Paperback 1.0: translation call

[trypsynth]

Hi everyone! Paperback 1.0 is close. It's the first release on all five platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, with the apps going into the App Store and Google Play. The strings and the readme are now in their final state for 1.0, so this is a good time to bring your translation up to date.

Please send your updates by October 1.

What to do:

1. Pull the latest master.
2. Open your po/<lang>.po in Poedit, and use Translation > Update from POT File with po/paperback.pot. Human-maintained languages don't get new strings merged in on their own, so this step adds them.
3. Translate the new strings, and check any marked as fuzzy (needs review).
4. Update doc/readme-<lang>.md too. The readme has a new iOS and Android section and the 1.0 changelog.
5. Open a PR as usual.

Where each language is, out of 964 strings:

• Bosnian, @tareh7z: 609 translated
• Czech, @4sensegaming: 864 translated
• Dutch, @LeonarddeR: 349 translated, 615 machine-translated for review
• Finnish, @jkinnunen: complete
• German, @schulle4u: 683 translated, 9 to review
• Japanese, @kitabatake1013: 700 translated, 24 to review
• Polish, @michaldziwisz: complete
• Russian, @Ruslan-Gulmagomedov: 238 translated, 726 machine-translated for review
• Serbian, @nidza07: 854 translated
• Simplified Chinese, @piano777wzy: complete
• Ukrainian, @Ishtef: 16 new mobile strings machine-translated for review

Finnish, Polish and Simplified Chinese still need the readme update.

Thanks so much for all your work. Paperback wouldn't reach nearly as many people without you!

[LeonarddeR]

Thanks for poking @trypsynth, I'm on it for Dutch.
As a side note, is there a way to test Paperback on iOS, e.g. via test flight, so I can see current strings in their context? Or is there another way to sideload the app without an Apple machine?

[trypsynth]

A short update, and an apology: since I posted this call I have changed the readme twice and added one new string. That is exactly the churn a translation freeze is supposed to avoid, and it lands on you after some of you had already finished. Sorry. Here is everything that moved, so nobody has to go hunting.

New string (one, in po/paperback.pot):

• Original file — an option on the iOS export screen that shares the book's own file instead of converting it.

Readme changes (two sections):

1. A new sub-section under Screen Reader Compatibility, "JAWS and Paperback's messages". JAWS only speaks Paperback's messages when "Enable accessible notification events" is switched on for the application, which is off on some machines, and the section says how to switch it on.
2. reStructuredText (.rst, .rest) added to the supported formats list, and one line in the 1.0 changelog under New Formats.

Nothing else in the readme has changed since the call.

From here I will hold readme edits unless something would be plain wrong at 1.0 without them, and if anything does change I will post it here rather than leave you to find it. The deadline stays October 1.

Thanks again, and sorry for the moving target.

[trypsynth]

A week to go, so here is where every language stands, out of 965 strings. No need to count anything yourself.

Complete: Polish, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese.

One string short, the new Original file:

• Finnish, @jkinnunen
• Ukrainian, @Ishtef

Still to do:

• Bosnian, @tareh7z: 609 done, 356 to go
• German, @schulle4u: 692 done, 273 to go
• Japanese, @kitabatake1013: 724 done, 241 to go
• Serbian, @nidza07: 854 done, 111 to go
• Czech, @4sensegaming: 864 done, 101 to go

Remember to run Translation > Update from POT File with po/paperback.pot first, since human-maintained languages do not get new strings merged in on their own. The readme (doc/readme-<lang>.md) wants a pass too.

If you cannot make October 1, that is genuinely fine. Paperback ships with whatever is ready, falls back to English for the rest, and your update goes out in 1.0.1. Nobody is holding up the release, and I would rather have a translation you are happy with than a rushed one.

Paperback itself is in fixes-only mode now, so the strings should stop moving under you. The only changes since the call are the two readme sections and the one string listed above.

[nidza07]

Thank you very much for the notice. Serbian will definitely be done on time, locally I have already done the necessary updates, just doing some final revisions and tests before 1.0 and should have a PR soon.

[trypsynth]

The readme and the strings are frozen now, properly this time.

Paperback is at version 1.0 in the repository, the changelog is finished, and everything left before release is packaging and store review. Nothing else will move under you. If something has to change, I will post it here first.

Where each language stands, out of 965 strings:

• Complete: Polish, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese
• Finnish, @jkinnunen: 964, missing only Original file
• Ukrainian, @Ishtef: 964, missing only Original file
• Czech, @4sensegaming: 864, 101 to go
• Serbian, @nidza07: 854, 111 to go
• German, @schulle4u: 692, 273 to go
• Japanese, @kitabatake1013: 724, 241 to go
• Bosnian, @tareh7z: 609, 356 to go

Remember Translation > Update from POT File with po/paperback.pot first, and the readme at doc/readme-<lang>.md as well.

The deadline is still October 1, and missing it is still fine. Paperback falls back to English for anything not translated, and your update ships in 1.0.1. The mobile apps go to the App Store and Google Play before then, so their review can run while everything else is finished; they carry whatever is ready on the day they are built, and a later translation reaches them in the next update.

