How it works
Choose your language from the ☰ menu. Texts that have no translation in it yet are translated as you read them, for free and with nothing to set up. A translated text says so, and can be switched back to the English original with one tap.
Everything that is translated is kept on your device, so each text is translated only once, and it stays there when you are offline. There is nothing to translate while the app is in English.
Open the page
Open the ☰ menu and choose Automatic translation. There you can switch the translation on or off for the texts that are still in English, and choose how it behaves.
Choose how it behaves
- Translate descriptions, not names. Machine translation does well with sentences and badly with a name on its own: without context a name often comes out wrong. With this on, names stay in English and everything else is translated. It also uses fewer characters of your allowance.
- Improve translations over time: when you have a DeepL key, texts that were translated for free can be translated again with it.
Why a DeepL key
With your own DeepL key the translations are better. DeepL offers a free plan for its API, with a monthly allowance of characters that DeepL may change, and paid plans. A game’s texts use little of the free allowance, and what is translated is kept on your device, so nothing is paid for twice.
Get a DeepL key
- Make a free account for the DeepL API at deepl.com/pro-api. It is not the account of the ordinary DeepL translator app, and DeepL may ask for a payment card to check who you are.
- Open your account and go to the API Keys tab. There is a key; on the free plan it ends in :fx.
- Copy it.
Never share the key with anyone: whoever has it uses your allowance.
Put it in Heroquill
- On the Automatic translation page, open Advanced: your own DeepL key and relay.
- Paste the key in the DeepL key box.
- Press Check the connection. If all is well, the page says how many characters you have used this month out of your allowance.
The key stays on your device. It travels to DeepL, through the relay, only with each translation request.
What the relay is
DeepL does not accept requests straight from a web page, so they go through a small relay. The default one is run by the author of Heroquill; it keeps neither your key nor your texts, and its code is public in the repository. If you prefer, you can run your own relay and type its address in the Relay address box: the repository explains how, in docs/TRANSLATION_PROXY.md.
If something goes wrong
- The check says the key is not valid: copy it again, with no spaces, and make sure it is an API key and not an account password.
- The check says the allowance is over: wait for the next month, or use a paid plan. Until then the free translation takes over.
- Nothing is translated: make sure the app is not in English and that Translate the texts that are still in English is on.