings.webp, then delete this tip block and uncomment the next line

Translation result window

• Image on the left, text on the right: the left column holds the image; the right column has [Original] at the top and [Translation] below, and both text boxes can be edited directly.
• The icon buttons in the top-right corner are, in order: 🔁 Re-translate, Copy Original, Copy Translation, Show Image Area (appears when the image is hidden), Show Original Text Area.
• The translation title row carries the target language dropdown and the current style; changing the language inside the window re-translates immediately (changing the language from the settings page or the toolbar does not re-translate an already open window).
• While translating, the title shows progress such as Translating... (N characters); when it finishes, it reads Translation Result.
• Right-click menu (image area): Hide/Show image, Hide/Show text panel, T Show Translation Overlay, 💾 Save image, ↺ Reset layout; right-clicking in the original or translation box lets you copy the selected text or all of it.
• The only hotkey is Esc to close the window; the window has no always-on-top option (Ctrl+T is the global hotkey of the Translation feature, not a way to pin this window on top).

📷 Image placeholder (Figure 2)

Translation result window — shows the two columns (image on the left, text on the right), the [Original] / [Translation] text boxes, the icon buttons in the top-right corner and the language dropdown in the translation title row To add the image: put the picture at docs/public/images/translation-result-window.webp, then delete this tip block and uncomment the next line

Image translation mode

When "Translation mode" is set to Image Translation:

• The translations are overlaid directly on the original image, and every translation box can be dragged, resized by its edges and zoomed with the mouse wheel.
• Click a translation to copy that one (toast: ✅ Translation copied).
• T Show Translation Overlay in the right-click menu toggles the overlay on and off.
• When you save the image, the overlaid translations are rendered into the image, with a file name like Translation_Screenshot<timestamp>.<format>.

📷 Image placeholder (Figure 3)

Image translation overlay — shows translations overlaid directly on the original image, draggable/zoomable translation boxes and the "✅ Translation copied" toast after clicking one To add the image: put the picture at docs/public/images/translation-picture-overlay.webp, then delete this tip block and uncomment the next line

AI service

Service sources

PixWit AI is on by default and works out of the box — no configuration is needed to translate; tick Custom AI Service only when you want to use your own API Key. The three checkboxes can be combined, and the priority is fixed at Local > Custom > Pixwit:

Option	Description	Default
Custom AI Service (use your own API Key)	Configure your own large language models and a specific service	Off
Pixwit AI (recommended, ready to use)	Cloud AI service with the full feature set, no configuration needed	On
Local OCR only (offline recognition, no internet needed)	When ticked, text recognition in the whole app uses local OCR only (highest priority); during translation it is used only as the recognition step	On

Large language models (shown when "Custom AI Service" is ticked)

Each service is an expandable card:

Item	Description
Enable checkbox	When ticked, the service takes part in translation and analysis through the "Custom AI Service" channel
Name / API Key / Base URL / Model	Model is an editable dropdown with built-in names of common models such as DeepSeek, Qwen, GPT-4o, Claude and Gemini
Image Processing Capability	🖼️ Multimodal model (supports image recognition) (default) or 📝 Text-only model (does not support images); a text-only model runs OCR first and then hands the result to the model, while a multimodal model can look at the image directly
Test Connection / Delete	Test Connection returns a success message or the specific reason it failed; Delete asks for no confirmation

"+ Add Service" adds another service entry. Custom translation requires the service to be enabled, with both API Key and Base URL filled in.

When no service is available, a message appears: "Translation Service Unavailable / No usable translation service configured."

Note: some legacy messages in the app still point users to the "system tray menu" to find the AI service configuration (the "Translation Service Unavailable" dialog, for example); the actual entry point is Settings → AI Service Config.

FAQ

Q: Can I not translate unless I set up DeepSeek, Qwen or a similar service?

• No. PixWit AI is on by default and works out of the box — just press Ctrl+T to translate; a custom large language model is only an optional path, suited to those who want to use their own Key or a specific model.

Q: Can it only translate foreign text into Chinese?

• No. There are 10 target languages to choose from (Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian), with Chinese as the default.

Q: Translation or recognition reports an error?

• Go to Settings → AI Service Config and test the connection, and check the API Key, your balance and the network; if you use a custom service, make sure it is enabled and that both API Key and Base URL are filled in.

Q: Can I pin the translation window on top with Ctrl+T?

• No. The translation result window has no always-on-top option, and the only hotkey available inside it is Esc (close the window); Ctrl+T is the global hotkey of the Translation feature, used to trigger translation.

Related features

• OCR Text Recognition
• AI Analysis (Chinese)
• AI Chat (Chinese)