Libris Translate 0.29.0 · User guide
Libris Translate documentation
Import a manuscript, translate it, review it and download the book: guides for publishers, with no technical knowledge assumed.
Start with one chapter.
Have a manuscript and want to try a translation? Follow these five steps with a short excerpt, then review the result before processing the whole book.
- Open Libris and prepare a trial run
- Import your manuscript
- Start the translation
- Review and edit the text
- Download the translated book
What you need to get started
Libris needs to be installed on a server, the computer that hosts your workspace. Ask the person setting it up for the address to open in your browser, your account and an AI service configured for translation.
Share the installation guide with your technician · Understand the licence and translation costs
Five terms you will encounter in Libris
- Passage
- Part of a chapter that Libris translates and you can review separately.
- Target language
- The language you want the book translated into, such as French.
- Model / provider
- The model is the AI used to translate; the provider is the service giving access to that AI. Any fees it charges are separate from the Libris licence.
- Glossary
- A list of your translation choices for names and terms that should stay consistent.
- EPUB
- A digital book format that can be read on an e-reader or in a reading app.
Results are listed below the field as you type. Move through them with the up and down arrows, open one with Enter, close the list with Escape.
49 guides available
Start here
Your first translation, using a short chapter
Try the workflow on a few pages before starting a full manuscript.
Find and organise your books
Find a manuscript and set completed projects aside without erasing them.
Add a manuscript or chapters
Check your files and their order before creating the book in Libris.
Translate the text of a PDF or scan
Extract a PDF’s text and translate it into a readable book.
Put chapters in reading order
Distinguish chapters, parts and interludes before translation.
Read the estimate before starting
Distinguish your licence’s word allowance from the AI model’s cost.
Receive new chapters from a serial
Follow a publication feed that contains complete chapter text.
Place a companion book between volumes
Put a bonus volume in reading order without inventing an ordinary volume number.
Prepare the server: for the person installing Libris
Prepare the remote computer that will host Libris. You can give this procedure to your technician.
Translate and review
Start analysis and translation
Choose your languages and instructions, then let Libris work on the book.
Follow the autopilot
Understand what Libris does automatically and what the final outcome means.
Correct a sentence and keep your version
Compare source and translation, then save a choice that remains protected.
Read a chapter like a book
Read the translation full page and correct text without leaving the chapter.
Choose passages to proofread first
Use Libris’s alerts to organise proofreading without treating them as a literary grade.
Spot overused phrases
Check whether the translation repeats a phrase the author did not repeat.
Understand why a book is not ready
Find missing passages and checks that still prevent delivery.
Create a version in another language
Reuse the same manuscript and its memory to prepare another translation.
Context and consistency
Bring a series’ volumes together
Share names, characters and instructions across volumes in the right order.
Start or pause all volumes
Control a whole series and read the outcome for each volume.
Find differences between volumes
Compare names and editorial choices already recorded across a series.
Fix the translation of a name or term
Record a vocabulary choice instead of deciding it again in every chapter.
Add a note for readers
Explain a cultural term or translation choice in the exported book.
Prepare terminology from an existing translation
Compare an original and its translation to propose glossary terms.
Read the book’s memory
Check the summary and character profiles prepared during analysis.
Recognise one character behind several names
Check whether a name, title and nickname describe the same person.
Set a character’s gender and pronouns
Keep an editorial choice without freezing the entire character profile.
Define the book’s style choices
Give shared instructions for narrative tense, dialogue and register.
Reuse a correction you keep making
Turn a repeated correction into a writing rule for later work.
Export and share
Download an EPUB to read the translated book
Download the translated book and check its file before handing it over.
Receive alerts and books by email
Choose the messages useful to editorial follow-up and an address for delivered files.
Place a book in your reading library
Copy its EPUB to the folder used by your library software.
Have a colleague proofread a book
Give reading or editing access, then remove it when the assignment ends.
Keep a copy of all work on a book
Save a complete project and restore its translation and corrections.
Hand over or restore a whole series
Keep the volumes and their shared editorial decisions in a series archive.
