Screenshot translation
How to translate a screenshot or part of your screen on PC
Windows already has a few ways to pull text out of a screenshot and translate it. They work well for a picture in your browser. In a game, where the text moves on and the screen is full of other things, they get slow. This page covers the usual ways first, then how Playto shortens it to one key and a click on the words you want.
The usual ways on Windows
All four are free. Three of them copy the text out and leave the translating to a separate site; one translates the image directly.
Google Lens in Chrome
Right-click an image and choose Search image with Google Lens, or pick Search with Google Lens from the menu and drag over part of the page. The Translate tab lays the translation over the picture.
Good for: The quickest option when the image is already in your browser.
Snipping Tool, then a translator
Press Win+Shift+S, drag a box, open the snip in Snipping Tool and use Text actions to copy the text. Paste it into Google Translate or DeepL.
Good for: Built into Windows 11, works on anything on screen.
PowerToys Text Extractor
Install Microsoft PowerToys, press Win+Shift+T, drag over the text and it is copied to the clipboard. Paste it into a translator.
Good for: Fewer steps than Snipping Tool if you do this often.
Upload the screenshot to Google Translate
Save the screenshot, open the Images tab on translate.google.com and upload it. Or point the Google Translate app on your phone at the monitor.
Good for: No install, and the phone camera works on any screen.
For a single image on a web page, Google Lens is hard to beat. Keep reading if the text is in a game.
Where they get awkward in games
The text is gone before you can grab it
Cutscene lines, battle callouts and chat messages move on while you are still opening the snipping tool. By the time you drag a box, the screen shows something else.
The layout is busy and you only want one part
An item screen, a map or a panel with text scattered over artwork comes back as one long block from OCR. Stats, labels and the one sentence you wanted end up mixed together, and you tidy it up before translating.
You only want a few words from a picture
Whole-image translation redraws everything. When you are stuck on one word or one line, the rest is noise, and copying it out by hand is slow.
It happens every few minutes
Alt-Tab out of the game, snip, paste, read, go back. Four steps are fine once. In a long game they add up, and fullscreen games do not always like being switched away from.
With Playto: one key, then pick the words
Playto is a Windows app that runs next to your game. Its Spot translate feature does the whole round trip in one place:
- Press F1. Playto keeps one frame of the window in front. The game keeps running, and the frame stays even after the text on screen has changed.
- Drag around the area you want to read. Playto remembers it per game, so next time you skip this step.
- Click a word, or drag across a few. The words Playto read are boxed on the image. Only what you pick is translated, so a busy screen stays manageable.
- Read it, and keep it if you like. Save the word to a word book with a review schedule, or the whole line as a sentence.
There is no copying and pasting, and nothing to switch to. It also works on an image you have open on screen, and on frames saved in Playto's log and album. The full walkthrough is in the Spot translate docs.
If you want every line translated as it appears, rather than picking now and then, Playto also reads a fixed area or follows your cursor. See the in-game translation overlay.
Before you start
Spot translate is in Playto Lite, free on Steam. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Translation runs on your own PC, which keeps the text from being sent anywhere and needs roughly 2 to 4 GB of spare GPU memory. If your PC is short on that, Playto Cloud translates on our servers instead, with a free trial and no API key.
It reads pixels, so printed fonts are the reliable case. Tiny or heavily decorated lettering is harder, the same as with any OCR tool, including the ones above.
Common questions
How do I translate a screenshot on PC?
Chrome's Google Lens, Windows Snipping Tool's Text actions and PowerToys Text Extractor all pull text out of a screenshot, which you then paste into a translator. For games, Playto does it in one step: press F1, pick the words on the frozen frame, and read the translation.
Can I translate only part of an image?
Yes. In Playto you drag around the area and then click a word or drag across the part you want; only that goes to translation. The words Playto read are boxed on the image, so you can see what is available to pick.
Does it work on images, not just games?
Spot translate takes a frame of the window in front, so an image open in a viewer or browser works too. Frames saved in Playto's log and album can also be opened and picked from later.
Is it free?
Spot translate is included in Playto Lite, the free version on Steam. The full version is a one-time purchase, $9.99 USD on Steam (regional pricing), with no subscription.
Which languages does it translate?
23 languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian and the major European languages, from any one into another. Japanese and Chinese are picked by line or by the characters you trace; languages with spaces are picked word by word.
What do I need to run it?
A 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC. Translation runs on your own machine and typically needs 2 to 4 GB of spare GPU memory. Without that, Playto Cloud translates on our servers instead, with a free trial and no API key.
Try it on the game you are playing
Playto Lite is free on Steam and includes Spot translate. Press F1 the next time a line goes by too fast.