Translations¶

Please don't use the method described here to add/edit translations anymore use this instead!

PhotoPrism uses gettext for frontend and backend localization. It is one of the most widely used standards for user interface translation:

Human-readable messages such as File not found are used as identifiers to search for appropriate translations. They also serve as default values when no translation is available.
Messages can optionally contain placeholders for numbers and other variables, for example Found %{n} files.

We recommend Poedit for creating and updating translations. The download is free for Mac, Windows and Linux. The source code can be obtained on GitHub.

If translations are missing, we pre-translate messages using services such as DeepL and Google Translate. This can lead to grammatical errors and misunderstandings. Native speakers should check existing translations and improve them if necessary. You can use the version compare feature on GitHub to detect changes in translation files.

Frontend¶

Localizations can be found in /frontend/src/locales. The POT file, only containing message ids, is translations.pot.

*.po files contain localized messages for each language identified by their locale, for example de.po for German and pt_BR.po for Brazilian Portuguese. You can open, edit and save them with Poedit to update existing translations.

Add new translation¶

In /frontend run npm run gettext-extract
Install a translation tool e.g. Poedit
Open the /frontend/src/locales/translations.pot file with Poedit
In Poedit click on "Create New Translation" at the bottom and select the language
Now you can start translating
When done, save your translation as *.po file using the language locale (e.g. de.po) as name
Add the new language to the Languages function in /frontend/src/options/options.js
Run npm run gettext-compile to compile existing translations into a single translations.json file
To test your translations you need to build the frontend again using npm run build or npm run watch

Update existing translation¶

In /frontend run npm run gettext-extract
Install a translation tool e.g. Poedit
Open the *.po file of your language e.g. /frontend/src/locales/fr.po file with Poedit
In the Poedit menu click "Catalogue" --> "Update from POT File" --> select the translations.pot file from /frontend/src/locales
Now you can start proofreading and adding the missing translations
Once your done save the changes in the *.po file
Run npm run gettext-compile to compile existing translations into a single translations.json file
To test your translations you need to build the frontend again using npm run build or npm run watch

A binary *.mo (machine object) file will be automatically saved along with every *.po file. You won't be able to open those in a text editor, but please include them in git commits or when sending translations via email. The compiled translations.json file is not required for pull requests and often causes merge conflicts.

Backend¶

Only asynchronous notifications and certain API responses need translation to provide a consistent user experience. Technical log messages should be in English to avoid ambiguities and (even slightly) wrong translations.

Localizations are kept in /assets/locales. The POT file, only containing message ids, is messages.pot.

default.po files in sub directories contain localized messages for each language identified by their locale, for example de/default.po for German and pt_BR/default.po for Brazilian Portuguese. You can open, edit and save them with Poedit. Please also add and commit binary *.mo files, which will be automatically created by Poedit.

Add new translation¶

Run make generate to update /assets/locales/messages.pot
Open the /assets/locales/messages.pot file with Poedit
In Poedit click on "Create New Translation" at the bottom and select the language
Now you can start translating
When done, create a new directory (using the locale as name) and save your translation there as default.po

Update existing translation¶

Run make generate to update /assets/locales/messages.pot
Open the /assets/locales/fr/default.po file with Poedit
In the Poedit menu click "Catalogue" --> "Update from POT File" --> select the messages.pot file from /assets/locales/
Now you can start proofreading and adding the missing translations
Once you're done, save the changes in the default.po file

This will only work when you have gettext installed on your system. We recommend using our latest development image as described in the setup instructions.