Read any text on your Mac screen in your language, right where it appears.
🌍 Language: English | 한국어 | 日本語 | 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | ไทย | Español | Français | Deutsch | Tiếng Việt
Drag a viewfinder over a game, video, photo, PDF or app window. ViewLingo recognizes the text and lays the translation directly over the original, like AR for your screen. No copying, no switching apps, and nothing leaves your Mac.
Press fn + Control + Option (configurable in Settings) and drag over the text you want to read. Double-tap fn + Control to drop a viewfinder right at your pointer. Move or resize it at any time and the translation follows.
Translations are drawn over the original text, fitted to its layout and colors, with automatic font sizing so longer translations stay readable. When space is tight, hover to see the full translation.
Turn on Live and ViewLingo follows changing text in video subtitles, games, slides and streams, and holds steady when the screen doesn't change. Lock the viewfinder to click and scroll through it while translation keeps running on top.
Live, Retry and Close sit just outside your selection, so they never cover the text you're reading.
Vertical Japanese, Chinese and Korean text is recognized and translated.
ViewLingo offers every language that both your Mac's text recognition and Apple Translation support, so the list grows with macOS. Setup walks you through downloading each language pack once; after that, translation works offline.
- 100% on-device: Apple Vision recognizes the text and Apple Translation translates it, on your Mac
- Works offline: No internet connection needed once language packs are downloaded
- No account, no analytics, no tracking: Your screen content never leaves your device
- One permission: Screen Recording, used only for the area you select
- Local history: Translation history stays on your Mac; choose how long to keep it or clear it anytime
- macOS 15.0 or later
- Universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs
- Screen Recording permission
- Platform: Mac App Store
- Pricing: One-time purchase, no subscription. Check the App Store for pricing in your region.
- App languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian
- Translate Japanese games on a Mac: actual recording, language setup, Live mode and practical limits.
- User guide and FAQ.
Website maintainers: homepages share css/home.css and css/acquisition.css; navigation and the native language selector use css/common.css. Keep the five localized homepage structures aligned. assets/tokens.css is generated from the app and must not be edited by hand. Update shared asset version queries when publishing CSS or script changes. The public URL inventory is sitemap.xml; publishing it does not confirm search-engine indexing.
Run website regression checks with node --test tests/*.test.cjs and git diff --check. Inspect desktop and mobile layouts in the browser. The game guide preserves registered incoming campaigns; otherwise its Store links use the fixed web_game_guide campaign label. This is aggregate App Store attribution, not app telemetry or a purchase event sent to Google.
- Apple Vision (text recognition)
- Apple Translation (on-device translation)
- ScreenCaptureKit (screen capture)
- SwiftUI and AppKit
- Bug Reports: Open an issue
- Questions and ideas: GitHub Discussions
- Website: puritysb.github.io/ViewLingo
- Official Website - Product information
- User Guide - Complete usage guide
- FAQ - Frequently asked questions
- Privacy Policy - Our commitment to your privacy
ViewLingo is proprietary software available exclusively through the Mac App Store.
Made with care by Serendipity Bound