Manage Libris Translate
Connect the model that will translate your books
Have a model connection prepared, then select it for your book.
Process a book that can wait
Group eligible model calls for work without an urgent deadline.
Choose a model after a translation trial
Compare models on the same book before selecting the one that suits it.
Plan and monitor a book’s model spending
Set a working budget and follow what the book’s model calls consume.
Choose when translation work may run
Schedule the installation’s jobs and monitor the day’s tracked spending.
Understand why a book is waiting
Find running work and decide which waiting book should go next.
Understand a book’s costs and delays
Read model calls to explain an unexpected cost or delay.
Give a colleague an account
Create a personal team account and disable it when the assignment ends.
Let Libris send email
Have email configured and check the delivery of a first message.
Check your licence rights and word allowance
Activate the licence and understand why it may stop work.
Adjust model instructions and optional services
Test an instruction or memory connection before using it for production books.
Use your organization’s accounts
Have Libris connected to the organization’s directory so staff can use their usual credentials.
Automate
Allow a tool to follow or process your books
Create limited access for software or an assistant connected to Libris.
Notify another tool when work finishes
Have an automatic notification prepared for your editorial tracking software.
Get sources and deliver books through your shared storage
Connect Nextcloud or WebDAV-compatible storage to exchange book files.
Watch the video demonstrations
Films for publishers
What the video shows, part by part
- A passage translated and reviewed in Libris, the French original on the left and the English on the right; three real choices appear: a name (“le Guet des marées” becomes “the Tidewatch”), a title, a line of dialogue.
- The import wizard, “Confirmation” step: 383 words, 4 passages, 1 chapter, and the share of the licence quota.
- The autopilot, sped up: analysis, translation, review; 5 min 05 s in real time for this short chapter.
- The glossary of volume 1: on the “Guet des marées” line, the translation “Tidewatch” is typed in.
- In the columns, a French dialogue dash left in front of the quotation marks is removed, then the passage carries the label “Human-validated”.
- A passage of volume 2, translated afterwards: “Guet des marées” comes out as “Tidewatch”.
- The file “The Low-Water Bell.epub” open in an EPUB reader, at the chapter “The Woman in Gray”.
- Three reminders: Libris is installed on a server; the AI service receives the passages and their context, and its fees are not included in the licence; the result still has to be reviewed before publishing.
- Pointer to the guide “Your first translation” in the documentation.
Chapters
Narration transcript
Translating a book means holding to your choices: a name, a title, a line of dialogue. Libris Translate translates a whole book with the AI service you choose, and keeps track of those choices.
You import a chapter. Before anything starts, Libris gives you an estimate: the words, the passages, and the share of your licence quota.
The autopilot runs the analysis, the translation and the checks, one after the other. Here, about five minutes for a short chapter, shown sped up.
In the glossary, you settle a term. This invented name becomes “Tidewatch”, in one word.
You read the translation against the original, and you correct it. Your version is protected.
The next volume takes up the term you chose.
You download an EPUB. Here it is, open in a reading app.
Libris is installed on a server. The passages are sent to the AI service you chose, and its fees are not included in the licence. And the result still has to be reviewed before you publish.
To try it on a short chapter, follow the guide “Your first translation”.
What the video shows, part by part
- The sign-in page: the language list at the top right (choose “English” if the page opens in French), the “Username” and “Password” boxes, the “Sign in” button. You need the address of the installation, an account and an AI service already connected.
- The library, then the “Add content” wizard: “EPUB books”, a “New series” named “Saltmere”, the file, volume number 1.
- The “Confirmation” step: “383 words · 4 passages · 1 chapter(s)”, the licence quota line, the target language “English (en)”, the provider “ChatGPT · GPT-6 Luna”; as no price has been entered, no amount is shown.
- The “Import and run the whole pipeline” button, the wizard’s note that explains it, then “Open the volume”; the work is shown sped up (5 min 05 s in real time).
