What tool allows a fast translation from Chinese that is both scaleable and exportable?

Question

I am currently limited and slowed down in my progress learning Chinese, that some times I read a text from my textbook and cannot identify a character, because I don't know its pronunciation. I don't know its pronunciation and thus can't look it up. Now there are several ways to bypass that circumstance, however there is yet no neat or fast way to get to its pinyin and translation.

Ideally there were a tool as Google's translate for Android, that also simplified the identification process and made it exportable (as PDF).

Is there already a tool for that? Otherwise I would write a tool or later an application that translates any Chinese texts from images, documents etc. and automatically stores it as a PDF somewhere, either on a hard drive or uploads it to a cloud.

Answer 1

There are several ways to look up characters without knowing their pronunciation.

• In printed dictionaries, you need to identify the character's radical (or at least one of the character's radical components), consult the dictionary's radical index (where characters with that radical will be ordered by number of strokes) and thus find the character's pronunciation. You can then look up the character in the normal way, i.e. by pinyin. (Some dictionaries also offer other ways to look up characters, but this example should be sufficient.)
• Since this way of looking up characters is slow and frustrating (see e.g. Yes, it really can take a year to learn how to look up a Chinese character), there are digital alternatives:
  • Looking up the character through its radicals in a digital/online dictionary such as MDBG.
  • Looking up the character in an online dictionary that supports handwriting recognition (e.g. MDBG: click on the paintbrush button) or an app. There are several apps that support handwriting input. See for example Pleco, How to use Chinese handwriting recognition on the iPhone/iPad and Best Android apps for Chinese handwriting.
  • There are also apps that support character recognition based on optical character recognition (OCR).

Answer 2

I suggest using an third-party IME with on-screen touchpad or stroke input.

A good Chinese learner should choose a better IME instead of built-in IME on Windows/Mac.

There are many IMEs that could meet your demand, like Sogou IME, Baidu IME and more.

Here I am taking Sogou IME (搜狗输入法) as an example:

• Right-click on floating indicator, choose 搜狗工具箱(O)to open Sogou IME Toolbox.
• Click 手写输入to open on-screen handwriting touchpad, write the character that you don't understand, then there it is.
• Default mode is 单字手写 (Single-Character Mode). Click 长句手写 to switch to Multiple-Character Mode.

Or if you find this method too easy for you, you may try stroke mode:

• type U to activate stroke mode, and use h, s, p, n, z in replace of five main stroke:一「横(heng2)」，丨「竖(shu4)」，丿「撇(pie3)」，丶「捺(na4)」or「点(dian3)」，乛折(zhe2)

Notice: this method requires you to "write" the desired character in right order.

For example: if you want to know how 「汉」 pronounces, you should type: u then type ddhzn .

If you don't follow the order how a character should be written, you won't get the caracter you want.

Answer 3

Yeah, I agree with Strobbe 先生， a great app for that is HanpingPro Reader. Point your mobile at a line of text, the red line over the part you want, it focusses and click! You have the Chinese text with translation. Great when reading!

ce.linedict.com has a great 'draw the character' window, better than other sites I've tried. Next to the input box at the top is a kind of paintbrush symbol. Click it and the window appears. Draw!

Answer 4

1.use "www.baidu.com", just search one single character 2.download "有道翻译"(you dao fan yi)