Interface translation

Go back to the main Translation information page.

Main translation file

Download the PO file for your language (or the .pot template). See here to get information about how to deal with PO files.

When you are done with your translation and enjoyed testing it, submit your work.

Test

1. Make sure you have the release of Inkscape you are translating installed. If you're translating the coming release, pick a pre-release and compile it.
2. Compile your PO file to .mo. Some translation tools (e.g. Poedit) have an option for that.
3. Find the .mo of your installation of Inkscape for your locale. It should be in a folder named ‘locale’.
4. Backup this .mo and put your compiled .mo instead. Then start Inkscape and you'll see your strings!

Windows installer

1. Get the file according to your language here. If there is not such a file, copy the ‘English.nsh’ file and rename it to ‘YourLanguage.nsh’.
2. Translate the strings in the file.
3. Change header information in ‘YourLanguage.nsh’ (language name, local ID, windows code page and authors list) to proper values.
4. Optionally, test your translation as described below.
5. Submit your work (specify whether you tested it or not).

Test

1. Compile Inkscape.
2. Run the make -f Makefile.mingw dist command. It prepares the binary of Inkscape for the installer.
3. Add the filename of your file to the ‘inkscape.nsi’ file (in the parent folder) in the ; Localization section (with other languages).
4. Install NSIS.
5. Right-click on the ‘inkscape.nsi’ file and choose ‘Compile NSIS Script’. The installer compilation will start.
6. When the installer is ready, run it to test your translations for the installer and the uninstaller.

Default template

To translate the default template:

• Modify the ‘default.svg’ file and save it as ‘default.xx.svg’ where ‘xx’ is the ISO code of your language. You will find the current template here.
• Modify your PO translation to use your localized default template. Look up for a ‘default.svg’ string and translate it accordingly to the file name of the localized template.
• To test your template, save it as well as the compiled PO file (.mo) to the proper location for your system and restart Inkscape. New documents should now be based on your localized template (this is valid if your system is properly set to your locale).
• Submit your work.

To translate the default template, you can use Inkscape as well as any UTF-8 encoding capable text editor.