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Translate the webcomic

Table of Content

1. License and Code of Conduct
2. Get the necessary tools
3. Join us on Framagit
4. Get the comic pages sources files
5. Translate the SVG comic pages
6. Credits and other files
7. Upload your translation
8. F.A.Q.

Translating an episode of Pepper&Carrot is fast, fun and easy! You can do it from any type of computer (Windows, Mac, Linux and more) and using only free/libre tools. In this documentation you'll be able to read all information about managing your own translation of Pepper&Carrot.

1. License and Code of Conduct

By submitting any translation or improvements to the Pepper&Carrot project, you accept that you release your work under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (also named CC BY 4.0).

You also accept the terms of our Code of Conduct.

2. Get the necessary tools

Inkscape

This is our main tool for editing speech-bubbles and onomatopoeia. It's a free/libre and open-source software available for Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux.

🏔 Download Inkscape

Fonts

Pepper&Carrot translations uses only a set of open fonts. Some of them are in-house modified for the project and we distribute them. They are compatible Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux.

3. Join us on Framagit

Framagit is a tool made for managing collaboratively software and it's hosted by the non-profit organisation Framasoft. You can find the Pepper&Carrot group on Framagit here. By creating an account on it, you'll be able to:

• Collaborate on adding, modifying, removing files.
• Discuss with us (using the 'issues' ticket).
• Get notification when someone quote your account, and contact other translators.

This step can be optional but it will be harder to collaborate with you without an account (but you can still send your translations by email).

🐧 Get a Framagit account

Activation issue?... Creating new account on Framagit sometimes takes 48h to be activated and you might not receive any notification about it. It's a known issue: just test to login 48h after account creation and you should be fine.

Once you have your account, tell us a little hello. Open a new issue ticket and present yourself. I'll then grant you permission to upload your files to the source and modify files. You'll join the long list of Members as a Pepper&Carrot Developer!

4. Get the comic pages sources files

Each pages you can see on the comic comes from the fusion of a SVG file (Inkscape) for speech-bubbles and a KRA file (Krita) for artworks. For translation, we only need the SVGs. Multiple methods exists depending of what you want to do:

5. Translate the SVG comic pages

Avoid duplicate efforts

Before starting to invest time and effort on your translation, be sure no-one else decided to work on this part too at the same time. It might waste your time! To avoid that:

1. Read the issue tickets on Framagit to check if someone is already working on it.
2. If not, it's a good idea to inform with a new issue tickets on Framagit that you are on it.

Editing the comic

Episode have directories formated like ep01_Potion-of-Flight, inside you'll find a subdirectory named lang. This directory contains all the translation already made for this episode. Open a language sub-directory and you'll see the SVGs pages ready to edit with Inkscape.

Once in Inkscape, double clicking a text box will edit it. It's the same process for onomatopoeia. Speech-bubble and their tails are object you can resize, scale, rotate and move around. Resize them so they wrap better around your text. Feel free to be the art director of your translation: resize stuff and arrange the layout to your taste. Don't forget to fill in the credits for your translation on the credit page (the last page).

If you are interested in advanced Inkscape techniques and a FAQ about translation, read the Translation Tips page:

💬 Translation Tips page

Note: If Inkscape prompts you with a dialog at start-up "Convert Legacy Inkscape file" looking like that, just keep the default option "This file contains digital artwork for screen display. (Choose if unsure)" and then press the OK button.

6. Credits and other files

info.json file

This file is important: it will manage your credit. You can simply edit it with a text editor. If you have doubt how to format it, just look how other language directory wrote it or check the full documentation:

🗒️ info.json full documentation

References file

This file is optional: they help you to keep notes on how you translate characters, place and creature. It also helps to auto-generate transcripts.

If you have downloaded all the repository, you'll find the references of your language −a Po file named with the letter of your language− under the directory named 1_translation-names-references.

Transcript

This file is optional: you don't need to translate it and you can delete it. Transcript are auto-generated later from the SVGs you translated. If you want to know how, check the transcript documentation:

🗒️ Transcript full documentation

7. Upload your translation

When your translation is complete and looks good, it is time to send it to the Pepper&Carrot official website. You have mainly three options to upload your translation:

Done! Congratulation!

You sent a Pepper&Carrot translation! 🎉
Thank you for your contribution!

8. F.A.Q.

Q: Where can I subscribe to receive notifications about new episodes ready to be translated?
A: Each time a new episode is ready for translation, I notify all project member on Framagit. Create a Framagit account and become a member of our group to receive this notification.

Q: Is it possible to change the characters' names for a translation?
A: Sure, you can. For the French translation, I kept the english 'Carrot' because the French name "Carotte" is feminine. I kept 'Pepper' and didn't use the translation 'Poivre' or 'Poivron' because it sounds like an insult French-speakers may throw at a drunkard, 'Poivrot!'.

Q: When I open a SVG, Inkscape prompt me with a dialog window at start-up "Convert Legacy Inkscape file", what should I do?
A: The one looking like that? Just keep the default option "This file contains digital artwork for screen display. (Choose if unsure)" and then press the OK button.

Q: A sentence doesn't sound good in my language, can I rewrite it?
A: That's ok. The most important is to keep the semantic, the feeling and the information of the story. Adding style and changing the expression of your target language is natural.

Q: Do I need to translate all the episodes to get published on the website?
A: No. Feel free to contribute within your possibilities: you can translate just one episode then try one another later. Take your time. The website is designed to fall back to English if there's no translation available for a given episode. So, you can send episode 01, then one month later send episode 03, 04, 05 in a row, then stop here if you want... or then send all the other episodes. Every contribution is welcome; thank you for your effort and contributions!

Q: Can I translate fictive language, as Klingon, Dothraki, Quenya, Sindarin?
A: Yes and No. Yes because you are free to translate the SVG and publish them on your blog/forum as a cross-over with a fair-use "fan-art" of Copyrighted material. No, if you plan to get this files accepted into the main repository of Pepper&Carrot because it is not Creative Commons compatible. You can read more about it on this thread.

Q: A SVG is missing in the translation folder; at episode four: E04P05.svg!
A: The file is indeed missing on purpose: in the comic this panel is a GIF animation and can't be translated. I had to remove the SVG for this page so the renderfarm ignore computing a translation for this specific case. A special set of rules are applied each time a GIF animation appears in the story. That's why it is a rare situation.

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