Thank you all, genuinely. This release has more languages in it than any before it.

[4sensegaming]

Thank you so much for communicating with us properly before the actual release. Not every project maintainer bothers with doing that, and it's appreciated.I have a really busy schedule right now, but I'll definitely do my best to get it done in time. Not too much work left for me after all. I myself hate it when someone decides to start contributing by translating, but then stops and doesn't say anything, or does maintain the translation but it's actually very poor and not tested against the running build, etc.So, even if I don't manage to have absolutely everything ready in time for 1.0 in the worst case, I'll definitely finish what's left as soon as I can.24. 9. 2026 v 17:44, Quin Gillespie ***@***.***>: The readme and the strings are frozen now, properly this time. Paperback is at version 1.0 in the repository, the changelog is finished, and everything left before release is packaging and store review. Nothing else will move under you. If something has to change, I will post it here first. Where each language stands, out of 965 strings: Complete: Polish, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese Finnish, @jkinnunen: 964, missing only Original file Ukrainian, @Ishtef: 964, missing only Original file Czech, @4sensegaming: 864, 101 to go Serbian, @nidza07: 854, 111 to go German, @schulle4u: 692, 273 to go Japanese, @kitabatake1013: 724, 241 to go Bosnian, @tareh7z: 609, 356 to go Remember Translation > Update from POT File with po/paperback.pot first, and the readme at doc/readme-<lang>.md as well. The deadline is still October 1, and missing it is still fine. Paperback falls back to English for anything not translated, and your update ships in 1.0.1. The mobile apps go to the App Store and Google Play before then, so their review can run while everything else is finished; they carry whatever is ready on the day they are built, and a later translation reaches them in the next update. Thank you all, genuinely. This release has more languages in it than any before it. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS and Android. Download it today! You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[trypsynth]

Thanks, all three of you, and @4sensegaming, that goes both ways: you tell me when something is off in a way most people never bother to.

The plan, so nobody has to guess:

• October 1 is still the date to aim for. Anything merged by then is in 1.0.
• The release itself is that weekend, Saturday October 3. The extra two days are for building, a last pass with a screen reader, and the stores.
• A translation that misses the 1st is not a problem. It goes into 1.0.1, which follows quickly: the desktop build is mine to publish whenever, so a language arriving late waits days rather than weeks.
• One caveat on the phones: the App Store and Google Play builds get made and submitted before the weekend, because Apple's review can take up to a week. A translation landing after that build reaches the desktop first and the apps in the next update.

So please do not rush a translation you are not happy with to hit Thursday. A late, tested translation is worth more than a fast one.

@LeonarddeR, on your earlier question, sorry for the slow answer. There is no TestFlight link yet, but you do not need a Mac: every build of master now produces an unsigned .ipa.

1. Open the newest Build Paperback run under Actions.
2. Download the paperback-ios-unsigned artifact and unzip it. The .ipa is inside.
3. Install it with Sideloadly or AltServer, signed in with your own Apple ID.

Two things to know: the bundle identifier matches the App Store build, so the store version has to come off the device first (or the tool has to rename it while signing), and a free Apple ID's signature lasts seven days before the tool has to refresh it.

[schulle4u]

I've just sent my updated German translation. For the record, I'm also documenting this here:

As the project has grown considerably and I currently have limited ressources to maintain and review large translation projects, I have decided to opt-in to your machine translations for the time being. From my experience with other projects, machine translations are of a very high quality these days. However, I am still available for small corrections, of course.

[trypsynth]

Where 1.0 stands, and two small asks

Store builds go in tomorrow evening. German, Serbian, Ukrainian, Finnish, Dutch, Polish and Simplified Chinese are all complete on the interface strings. Thank you, all of you.

Interface strings

Language	State
Dutch, Finnish, German, Polish, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Ukrainian	complete, 964 of 964
Czech	864, about 100 short
Bosnian	609, about 355 short
Japanese	700, with 24 fuzzy and 169 untranslated
Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Vietnamese	machine baseline, shipping as fuzzy

Czech, Bosnian and Japanese will ship at whatever they reach. Anything that lands after tomorrow goes into 1.0.1, which will follow quickly.

The manuals

I added a check that compares each translated manual to the English one: same headings, same number of list items. It caught a real hole, see below, and it also turned up a few gaps in the hand-written manuals.

@michaldziwisz Polish is one section short. ### JAWS and Paperback's messages is missing, the new part under Screen Reader Compatibility about turning on "Enable accessible notification events" in JAWS Settings Center. Polish readers currently get no instruction for that, and it is the fix for menu messages being cut off. Everything else in the Polish manual lines up exactly.

@nidza07 Serbian is one shortcut short, in ### Dodatni tasteri pri prikazivanju dokumenta. The English has four entries and Serbian has three; the missing one is:

* `Enter` on a scanned PDF page: Recognize the page with OCR.

