Screenshot translator: translate a screenshot and keep the layout

Before you translate a screenshot, decide what you need from it. To understand it, Google Translate on a computer or a photo-translation feature on your phone will show the meaning. To reuse it, in a help article, a tutorial, an internal guide or a store listing, you need a translated image: upload the screenshot here and you get a new image with the text translated in the same layout.

Understand it or reuse it?

For the general methods, see how to translate text in an image on a computer and how to translate a picture on your phone.

Capture a screenshot that translates well

Interface text is often small, and Google's own help page warns that translating small, unclear or stylized text may result in lower accuracy. So:

• Capture at normal zoom. Do not zoom out the page to fit more on screen.
• Crop to the part that matters with the crop tool. A cropped dialog box keeps its text large relative to the image; a full desktop with three windows shrinks it.
• Keep the file at 10 MB or less. Full-screen PNG captures from large displays can be heavy. Our free compress tool and crop tool have the same 10 MB upload limit, so for a heavier file, capture a smaller area.

Remove personal data before you upload

Screenshots often contain more than you notice: names and avatars in a chat, email addresses, order numbers, account IDs, phone numbers, open browser tabs, notification previews. Remove them before uploading, not after translating.

• Crop out anything at the edges.
• Cover the rest with a solid box in any image editor. Our free tools do not include a blur or redaction tool.
• For documentation, replace real data with obvious placeholders ([email protected], order 000000) before capturing.

Translate the screenshot

1. Open the image translator and upload the screenshot.
2. Choose the source language or leave it on auto-detect.
3. Choose the mode in the Business type menu. Technical documentation for software interfaces, settings and error messages; Marketing for store visuals and promotional posts; Default mode for chats and social posts. The menu is shown on wide screens; on a smaller one, signed-in users can save a default business type in their profile.
4. From the Pro plan, add the official interface terms in the custom AI instructions, for example: "Use the German UI labels: Settings = Einstellungen, Sign out = Abmelden."
5. Pick the target language and click Translate now. Signed in, you download the result; without an account, you can enter your email address to receive it. Review it with the table below.

The screenshots of a help-center article can go through batch translation from the Pro plan: up to 10 images per run, each into one or more target languages, with at most 50 translated images per run. Publishing translated screenshots for a business, in a help center or a store listing, is commercial use: the terms allow it from the Pro plan, and the free Basic plan is for personal use only.

What to check, by type of screenshot

Two more details: compare keyboard shortcuts shown in a screenshot (Ctrl+C) with the localized product, since the translator has no instruction specific to them; and product or feature names should stay as they appear in the localized product, not be translated word by word. The generated image can also alter digits, icons or logos, so compare it with the original line by line.

Check first: does an official version exist?

If the app or website is already available in the target language, switch its language setting and take a new screenshot. It will match the real interface exactly, which a translated image cannot promise. Translate the screenshot when no localized version exists yet, when you cannot reach it, or when the screenshot shows content (a conversation, a post, a message) rather than an interface.

Screenshots in Japanese or Korean have their own pages: Japanese image translator and Korean image translator. Architecture and flow diagrams captured as screenshots are covered by the diagram translator.

Limits

• One screenshot per upload in the web uploader; JPG, PNG or WebP up to 10 MB.
• The result is a regenerated image, not an edit of your file: review every label and number.
• No text export and no editing of the translated text in the browser.
• No real-time screen or camera translation; you upload an image file.