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Spot Translate

Spot Translate

Spot Translate is for the moments when you only want one part of the screen: a line that vanished too fast, one message in a busy chat, one sentence in a long item description. Press one key, Playto keeps a single frame of the game, and you pick exactly what to translate. The game keeps running the whole time.

When to use it

  • The text is gone before you can read it — cutscene lines, battle callouts, notifications that fade out. The frame stays in Playto after the game has moved on.
  • Chat or a log keeps scrolling — pick the one message you care about instead of translating the whole stream.
  • You only need part of a long text — item, skill and quest descriptions where one phrase is the question.
  • You don't want anything running in the background — nothing is translated until you press the key.

How this compares with Google Lens, Snipping Tool and other screenshot tools: how to translate a screenshot on PC.

If you want every line translated as it appears, use a session with a fixed region or cursor follow instead. The two work side by side.

Opening it

  • Shortcut key — F1 by default, while a game is running. You can change it in Settings.
  • Home — the Spot translate button next to Start.
  • Resident bar — the Spot translate button on the small bar over the game (Resident Mode).

Spot Translate is in every edition, including Playto Lite. If the translation engine is not running yet, it starts it for you.

Picking what to read

  1. Drag around the area you want to read, the first time only. The area is remembered per game, so next time you go straight to picking.
  2. Pick the text. Each word Playto read has a box. Only what you pick is sent to translation.
  3. Read the translation, then save it or close with Esc.

How picking works depends on the language:

  • English and other languages with spaces — click one word, or drag across several.
  • Japanese and Chinese — click to take the whole line, or drag to take just the part you trace.

Click outside the text to clear the selection. Where there is no box, nothing was read. Try a slightly larger area or recapture.

What you can do with it

  • Save sentence — keeps the line in Sentences for review.
  • Word — saves a word to your word book with its review schedule.
  • Retranslate and Copy — for when you want another reading or the text itself.

At the bottom: Change area to redraw the area for this game, and Recapture to take a fresh frame.

Good to know

  • Text and Text+ modes only. Image mode reads the picture as a whole and gives no word boxes to pick from. See Translation.
  • Keep the area to the text. Leaving out name plates, icons and UI chrome gives cleaner reads, same as with a fixed region.