# Localization parity

> **Last reviewed:** 2026-10-10 · **Last updated:** 2026-10-12 · **Change:** minor (Korean catalog added, complete under the tests; 12-language score 54% → 63%; Hungarian catalog added; Czech render-site localization follow-up; scores and estimates unchanged) · **Target:** Adobe Illustrator 2026 (30.x)

Per-language status of VectorCraft's interface. How the catalogs work and how to add a language:
[`development.md` › Localisation](development.md#localisation). Part of
[target-app-parity.md](target-app-parity.md).

**How it is measured:** rows with a translation in each `crates/ui-egui/src/i18n/<code>.tsv`, counted on
origin/main `01e165af`, except the Czech row updated against the current local catalog.
The reference is the French catalog, which the tests hold complete: 3,416 interface
strings (menus, command labels, `tl!` literals: panels, dialogs, tooltips, Preferences) plus 604 `@msg` status and
error messages, 4,020 in all. A language's % is its rows over 4,020 (capped at 100% per part). The
`complete_menus` flag and `COMPLETE_MESSAGES` list make `i18n::tests` fail if a complete language misses a
string, so "full" here is enforced by tests. No language has help content: there is no translated (or English)
in-app help, and the docs are English.

**Native review:** every catalog was written clean-room from the English meaning, most of it by agents
(`bflatastic`), with community contributors adding or correcting (German by `dwetscher`, Japanese and Traditional
Chinese by `imachus`). None is recorded as reviewed by a native speaker; the catalog headers ask for one.

## The twelve key languages

| Language | Code | UI strings translated | Dialogs / tooltips / messages | Script support | Native review | Status | To `full` (h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | `en` | source, 100% | all | Latin | — | full | — |
| Simplified Chinese (Mandarin) | `zh-hans` | 3,647 rows; menus, panels, dialogs complete (tests); 85% overall | messages in English (1 of 604) | CJK UI font from craft-fonts (BIZ UDPGothic) when embedded, else a system font; IME with marked text at the caret; vertical type partial ([type-parity.md](type-parity.md)) | no | partial | 2–3 |
| Spanish | `es` | 4,009 / 4,020 (99.7%) | all (604 messages) | Latin | no | full | — (review) |
| Hindi | `hi` | 0 | none | Devanagari: the document's text shapes (HarfRust), untested for Devanagari, but the egui interface does no complex shaping | no | none | 20–30 |
| Arabic | `ar` | 0 | none | document text: bidi layout and Paragraph Direction; interface: no right-to-left layout, no Arabic shaping in egui | no | none | 25–40 |
| French | `fr` | 4,020 / 4,020 (100%) | all | Latin | no | full | — (review) |
| Portuguese | `pt-br` | 2,726 / 4,020 (68%): every menu label and `tl!` literal | messages in English | Latin | no | partial | 4–6 |
| Indonesian | `id` | 0 | none | Latin | no | none | 5–8 |
| Japanese | `ja` | 4,004 / 4,020 (99.6%) | all | CJK UI font as above; Japanese IME; vertical type partial; Japanese crop marks and composition settings | no | full | — (review) |
| German | `de` | 3,952 / 4,020 (98%; tests hold menus, literals and messages complete) | all (602 of 604 message rows; landed 2026-10-10) | Latin | contributor-written, not reviewed | full | — (review) |
| Korean | `ko` | 4,151 rows: menus, `tl!` literals and messages complete (tests); one plural form | all | Hangul from an installed system font on the desktop (Apple SD Gothic Neo, Malgun Gothic, Noto Sans CJK KR…); the web build has no Korean UI font yet (craft-fonts); IME path exists | no (AI-drafted) | full | — (review; web font) |
| Vietnamese | `vi` | 0 | none | Latin with stacked diacritics (precomposed forms render) | no | none | 5–8 |

**12-language score: ~63%** (equal weights: 100 + 85 + 100 + 0 + 0 + 100 + 68 + 0 + 100 + 98 + 100 + 0, over 12).
**To `full` for all twelve: ~60–100 h**, most of it Arabic (right-to-left interface) and Hindi (interface
shaping). Each new Latin-script catalog is ~4,000 rows; the existing ones were written in a few agent hours each
plus review. Native-speaker review is human work and isn't in the hours.

## Other shipped languages

| Language | Code | Translated | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) | `zh-hant` | 3,425 rows, menus and literals complete; messages in English (80% overall) | partial |
| Italian | `it` | 4,011 / 4,020 | full |
| Russian | `ru` | 4,009 / 4,020 | full |
| Ukrainian | `uk` | 4,009 / 4,020 (one/few/many plurals) | full |
| Hungarian | `hu` | 4,524 rows: menus, `tl!` literals and messages complete (tests); one plural form | full |
| Czech | `cs` | 4,411 catalog entries, including 636 `@msg` rows (measured locally 2026-10-11); menu, literal and message coverage enforced by tests | catalog complete; render-site gaps reduced; native review pending |

Thirteen non-English catalogs in all. Illustrator, as its public documentation lists, ships around two dozen
interface languages (including Polish, Dutch, Turkish, the Nordic languages, Hungarian, and Middle East
editions with Arabic and Hebrew); it doesn't ship Hindi, Indonesian or Vietnamese.

## Czech render-site follow-up

The desktop and web file pickers look up filter labels at assignment time; format names and
extensions stay unchanged. Diagnostics retain numeric values and units. New Document's suggested
preset name uses `Preset {number}`. Contributor tooltips use named placeholders and Czech plurals;
handles and chosen names remain unchanged. Gradient descriptions reuse `{kind} Gradient` with a
contextual radial adjective. PDF/Print mark styles use `mark-style`, so `Japanese` displays as
`Japonské` while the language name stays `Japonština`; their Summary uses the same context.

The search placeholder, Home screen, toolbar/panel tooltips and Preferences already use lookups.
No new `tl!("literal")` keys were needed: only `cs.tsv` adds 19 AI-draft rows and revises the gradient
template. Other catalogs fall back to English for new variable/template lookups. Native review is
still needed, and catalog coverage does not prove that every variable in the UI is translated.

## Not done in any language

Locale-aware number and date formats, a right-to-left interface, translated help, and a Traditional Chinese UI
font for the web build.

## Revision history

| Date | Change | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-12 | minor | Korean (`ko`) catalog added, complete under the tests (menus, literals, messages); 12-language score 54% → 63%, hours 70–110 → 60–100 |
| 2026-10-12 | minor | Hungarian (`hu`) catalog added, complete under the tests |
| 2026-10-11 | minor | Czech render-site follow-up: file-dialog filters, diagnostics, preset numbering, contributor tooltips/plurals, gradient grammar and contextual printer mark styles; estimates unchanged |
| 2026-10-10 | major | First per-language table, measured from the catalog row counts against the complete French catalog |