- The banner “Autopilot finished · Finished · result ready”, then the “Summary & recovery” tab: 4 passages translated out of 4, and the sentence “complete coverage does not guarantee literary quality”.
- The “Translation” tab: a sentence is corrected in the right-hand column, “Save”, “Validate”, and the label “Human-validated”.
- The “Export” menu, “Translated EPUB”, then the message “File received; download sent to the browser.”
Chapters
Narration transcript
Translate your first chapter with Libris, from import to download.
You need the address of your installation, an account, and an AI service already connected: ask the person who installed Libris for them. Open the address; if the page is in French, choose “English” in the list at the top right. Fill in the “Username” and “Password” boxes, then click “Sign in”.
In the library, click “Add content”.
First screen: the format. Choose “EPUB books”, then “Continue”. Libris also accepts Word files, and PDFs, from which it extracts the text.
Choose “New series”, give it a name, then “Continue”. A series brings together the volumes that will share your choices. Saltmere is a fictional series, written for this demonstration.
Click “Choose files”, select your EPUB, then “Continue”. On the next screen, type the volume number in the “Vol. no.” box: number one. Then “Continue”.
Last screen. Under “Before importing”, read the estimate: nearly four hundred words, in four passages. A passage is a piece of a chapter that Libris translates in one go. These words are deducted from your licence’s word quota as soon as you import.
In “Target language”, choose “English”. That is the language you are translating into.
“Provider” means the service that gives access to the AI. Each line names that service, then its model: the AI you are choosing. Ask the person who installed Libris which line to choose, and leave the other settings as they are. Your passages and their context will be sent to that service.
No price has been entered here: the estimate gives a volume in tokens, the unit AI services count in, with no amount. It is never a bill, and these fees are not included in the licence.
At the bottom of the screen, click “Import and run the whole pipeline”. That word covers analysis, translation, review and arbitration, which the autopilot runs on its own, one after the other.
Click “Open the volume”: Libris shows the step in progress. You can close the page and come back through the library, the series, the “Volumes” tab, then the title of the volume. Here, the wait lasted about five minutes, shown sped up: a duration specific to this demonstration.
The autopilot announces “Finished · result ready”. It can also report items to check, or a blocked book. Click the “Summary & recovery” tab: four passages translated out of four. Libris says so itself: complete coverage does not guarantee literary quality. Coverage here means that all the text is translated.
The review that counts is still yours. In the “Translation” tab, the original is on the left, the translation on the right.
Here, the original says she had learned to wake before the bell; the translation lost the “had”. Click in the sentence and correct it. The buttons are under the passage: click “Save”, then “Validate”. At the top of the passage, the words “Human-validated” appear: an automatic translation will no longer replace your version.
At the top of the book’s page, click “Export”, then “Translated EPUB”. The file arrives in your browser’s downloads.
These steps are also written out in the guide “Your first translation”, in the documentation on the Libris website.
What the video shows, part by part
- Two sentences from the first translation: the keepers’ name is written “Tide Watch”, in two words, in both.
- The book’s “Glossary” tab: one line per term, with its translation and its “Locked” box.
- On the “Guet des marées” line, “Tidewatch” is typed and saved. Libris shows “The glossary governs what comes next, not what is already there” and offers “Replace it in the 2 passage(s)” or “Leave it as it is”; after the replacement: “2 passage(s) updated”.
- Volume 2 is imported into the “Existing series” Saltmere, as number 2; the series page recalls that a volume only receives the memory of earlier volumes. In the translated volume 2, “Guet des marées” comes out as “Tidewatch”.
- The glossary of volume 2, “Terms applied to this book”, with the origin of each term; then the series’ “Consistency” tab: “0 contradiction(s) · 0 point(s) to look at”, with no call to the AI service.
- Three reminders, including this one: a correction made in one passage does not change the other passages already translated.
Chapters
Narration transcript
Keep the same choices from one volume to the next.
In the Saltmere series, the keepers of the tides have a name of their own. The first translation wrote it in two words, “Tide Watch”; you would rather have a single word, like a proper name.
