Translate

The paper, in your language — on the tablet

Rectoly translates papers into the language you read in with a model that runs on the tablet itself — no server, no API key, and nothing uploaded. The model is large, so on a phone or a modest tablet you can let your computer do the translating and read the result here.

iPad · iPhone Android
Rectoly on an Android tablet: a paragraph in Reading Mode with its translation below it

Recorded on an Android tablet. The same app runs on phones and E Ink devices.

How it works

See it in use

01

The translation, under the paragraph

In Reading Mode every paragraph keeps its place, and its translation appears directly beneath it. You can see at a glance which sentence a translated line came from.

A paragraph in Reading Mode with its translation below it on an Android tablet
02

Or the page itself, translated

Choose Show Translated Text from the reader’s “…” menu and the PDF page keeps its layout — the same columns, the same figures in the same places — with the text in your language. Where there is room, Translated pages side by side opens the translated page beside the original. In this version, paragraphs with math stay in the original.

A PDF page shown in translation on an Android tablet, its layout unchanged
03

Already translated by the time you get there

While you read, Rectoly translates ahead of you in the open paper. When the device runs warm or Low Power Mode is on, it holds back on the paragraphs ahead, and if the device gets hot, translation pauses until it cools down (Continue anyway keeps it going).

Reading Mode on an Android tablet, the paragraphs further on already translated
04

Or let your computer do the work

Pair the tablet with Rectoly on a Windows or Linux computer on the same network and it asks the computer for translations instead of running the model itself — so a device without the memory for the model, or one too slow to run it, still reads translated papers. If the computer cannot answer, the tablet translates the paragraph itself — when it has the model.

Reading Mode on an Android tablet with translations under the paragraphs
When you'd use it

Where it fits in your day

Reading in a second language

Read at your own pace, not the dictionary’s

The translation sits under the paragraph you are reading, so you can work through the original and check yourself against it without leaving the page.

A paper under review

A draft that must not leave your hands

No upload, no API key, no account holding a copy. A manuscript under embargo or out for review is translated on hardware you own.

Where the signal is not

Fieldwork, translated

Once the model is on the tablet, translation works with the radios off — and a paragraph translated once stays on the device, so even a device that cannot run the model reads a paper your computer translated before you set out.

The details

English into 18 languages
Rectoly translates English papers into the 18 languages the app itself speaks whose quality it has measured on real papers.
Which devices can run it
The model needs about 3 GB of memory to itself while it works, so translating on the device itself takes roughly 8 GB of RAM or more. On a device with less, Rectoly says so before anything is downloaded — and such a device still reads translated papers when it is paired with your computer on the same network.
Measured first
After the download, Rectoly measures how fast this device translates. A fast device translates the rest of the open paper ahead of you, a slower one only the paragraphs on screen; a device that is too slow cannot translate on its own (the downloaded model can be removed, and your paired computer can do the translating).
One download, once
The model is about 2.5 GB, from Rectoly’s own servers rather than a model-sharing site, and needs about 3 GB of free space. Downloading over Wi‑Fi is recommended; after that it stays on the device.
From outside, to your PC at home
Turn on “Ask my PC from anywhere” and the paragraphs not yet translated in a paper you close are translated by your PC at home, saved to your library and brought to this device by the next sync. The PC has to be on and signed in, with “Take requests” turned on and the paper downloaded there.
How a language becomes available
A language is offered only after it has been measured on a set of real papers. On Android there is no system translator to fall back on, so a language that is not ready yet is shown as “Not available on this device” rather than translated badly.
Included in the purchase
Translation is part of the app. One purchase covers the tablet, the phone, the iPad and the computer, all signed in to the same account.

Also on Android phones, tablets and E Ink devices

Read with the same library and the same annotations. The app downloads from this site, and one purchase covers it together with iPad, Windows, Mac and Linux.

Download for Android

More features

Read

Reading Mode

Two-column PDFs reflowed into one column at your width, with figures and citations a tap away.

Learn more
Annotate

Stylus & annotations

Highlights, underlines, sticky notes and handwriting — with a stylus or a finger, on tablets and E Ink devices.

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Connected

Your library, synced

Open your Mendeley or Zotero library as it is, and your annotations go back to it.

Learn more