[GUI Plugin] Ebook Translator

[DNSB]

Translation of previous message:

A good use case for such tools is translating English and Chinese books into Russian for regular reading, not just viewing the translation alongside the original. For this scenario, https://epub.ligasoftware.com/ is recommended, as it's not just the text translation that's important here, but the resulting Russian EPUB, preserving the book's structure. For users who need the final file for reading, this is a very convenient option.

Hmmm... new user, first post and suggests a commercial service to do AI translation into Russian. Nah, I'm just being suspicious.

[mpbotti]

First of all, Good dam plugin! Thanks from the bottom of my heart. I'm using it a while and I'm speechless. However, I have a little complaign (or an improvement opportunity, depending the point of view).
I'm from Argentina and love to read in Spanish, but not the Spanish from Spain. So I would like to have an option to translate to Latin American or neutral Spanish. Do you think this option could be added to the plugin? If it's already there, how can I enable and use it?
Thanks and regards from the country of Messi!

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by mpbotti

First of all, Good dam plugin! Thanks from the bottom of my heart. I'm using it a while and I'm speechless. However, I have a little complaign (or an improvement opportunity, depending the point of view).
I'm from Argentina and love to read in Spanish, but not the Spanish from Spain. So I would like to have an option to translate to Latin American or neutral Spanish. Do you think this option could be added to the plugin? If it's already there, how can I enable and use it?
Thanks and regards from the country of Messi!

What a spectacular comeback by Argentina against Egypt!

[mpbotti]

Many Thanks! What a way to suffer...

[Comfy.n]

Although I doubt that goal would have been disallowed if it had been in favor of the Hermanos. FIFA would never prefer Egypt to prevail over Argentina on final stages.

[mpbotti]

gosh, now instead of joyful I feel guilty ��

[Comfy.n]

Well, I hope the OP forgives us for derailing the thread subject.

But there is no reason to feel anything but joyful!

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by mpbotti

First of all, Good dam plugin! Thanks from the bottom of my heart. I'm using it a while and I'm speechless. However, I have a little complaign (or an improvement opportunity, depending the point of view).
I'm from Argentina and love to read in Spanish, but not the Spanish from Spain. So I would like to have an option to translate to Latin American or neutral Spanish. Do you think this option could be added to the plugin? If it's already there, how can I enable and use it?
Thanks and regards from the country of Messi!

In that case, there should be a dictionary to differentiate idioms or those referring to the second person plural. Also, verb endings in the present tense, imperfect past tense, imperative verbs, and a long list.

[albort11]

how does one use it if he can't get a api key?

[mpbotti]

Originally Posted by albort11

how does one use it if he can't get a api key?

Hi albort11, all AI's have an API, and some of them an option to use them frily. The trick is choosing wisely .

For example:

ChatGPT: OpenAI does not provide a standard, permanent free tier for its API like you might find with other platforms. It operates strictly on a pay-as-you-go model.
If you are looking to build a proof-of-concept without spending money, OpenAI's API is currently the most restrictive option on the market. Consider these highly generous alternatives instead:
* Google AI Studio (Gemini API)
* Groq API
* OpenRouter
But, if you want to stick with OpenAI, you can unlock normal usage tiers by adding a minimum pre-paid credit balance of $5 USD to your developer billing settings.

Claude: Anthropic does not offer a permanent free tier or a set number of free daily requests for the Claude API. The Claude API operates entirely on a commercial, pre-paid billing model based on token usage.
If you specifically want to build or test an application using Claude models without putting down a credit card, you must use a third-party developer proxy:
* Amazon Bedrock / Google Cloud Startup Programs
* OpenRouter
* Google AI Studio

Gemini: Google provides a highly generous, completely free tier for the Gemini API through their developer portal, Google AI Studio. Unlike OpenAI and Anthropic, no credit card is required to get a functional API key and start testing. The exact number of free requests per day depends entirely on which model generation you target within your code, and this number goes from 50 RPD in Gemini 2.5 pro to 1K RPD in Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite.

Unfortunately, even the free tier with 1K RPD is not enought to translate an entire book, so sunner or later you have to attach a billing method.
The good thing with Gemini is that you can choose how much money do you want to give them in advance, and once the money is gone they do not recharge you is this is your will.

If you want to know, I've been playing a bit with the free API until I decided is time to go forward, then I upgraded from the free tier to a Pay-As-You-Go Plan, payed only $10 USD and went from 500 RPD to 10K RPD.
Now that I have this issue solved, I'm in the process of fine-tuning the plugin prompt in order to get the best result for the money invested.