That choice is yours. Open the book’s “Glossary” tab and scroll down to the list: it gives the names and terms, with the translation kept for each.
On the term’s line, type your translation: “Tidewatch”. Leave the “Locked” box checked, then click the check mark at the end of the line to save.
Libris warns you: the glossary governs what comes next, not what is already there. For the passages already translated, it offers a replacement, which you accept or not. Here, two passages are updated and marked for review.
Then import the second volume: in the wizard, choose “Existing series”, then your series, and give it number two. The numbers set the order: a volume only receives the memory of earlier volumes.
Once this volume is translated, open its passages. The name comes out as “Tidewatch”, in one word, with nothing typed again.
To check, open the volume’s glossary: the list “Terms applied to this book” gives the origin of each term. On the series page, the “Consistency” tab compares the volumes without sending anything to the AI service.
Memory helps consistency. It does not replace your review: a correction made in one passage does not change the other passages already translated.
What the video shows, part by part
- The book’s page, “Translation” tab: the original on the left, the translation on the right.
- A passage carries the label “Optional review” after a glossary term was replaced; on rereading, two lines of dialogue still open with a French dash in front of the quotation marks.
- The two dashes are deleted, then “Save” and “Validate”: the passage carries “Human-validated” and “Protected human correction”.
- A reminder, not a capture, of the labels a passage can carry: “Checks passed”, “Optional review”, “Source retained” (passage not translated, book declared blocked), “Human-validated”.
- The “Summary & recovery” tab: 4 passages translated, 0 missing, 0 retained in original, 3 protected human choices.
- “Book edition”: the title “The Low-Water Bell” is typed in; “Export”, “Translated EPUB”, then the file open in an EPUB reader. Libris does not export to PDF.
- A reminder: a book finished in Libris still has to be reviewed before publication.
Chapters
Narration transcript
Review, correct and collect the book.
In the “Translation” tab, each passage shows the original on the left and its translation on the right.
Two passages carry the words “Optional review”. We have just settled a term in the glossary, and Libris replaced the old wording in the passages already translated. As you reread them, you notice something else: a French dialogue dash, left in front of the quotation marks.
Click in the sentence and delete the dash. Then do the same on the next line.
Under the passage, click “Save”, then “Validate”. At the top of the passage, the words “Human-validated” appear: your version is protected.
One other label needs your attention. “Source retained” marks a passage that Libris could not translate. It keeps its original text, and the book is declared blocked.
Before you export, click the “Summary & recovery” tab. There you read the passages translated, missing or retained in the original, and your protected choices.
At the top of the book’s page, click “Book edition”, type the title of your edition, then click “Save edition”.
Click “Export”, then “Translated EPUB”. Libris also offers plain text or a bilingual EPUB. It does not export to PDF.
Here is the downloaded file, open in a reading app. The title, the term you chose and your corrections are all there.
A book finished in Libris still has to be reviewed before publication. That decision is yours.
What the video shows, part by part
- A diagram, presented as such: your browser, the server that hosts Libris and your books, the AI service; the libris-translate.com website is set apart.
- Two columns: the person who installs looks after the server, the licence and the AI service; you import, translate and review.
- The Libris sign-in page, and an example address.
- Screen of the person who installs: the list of accounts; then, on the publisher’s side, “My account” and “Change password”.
- Screen of the person who installs, cropped: the plan, the words used this cycle and the words left on the licence (the key is not shown).
- Screen of the person who installs: the connected AI service, and the “SearXNG” and “Email delivery” tabs of the options that contact other services.
- Three signs that everything is ready: signing in, the library, an AI service in the “Provider” list of the import wizard.
Chapters
Narration transcript
Prepare your workspace with the person who installs Libris.
Libris is software installed on a server: a computer that stays on all the time and hosts your workspace. You use it from your browser. An account on the Libris website does not give access to an online application.
Two roles share the work. The person who installs looks after the server, the licence and the AI service. You import, you translate and you review.
Ask them for four things. First, the address of the installation: the one you will open in your browser.
