Images and PDFs
Read axes, legends, scanned tables, and passages a document viewer will not let you select.
Screen translator for Windows
Screen translator for Windows.
Select an area with Ctrl + Shift + T and read each passage translated in its original position, in a similar color and style. It works on images, PDFs, games, paused videos and apps that block copying.
Illustrative animation: the app selects part of the screen — a map, an article, a post, an error log or a game — and shows the translation in the same place as the original.
Ctrl + Shift + Tanchored translation · live
Screen translator for Windows
How do you translate text directly on your PC screen?
Open the content, press Ctrl + Shift + T and drag over the area you need to understand. Sincron detects the source language on its own and places the translation over each passage, in the same position as the original.
This handles text you cannot select: a figure in a PDF, a remote desktop, a game, an image, or software that blocks copy and paste. You keep looking at the source while you read the result.
Translation uses your own OpenAI or OpenRouter key. The selection goes from your PC straight to that provider, never through Sincron, and the provider bills the usage to your account.
Step by step
From a foreign-language screen to reading in context
Translation works over what is already open. There is no file to export and no layout to rebuild in a separate translator.
Open the original screen
Use a browser, PDF, internal app, remote desktop, image, game, or paused video.
Select only the relevant region
Press Ctrl + Shift + T and include nearby labels or legends whenever they change the meaning.
Read the translation in place
Translated passages appear over the originals in a similar color and style. You can switch to the pill view and check the original.
Copy or share
Copy the full translation as text, or copy and save the translated image as a PNG to send to someone else.
Where it helps
Built for visible text that you cannot select
Errors and software
Read an error message, documentation or app in Japanese, Chinese or Korean without losing the commands, paths and fields around it.
Games, manga, and video
Translate menus, dialogue and speech bubbles when they appear. For subtitles that change on their own in real time, Translumo is a better fit.
Real limitations
What improves the result and what can limit it
The tool reads pixels. Capture quality and visible context matter as much as the language itself.
It needs your own AI key
Translation requires an OpenAI or OpenRouter key. Sincron has no built-in AI and no local model: without a key, capturing and annotating work, translation does not.
It does not follow live subtitles
Each translation starts from a selection you make. Subtitles that change on their own in a video or game need another tool, such as Translumo.
Small, cropped, or blurred text
Zoom in and use a tighter selection. Low contrast, compression, and motion can erase characters.
Names, numbers, and critical terms
Verify values, units, proper names, and legal, medical, or contractual language before acting on it.
Only visible content is read
Content below the fold or on another page needs another selection. The app does not silently read the whole document.
Protected screens may block capture
Applications using Windows content protection can return a black or empty area, and Sincron does not bypass that protection.
Common questions before translating a screen
Does it work when the text cannot be selected?
Yes. It reads the image of the selected region, so it can handle text in screenshots, figures, scanned PDFs, and interfaces without copy and paste.
What is my own key, and where do I get one?
It is an API key you create in your OpenAI or OpenRouter account and paste into Sincron the first time you translate. With it, the selection goes from your PC straight to the provider, never through Sincron.
How much does a translation cost with my key?
Sincron does not charge per translation. The key's provider bills the usage directly to your account, and the amount depends on the model you choose and the size of the selection. Prices are on the OpenAI or OpenRouter website. The Sincron free plan includes 5 translations a day; paid plans have no limit.
Does the translation replace the original content?
No. It is a temporary layer over the detected passages. Closing the selection returns the screen to its original state.
Which languages are supported?
The configured model detects the source language. Coverage and quality depend on that model, especially for vertical writing, decorative fonts, and very short text.
Can I translate without sending the screenshot to the cloud?
No. Translation uses your own OpenAI or OpenRouter key, so the selected region goes to that provider, only after your explicit action and never through Sincron. Capturing and annotating work without sending anything.
See also
How to translate a screenshot
On phone and PC: the free options, and how to translate the screen without saving an image.
Google Lens for Windows
The ways to use Lens on a PC, and when to translate the screen in place.
How to translate a PC game
Patches, text hooking or screen translation: which method fits which game.
Translate text in an image on PC
Copy and translate, upload the image or translate in place: the 3 ways on Windows.
Related reading
Best screen translators for games and manga
Six tools measured against the same problem: text locked inside the game, impossible to select or copy.
Best tools to translate technical documentation
The risk here is not failing to understand. It is the tool translating what it should not — variable names, error codes, commands.
Sincron Screen Tools vs Google Lens
Both read text inside images. The difference is what each one can reach, and what is left after the translation.
Sincron vs PowerToys Text Extractor
PowerToys is free, it ships from Microsoft and it runs on your machine. If it solves your case, that ends the conversation.
Translate Japanese straight off the screen
Games, manga, manuals, legacy spreadsheets. Japanese breaks automatic recognition more than any other language — and you can tell in advance when it will work.
How to translate a Steam game without official translation
The game is great and it has no translation for your language. You can still play it — as long as you know which of the two cases is yours.
See screen translation applied to a real task
These guides show how selection, context, and review change across different kinds of content.
Scientific papers and figures
Charts, tables and captions the PDF will not let you copy.
Technical docs and errors
Docs in Japanese, ERP consoles, stack traces, internal dashboards.
Games, manga and subtitles
Menus, dialogue and speech bubbles that never got a version in your language.
The text stays on screen. Now you can read it.
Install Sincron on Windows, add your key, and try your first selection with Ctrl + Shift + T.