InkPeek - a pop-up dictionary & translator (offline, open source, optional AI)

[kafeg]

Hi all,

I read books in German and wanted something that pops up over the page when I tap a word or select a sentence: the word with its grammar, a translation, and — when I'm online — an explanation of why the sentence is built that way. The dictionaries I tried felt dated and fiddly on e-ink, and the AI plugins for KOReader were too much for what I needed. So I made one for myself: InkPeek. It works well enough for me that I'm sharing it.

What it does

• Tap a word: a card over the page with the word's header — article, plural, verb forms (e.g. "das Haus (Hauses, pl. Häuser)", "gehen (geht, ging, ist gegangen) strong") — and its meanings. Any inflected form leads to its word: Häusern → das Haus, went → go.
• Select a sentence: offline translation on the device (Mozilla's Firefox Translations models), or a word-by-word gloss.
• Optional AI (your own key: Claude, OpenAI, OpenRouter with free models, or a local server like LM Studio / Ollama): grammar breakdown, words, explanation in context, examples. Only when you open an AI tab; everything else works without internet.
• History and saved words, black-and-white UI made for e-ink, app in 8 languages.

Language packs
Dictionaries are built from Wiktionary (with WikDict as a fallback) and tested before publishing; offline translation models are from Mozilla. 20 pairs right now — books in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch or Russian with English answers; English, German, Spanish, French, Polish with Russian answers; English → French/Spanish/Italian/Portuguese/Polish/German. A pack is 30–60 MB, you download only the pairs you read. The README lists every pair with how many of the language's 5,000 most frequent words its dictionary knows (88–99%).

Readers tested on a Boox Go 6 (Android 11)

• FBReader: Settings → Dictionary & translator → "ColorDict 3" for both words and phrases.
• AlReaderX: Settings → General settings → Dictionary for single words → "GoldenDict/ColorDict 3".
• KOReader: one small file, /sdcard/koreader/dictionaries.lua (in the README), then Dictionary settings → Use external dictionary → InkPeek.
• Cool Reader: on Boox it only offers Onyx's own dictionaries; Share → InkPeek works, but Cool Reader adds the author and title to the text.
• Any app: text selection → "Look up in InkPeek", or Share → InkPeek.

Speed: on the Go 6 (Snapdragon 662, 2 GB) an offline sentence takes about 0.1–0.9 s.

Download: APK on GitHub releases — https://github.com/kafeg/inkpeek/releases
Code and details: https://github.com/kafeg/inkpeek (MIT; dictionaries CC BY-SA, models MPL-2.0)

Built together with Claude (Anthropic's AI), which I mention because some people care. Feedback very welcome — especially from other Boox models and other readers, and which language pairs you'd want next.

[Gormagon]

As I understand it you can't select dictionaries files you already have on your device (e.g. for using in KOReader or other dictionaries apps).
Can the size of the pop up be customized by the user?
Is there a dark mode with white on black background?

I'm not interested in AI but I'm also not totally satisfied with GoldenDict or ColorDict on the Librera app (but haven't found better apps so far) and I would like a dictionary with a smaller pop up, more like in the native KOReader dictionary. Judging from the screen shots your app would look promising for me if my three points mentioned would be possible.

[kafeg]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

As I understand it you can't select dictionaries files you already have on your device (e.g. for using in KOReader or other dictionaries apps).
Can the size of the pop up be customized by the user?
Is there a dark mode with white on black background?

I'm not interested in AI but I'm also not totally satisfied with GoldenDict or ColorDict on the Librera app (but haven't found better apps so far) and I would like a dictionary with a smaller pop up, more like in the native KOReader dictionary. Judging from the screen shots your app would look promising for me if my three points mentioned would be possible.

Thank you for your comments and questions!
InkPeek 0.4 is out, and it covers everything you asked for. You can use your own StarDict dictionaries: point it to KOReader’s folder, import files, or download them from WikDict, Wiktionary and FreeDict. The pop-up can be small (height by content, at the top or bottom, or where the reader asks), and there’s a dark mode with white on black. AI is fully optional: choose “Off” and everything works offline.
https://github.com/kafeg/inkpeek/releases/latest

[PerspexSphinx]

Originally Posted by kafeg

AI is fully optional: choose “Off” and everything works offline.

Excellent love that AI can be turned "Off", using it with FBReader and it works nicely with AI "Off".

Also found it can be used in a text editor by simply highlighting a word then choosing share… and pick "Inkpeek" as the app (really handy)…

…although I tried copying some translated words, but can't seem to copy the output to paste in another app, or have I missed something?

Since there's already a few updates perhaps a — Check for updates… — built into Inkpeek I think would be good idea.

Thanks

[Gormagon]

Thank you for the swift update!

The use of the KOReader dict folder works without problems. But I noticed that I can't put the dictionaries into the order I prefer.
When I look up a word, InkPeek shows me a list of my dictionaries where this word is found. But to see the full entry in a certain dictionary I have to click on it. An option to show a short entries like now or the full entries by default would be great.

