Translate with the camera on iPhone and iPad

Menus, signs, labels, a page in a book, a screenshot: point the camera at text and Mate translates all of it. Camera translation is part of Mate Pro.

Take a photo

1. Open Mate and switch from Text to Camera at the top of the screen.
2. Set the languages. The source language should be the language in the photo; "Detect automatically" is fine when online.
3. Frame the text and tap the shutter. In the dark, tap the flashlight button first.
4. Mate recognizes every block of text and translates it. "Translating…" shows briefly.

Not happy with the shot? Tap Retake photo.

Or use an existing image

Tap the Pick a photo button to choose a screenshot or photo from your library. Handy for screenshots of apps that don't let you select text, and for scanned pages.

Two ways to read the result

• On the photo: translations are drawn over the original text. Pinch to zoom in.
• As a list: every text block with its translation, one under the other. Tap a box in the photo to jump to it.

Switch between them with the button in the corner. Mate remembers your choice.

Offline

When you're offline, recognition runs on the device instead of in the cloud. It handles Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts and more, but fewer languages than online. "Language not supported for offline translation" means the pair needs a connection or an offline language download.

Tips

• Hold the phone parallel to the text and fill the frame with it. Angle and blur matter more than resolution.
• "No text found in image" usually means the text is too small; move closer.
• "Recognition timed out" happens on slow connections; try again or switch to offline.
• Mate needs camera access. If you declined, tap Open Settings in the message and switch the camera on.

No camera on Mac, but Preview's Live Text plus Mate covers the same ground: see Translate a scanned document or a photo of text.