There are a number of AI tools that can help you translate and replace the text on an image with text in a different language.
To get a perfect result with your image translation, you may need a text recognition tool (OCR), a translation tool and image editing tool.
What you require will depend on how good you want the translated image to be.
Think about if you want:
- High quality translation or just to understand what’s going on.
- Are you translating into your own language or into a language that you don’t understand?
- Do you want the output text to be neat? Or does it not matter if the output looks messy?
Here are a few options…
redaka
Redaka was made to solve the problem of translating text in images and infographics and making the new language version match the original image.
We join together 3rd party tools such as Google Translate, Google OCR and our own AI models for recognizing text size, text color & fonts to make sure the translated image matches the original version. A simple canvas allows you to edit the translated text to make sure it looks exactly how you want it to.
The Good
- Very easy to use.
- Integrates with 2 translation options – Human translation and Google translate.
- Automatically removes & replaces the text.
- Automatically matches the size, color & font.
- You can edit and format the translated text.
- 5 FREE Credits
- Reasonably priced.
The Bad
- Nothing? 😅
Google Translate
Google Translate is a free online service that can translate text in over 200 languages.
It has a feature that can translate text in images. To use this feature, simply upload your image to Google Translate and select the languages you want to translate between.
Google Translate with show you the image with the translated text overlayed on the original. Unfortunately you can’t edit the translated text here but it is a quick and easy way to translate an image with AI.
The Good
- Quick & Easy to use.
- You can paste the translated text into your clipboard.
- Free.
The Bad
- You can’t edit the text in the image.
- The translation might not be reliable.
Yandex Translate
Yandex Translate uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to detect and extract text from images.
Once the text is extracted, their machine translation algorithm analyzes the text and translates it into the desired language. The translated text is then displayed on the image, broadly maintaining the original layout for easy understanding.
The Good
- Quick & Easy to use.
- You can paste the translated text into your clipboard.
- Free.
The Bad
- You can’t edit the text in the image.
- The translation might not be reliable.
- Yandex is Russian owned.
Google Cloud OCR
Google Cloud offers a number of tools to help you extract text from an image and then translate it. Using Google Cloud’s Image OCR and Translation AI in combination will achieve most of what you need. You’ll need to register for each service and have knowledge of API’s in order to connect the different components together to make your automatic image translation solution. Our redaka app makes use of Google Cloud’s tools to translate text in images.
The Good
- You can use these tools to make your own programs
- You can manipulate the text in many different ways.
The Bad
- Not simple to use.
Amazon Rekognition
Amazon Rekognition is a cloud-based service that can detect and analyze objects, scenes, and faces in images. It can also translate text in images. To use Amazon Rekognition, you will need to create an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. Once you have created an account, you can upload your image to Amazon Rekognition and select the languages you want to translate between. Amazon Rekognition will then translate the text in the image and return the translation to you. It has api endpoints to connect everything so you will need to understand api’s to join everything together.
The Good
- An advanced system
- Free to get started.
- Ideal for big projects
The Bad
- Need to understand APIs
- Translation model not perfect
Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services
Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services is a suite of cloud-based AI services that can be used for a variety of tasks, including image recognition, text analysis, and speech recognition. It also includes a service called Computer Vision, which can translate text in images. To use Azure Cognitive Services, you will need to create a Microsoft Azure account. Once you have created an account, you can upload your image to Azure Cognitive Services and select the languages you want to translate between. Azure Cognitive Services will then translate the text in the image and return the translation to you. Again you will need to be able to work with apis to make use of this platform.
The Good
- An advanced system
- Free to get started.
- Ideal for big projects
The Bad
- Need to understand APIs
- Translation model not perfect
OPENL.io
OpenL.io uses advanced OCR and AI to translate text in images. It supports many languages and can help with tasks like digitizing documents and automating data entry. For the AI image translation, just upload your image, and the system will detect, extract, and translate the text, giving you the translated output. You can download the translated text as a document or copy it to your clipboard.
The Good
- Quick
- Easy to use
- Good AI Translation
The Bad
- You can’t edit your image so you’ll need separate image editing software.
- No option to verify that the translation is 100% accurate.
- You can’t pick and choose which areas of text you want to translate.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a popular image editing software that can also be used to translate text in images. If you have the text in your Photoshop layers you can use Photoshop to translate text in an image. Simply open the image in Photoshop and select the Text tool. Then, click on the text you want to translate and duplicate the layer. Paste in the new translated version of your text from google Translate. Finally format the translated text to match the original version of your image.
The Good
- Gives you great design results if you take your time.
The Bad
- Interface is complicated
- Text removal is slow each time.
- No inbuilt translator so you need a 3rd party translation tool.
- Lots of copying & pasting takes time.
- You need a 12 month subscription.
What tool is best for translating an image with AI?
Best All rounder
Redaka is the best allrounder since it’s quick and easy to use. You can edit your final text and the translations are embedded in the app. It was designed for this job.
Best Free Option
Google Image Translate. It’s quick and the translation is OK. The output text can be messy so it’s not an option for professionals.
Best Accurate Option
Photoshop + Deepl is the best way for translating an infographic image when it comes to accuracy and neatness. But it’s also the most time consuming and you need a subscription to photoshop.