Next, an account in your name. They create it in the settings. You will change the password in “My account”.
Then, a licence that fits. It sets the number of accounts and the number of words you can import in each cycle. The AI service’s fees are not part of it.
Finally, a connected AI service: that is what translates. If it is hosted remotely, it receives your passages and their context. Other options, such as online search or sending emails, also contact outside services. Decide on them together.
When everything is ready, you can sign in, see your library, and find an AI service in the “Provider” list of the import wizard.
The installation commands are on the “Install” page and in the guide “Prepare the server”, written for the person who installs. Then your first translation can begin.
On video
Recorded with Libris 0.23.0. Follow the written guides for version 0.29.0; some screens have changed.
What the video shows, scene by scene
- The libris-translate.com website, then the Install button.
- A Linux server: the official install command downloads Libris Translate and starts it, up to the message “Libris 0.23.0 is ready at http://localhost:8088”.
- I. Add a book: the French EPUB of “Lettres de mon moulin” (5,964 words, 18 passages) is imported as a standalone volume, from French into English, with the GPT-6 Luna model of a ChatGPT account.
- II. Let it run: the analysis, the translation and the review, sped up, then the glossary the analysis built: Jean de Milan becomes John of Milan, mas farmhouse, miarro farm boy, meule millstone and parc sheepfold.
- III. Take a look if you like: the French text and its English translation side by side, passage by passage.
- IV. Download: the translated EPUB, checked by EPUBCheck without a single error, open on an e-reader at “The Secret of Master Cornille”.
- “Your next series, translated on your server.” 30-day free trial at libris-translate.com.
Recorded with Libris 0.23.0. Follow the written guides for version 0.29.0; some screens have changed.
What the video shows, step by step
- Before you start: a Linux x86-64 server with Docker Engine 26 or newer and Compose v2, 2 GB of free memory, a language model and the licence email.
- Step 1: check Docker with sudo docker compose version.
- Step 2: sign in to the registry with sudo docker login registry.libris-translate.com, using the username and token from the licence email.
- Step 3: run the official install command; the installer from the image takes over, creates /opt/libris and starts PostgreSQL, the migration, the API, the worker and the Codex bridge.
- Step 4: check the installation with curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8088/health, then read the administrator password with sudo grep '^BOOTSTRAP_' /opt/libris/.env.
- Step 5: sign in as admin at http://localhost:8088.
- Step 6: activate the licence in Settings › Licence.
- Step 7: add a model in Settings › LLM providers; here, a “Codex · ChatGPT account” provider, signed in with a device code, using the GPT-6 Luna model.
- Step 8: add an EPUB with Add content, then “Import and run the whole pipeline”; the autopilot takes the book all the way to the final EPUB.
Short videos
Recorded with Libris 0.23.0. Follow the written guides for version 0.29.0; some screens have changed.
What the video shows
- Add content › EPUB books, then Standalone volume.
- The file daudet-moulin-fr.epub is chosen and analyzed.
- Confirmation: translation into English with GPT-6 Luna, then “Import and run the whole pipeline”; the import is complete.
Recorded with Libris 0.23.0. Follow the written guides for version 0.29.0; some screens have changed.
What the video shows
- The book page during the Analysis & memory step, sped up.
- The Glossary tab: 18 accepted terms, including Jean de Milan → John of Milan, mas → farmhouse, fifre → fife, meule → millstone and miarro → farm boy.
Recorded with Libris 0.23.0. Follow the written guides for version 0.29.0; some screens have changed.
What the video shows
- The French text on the left, the English translation on the right, passage by passage, with the state of each passage.
- The pointer stops on the Validate button of a passage.
Recorded with Libris 0.23.0. Follow the written guides for version 0.29.0; some screens have changed.
What the video shows
- Download the EPUB, on the book page.
- The translated EPUB, checked by EPUBCheck without errors, open on an e-reader at “The Secret of Master Cornille”.
For the person configuring Libris
These references cover installation and connections to other software. You can translate and review your books without learning them.