[Heinz Bundschuh]

Settings on the “General” and “Content” tabs (Preferred Mode / Translation Position) may be lost without warning
Version tested: v2.4.2
First of all, I use the Ebook Translator for Calibre quite often; the plugin provides me with EPUBs translated into my preferred language, the software offers a wide range of customisation options, and books are processed very quickly.
However, I have also discovered a bug: whilst changes are saved in the settings dialogue, once ‘advanced’ mode is launched, the settings I’ve configured are no longer active. Books are still translated, but the translation engine and translation position – along with the changed colours – are not applied.
In batch mode, the settings are applied, but the colour settings under ‘translation text colour’ are applied incorrectly.

Bug

In setting.py, the "Preferred Mode" radio buttons (General tab) and the "Translation Position" radio buttons (Content tab) write directly into self.config on idClicked:

python
mode_btn_group.idClicked.connect(
lambda btn_id: self.config.update(preferred_mode=mode_map.get(btn _id)))
...
self.config.update(translation_position=position_m ap.get(btn_id))

Every other setting on these tabs is only collected in update_general_config() / update_content_config(), which run exclusively when that tab's own "Save" button is pressed, followed by self.config.commit().

Because these two radio groups bypass that flow, and because both have an immediate live preview (mode icon behavior isn't previewed, but position/color have a visible preview position_samples / color swatch), it's easy to assume the choice is already active. If the dialog is closed without pressing that tab's "Save" button, the change is discarded — self.config.update() only touches the in-memory Configuration object for that dialog instance; nothing is written to disk until .commit() runs.

Reported symptom: After changing "Original text position"/colors on the Content tab, Advanced Mode output kept using the old position/colors, even after clearing the cache. Root cause was the missing commit, not the translation logic.

Fix

Store the selection in an instance attribute instead of writing straight to self.config, and persist it inside update_general_config() / update_content_config() together with the rest of that tab, so it's only committed when "Save" is actually clicked (consistent with every other setting):

python
# General tab
self.preferred_mode = preferred_mode
mode_btn_group.idClicked.connect(
lambda btn_id: setattr(self, 'preferred_mode', mode_map.get(btn_id)))
...
def update_general_config(self):
self.config.update(preferred_mode=self.preferred_m ode)
...

# Content tab
self.translation_position = map_key
...
def choose_option(btn_id):
...
self.translation_position = position_map.get(btn_id)
...
def update_content_config(self):
self.config.update(translation_position=self.trans lation_position)
...

[thaylorcalibre]

hi, bro. i dont know if you still active here, but im having a really hard time with calibre and the translation plugin. its a freaking amazing plugin, im rlly thankful for u.
anyway, the plugin doesnt show up in calibre. i tried using the preferences > toolbar and menu > user interface action to try and activate the plugin, but it didnt work because the plugin wont show up there. i tried reinstalling it many times, both calibre and the plugin. i also tried downgrading them to see if that was the problem, but it didnt helped too.
can you help me, pls?

im currently using the most recent version of both calibre and the plugin

[PeterT]

The first thing to try is to start calibre in debug mode (option on the preferences menu) and then shut calibre down and post the resulting log.

Sent from my SM-X238U using Tapatalk

[Comfy.n]

FWIW, this plugin used to be labeled Ebook Translator on toolbars. Now it is labeled as Translate Book.

[thaylorcalibre]

Originally Posted by PeterT

The first thing to try is to start calibre in debug mode (option on the preferences menu) and then shut calibre down and post the resulting log.

Sent from my SM-X238U using Tapatalk

Spoiler:

File "calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 169, in __init__
File "calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 188, in init_iaction
File "calibre\customize\__init__.py", line 712, in load_actual_plugin
File "importlib\__init__.py", line 88, in import_module
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1406, in _gcd_import
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1371, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1342, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 938, in _load_unlocked
File "calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 224, in exec_module
File "calibre_plugins.ebook_translator.ui", line 13, in <module>
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1371, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1342, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 938, in _load_unlocked
File "calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 224, in exec_module
File "calibre_plugins.ebook_translator.lib.conversi on", line 22, in <module>
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1371, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1342, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 938, in _load_unlocked
File "calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 224, in exec_module
File "calibre_plugins.ebook_translator.lib.cache", line 110, in <module>
File "calibre_plugins.ebook_translator.lib.cache", line 112, in TranslationCache
File "calibre_plugins.ebook_translator.lib.cache", line 101, in custom_cache_path
File "calibre_plugins.ebook_translator.lib.config", line 104, in get_config
File "calibre\utils\config.py", line 338, in __init__
File "calibre\utils\config.py", line 369, in refresh
File "calibre\utils\config_base.py", line 421, in read_data
File "calibre\utils\config_base.py", line 403, in retry_on_fail
File "calibre\utils\config_base.py", line 418, in r

im not sure if this is what you meant, but here it is