I see no settings/options where I can change the size of the pop-up, nor for a dark mode. I tried versions v0.4.97 and v0.4.96. Where can I find these options?

I installed and used InkPeek offline only. But that shouldn't be relevant for the missing pop-up/dark mode options.

[kafeg]

Thanks for your ideas! Both are in 0.5:

- Copy: hold a line in the pop-up (a dictionary line, word by word, Notes or the history) and its text gets selected; drag the handles to narrow it.
- Part of a text: in a translation, an article or an AI answer, double tap selects a word, triple tap the whole paragraph.
- The menu that opens over the selection: copy, share, search the web.
- Updates: the version is on the right of the settings’ status line. Once a day, when you open settings, InkPeek checks GitHub (you can turn it off in About).
- When a newer version is out, a tap downloads it inside the app and Android’s installer finishes the job, so you don’t need to look for updates by hand.

Glad the KOReader folder works! Answers:

- Size and dark mode have been there since 0.4, just easy to miss: Settings → Card → the second tab (Window in 0.4, renamed Appearance in 0.5).
- - Height → “By content”: a small pop-up like KOReader’s.
- - Position → top, bottom, or “Where the reader asks” (keeps the word visible in FBReader and Librera).
- - Theme → Dark.
- Dictionary order (new in 0.5): Settings → Card → Main → “Dictionary order” puts the packs and your own dictionaries in one list you can sort.
- Full entries by default (new in 0.5): Settings → Card → Main → “The dictionary in the card” → “Full articles”. The first dictionary’s whole entry opens straight away; ◀ ▶ or a swipe turns to the next one.

Hope now it covers all needs =)

[Gormagon]

Wow, that was fast! Thank you very much.
I somehow missed the options under "Card". It's all there. And the app now does what I want. Great!

With version 0.5.104 I will update all my Android device to replace GoldenDict (which wasn't running on every Android device anyway) and ColorDict (which I then used as an alternatzive) as default dictionary app for Librera. Since the Librera app doesn't have the "Gedenkminuten" after opening and loading a library with 3000++ files like KOReader I guess I will switch to Librera completely.

[kafeg]

Thank you. Nice to hear it is helpful. That is exact reason why I tried to do that - current Dictionaries are not so satisfying all requirements of UI/UX and functionality. Thanks to LLMs it is easy to do and enchance now small apps like this.

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by kafeg

Thanks to LLMs it is easy to do and enchance now small apps like this.

That's really a reasonable use for LLMs/AI. Personally I have no real need to use LLMs for myself. Ok, I could create apps that do what I want them to do, but I'm mostly satisfied with the apps I have found so far. Sometimes a better app comes along (like InkPeek) to replace one or the other app.

I've also tried the online updating function, after allowing InkPeek to install apps it worked without problems.

One thing that would make the app more perfect: if there's an option to choose my favourite font for displaying the dictionary entries.
And a selectable dark mode for the app itself, not just for the pop-up with the dictionary entries like now, would also be appreciated.

[kafeg]

Thanks for testing the update! Both wishes are in 0.5.119: Card -> Appearance -> Font picks Android’s fonts or your own .ttf/.otf, and Card -> Main -> Theme now makes the whole app dark.

I’d forgotten I wanted the font myself, so I’ve just put Bookerly on mine reader - so now looks same to my books font in FBReader.

[Gormagon]

Ah, InkPeek gets better with every update! Thank you very much for fulfilling my wishes. Dark mode in the app and font selections works.

I've selected Proba Pro Semi Bold as font for InkPeek. I use the Proba Pro font family as default font for my reader apps.

[Gormagon]

Today I tried InkPeek on my Viwoods AIPaper Reader, an e-ink device. With this device I usually don't use a dark mode. That's why I noticed in the Librera app when the InkPeek pop-up appears the background gets a grey layer. I didn't noticed something similar in dark mode on an LCD screen.
Using ColorDict there's no grey layer, so I guess it's coded in InkPeek.

When I tried the light mode on a LCD screen there's also a grey layer when the InkPeek pop-up opens.

Could I please have an option to have no layer at all when the pop up appears?

[kafeg]

Hm, I've never seen the shadow behind the card, probably on my e-ink screen it just not shown. Anyway, I will add option to manage that and disabled by default. Would be included in next release tomorrow. Thanks again for the note!

Also, in the next release will be included more methods of Offline translation: Mozilla light models over EN (like DE -> EN -> RU, works everywhere), OPUS-MT for direct translations (requires 4GB+ RAM) and real LLM (Hy-MT2, requires 6GB+ RAM but the best quality).

If you will have a chance to try and test some of offline translation variants on your devices and share results - it would be great and much appreciate, of course if you have device with enough CPU/RAM.

[Gormagon]

If you tell me how to use the offline translation models I can give it a try.
I guess I have to download some "packs" first.

[kafeg]

Correct, just need to download InkPeek language packs, one is enough and select Offline translation method below the Language packs. And that is it - it must just work in the popup card for lang pair of text -> your lang.