Also, and this one is your call rather than a mistake: the Serbian manual writes Šift+F10, Alt+Levo, Ctrl+razmak, while po/sr.po uses Shift in the menu accelerators 77 times against Šift once. So the program labels the menu Ctrl+Shift+W and the manual tells the reader Ctrl+Šift+W. Whichever you prefer is fine, they just need to agree. If you want Šift everywhere I will change the catalogue; if you want the manual to match the program as it is now, the manual is the thing to change.

Neither of these blocks 1.0. If they arrive tomorrow they ship, and otherwise they go into 1.0.1.

Bosnian and Czech manuals are further behind, 33 and 66 of the English manual's 94 headings. No pressure on either; I mention it only so nobody is surprised by what ships.

The hole it caught

The machine translator wrote a German manual that was missing the whole "Currently supported file types" section and the "Supported languages" one, missing the second JAWS subsection, and had a paragraph that stopped mid-sentence. It committed that and opened a pull request with nothing complaining, because nothing ever compared the response to what was sent.

Fixed now. Each section is checked against its English source for the same headings, list items and code fences, retried up to three times, and the run fails naming the section rather than writing a short file. Manuals are also translated section by section even on a full rewrite, so one bad response cannot take its neighbours down with it, and one language failing no longer stops the others.

If you maintain a manual by hand, this does not touch your work. If your language is machine translated, the next one you see should at least be complete.

Steering the machine translations

If your language is machine translated and the wording is not how you would put it, you can fix that once instead of correcting it every release. Write your conventions in po/style/<lang>.md and they are given to the translator every time your language runs. po/style/nl.md is the worked example and po/style/de.md is a new one. Register, how menu items should read, capitalisation, which words stay in English, and a glossary are the useful things to put in it. Write it in English, since the model is what reads it.

[nidza07]

Thank you, both should be fixed in #954. I'll look into the inconsistency with the key names for the next release, for now I changed the documentation to be aligned with the interface. I was under the impression that we cannot change key names in the catalog or the accelerators won't work, and I remember trying that at some point with this result, but it was a long time ago, so it's possible this has changed. If it works as intended, I'll use localized key names for 1.01.

[trypsynth]

@nidza07 merged, thank you, and your memory is right, but it is narrower than you think. I went and traced it, because it turns out there are two different mechanisms in play and only one of them is the one you remember.

Six strings out of 965 carry their accelerator in the translation. They are the edit context menu: Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All. In those the text after the tab is what wx parses into the key, so translating Ctrl+Z there really would break the shortcut. You have those in English already, which is correct, and there is a lint that would catch it if anyone changed them.

Every other menu accelerator never touches the catalogue at all. The label comes from t() with no shortcut in it, and the shortcut column is generated at menu-build time from the user's config: format_menu_label asks config.get_shortcut_menu_str(action), which asks KeyChord::to_shortcut_string(), which joins hardcoded English words, RawCtrl, Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and then the key name. So the 77 Shiftes I counted in po/sr.po were mostly me counting prose. Editing those would not have changed the menus either way.

Which means localized key names are not a translation change at all, and not something you can do or break from the .po. It needs a code change, and there is one real obstacle in the way of it. to_shortcut_string is doing two jobs: it produces the text shown in the menu, and it produces the text written into the config file on disk, which KeyChord::parse reads back. Translate it and the config file starts being written in Serbian, and then stops loading when someone switches the interface language.

So the fix is to split those two jobs: a to_display_string that is translated and used by the menu bar and the Customize Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, and to_shortcut_string left exactly as it is for the config file. That is small and clean, it lives in the key-chord crate plus two call sites here, and it would give every language localized key names rather than just Serbian.

I would like to do it for 1.0.1. If you want Šift, Alt+Levo and Ctrl+razmak in the Serbian interface, say so and I will put you on the pull request so you can check the words before it ships. Same offer to anyone else reading who wants their own key names: @michaldziwisz, @schulle4u, @4sensegaming, @jkinnunen, @Ishtef, @tareh7z, @kitabatake1013. It is worth doing once for everyone rather than language by language.

For 1.0 the Serbian manual and the Serbian interface now agree, which was the thing that mattered.

[jkinnunen]

@trypsynth For the Finnish translation, I’d like Shift to be displayed as “Vaihto” in Paperback 1.0.1. Ctrl and Alt can remain unchanged.

[trypsynth]

1.0 is frozen, and now we wait on Apple

The code for 1.0 is done. I've cut a 1.0 branch from master, and desktop 1.0 will be built from it. Nothing else goes into 1.0 except translations.

Where each platform is:

• Android: 1.0 is already live on Google Play.
• iOS: 1.0 is waiting for App Review. Apple asked for more information after the first review, I've answered, and it's back in the queue. It goes out as soon as they approve it.
• Windows, macOS and Linux: still Saturday, October 3.

Translations: the October 1 promise stands. Anything that comes in by then I'll put on the 1.0 branch as well, so it's in desktop 1.0. The mobile apps were built last week, so late translations reach them in 1.0.1.

Thank you, @kitabatake1013, for the new Japanese readme. It's in desktop 1.0, and on mobile in 1.0.1.

From now on, master is 1.0.1. New strings will start appearing there again, so after the 1st, keep working against master as usual. Requests already in this thread, like "Vaihto" for Shift in Finnish, belong there.