Today, digital manga (including Manga and Webtoons) are transcending cultural boundaries at an unprecedented pace. However, for content publishers and localization teams, manga localization has long been an efficiency 'black hole.' It is far more involved than simply translating text.

From the outset, Shangyi AI(商译 AI) recognized that truly addressing this issue required more than just building a 'translator.' We needed to develop an automated engine capable of replacing both image editors and typesetters.

Our approach began with deconstructing the industry's core challenges.

Challenge One: A Fragmented ‘Battlefield’—Manga Formats

To begin with, we are not working with a unified standard. Digital manga is delivered in an extremely diverse array of formats:

Archive formats (CBZ/CBR): These are the standard among enthusiasts. Essentially, they are compressed image archives (ZIP/RAR). Our system must be able to unpack these files and accurately read the internal JPEG/PNG sequences in the correct order.
Document formats (PDF): This is the standard for many official publications. Processing PDFs is more complex; files may contain images or vector graphics and embedded text, requiring our parser to handle both scenarios.
Streaming format (Webtoons): This is the fastest-growing segment and also the most challenging. Webtoons are purpose-built for mobile, presented as vertically scrolling long-form images. There is no concept of a 'page'; its layout, use of white space, and line breaks are all integral to the narrative pacing.

Our AI pipeline must be capable of ingesting all these formats and standardizing them into visual and textual data that can be processed.

Challenge Two: The True Bottleneck—20% Translation, 80% Image Editing

In our research into the workflows of traditional scanlation groups and professional localization teams, we uncovered a surprising reality: pure text translation typically accounts for only 20% of the workload. The primary bottleneck lies in two highly manual, artistry-driven stages:

1. The King of Pain Points: Redrawing

Problem: Sound effects (SFX, such as 'Boom!' or 'Swish') in manga are an integral part of the artwork, intricately intertwined with backgrounds, character lines, and even special effects.
Manual Nightmare: You can't just 'cover it up.'The redrawer must open Photoshop and, much like a restoration specialist, meticulously use the clone stamp and brush tools to manually reconstruct any obscured background. A complex, multi-page sound effect may require a skilled artist to spend several hours.

2. Tedious Artistry: Typesetting

Problem: Japanese and Korean are typically concise languages; however, when translated into Chinese or English, the text length increases dramatically.
Manual Nightmare: Typesetters are required to manually 'fit' the longer translated text back into the original, fixed-size dialogue bubbles. This process involves repeatedly adjusting font size, line breaks, and letter spacing to ensure readability without compromising the artwork's aesthetic quality. In webtoon formats, it also requires reworking the pacing of vertical reading.

Traditional AI translation tools are entirely ineffective in this regard. The Word documents they provide are virtually useless for image editors and typesetters.

Our Solution: The Integrated 'Shangyi AI' Engine

The design philosophy behind Shangyi AI is: We deliver not just translations, but the 'final product'.

To achieve this, we have developed an intelligent engine that combines OCR, AI-based image generation, and layout reconstruction in one solution:

1. 'Pixel-level' OCR and Layout Analysis

Our initial step is not translation, but 'deconstruction.'

Our OCR technology not only recognizes text, but more importantly performs layout analysis, accurately distinguishing:

Balloon Text: Found within speech bubbles, which need to be translated and replaced.
Artistic text (SFX): Overlays on images that require “erasing” and “redrawing.”

It also understands the reading order (right-to-left for manga, top-to-bottom for webtoons), establishing an index for subsequent processes.

2. “Smart Eraser”: AI-based redrawing and generative inpainting

This is our core technology. After OCR detects and removes the SFX, the resulting blank area is immediately filled by our AI inpainting model.

How does it work? Rather than generic AI models, we employ specialized models trained on extensive datasets of manga line art and screentone patterns. It can 'understand' the artistic style of manga—such as line thickness, shading patterns, and screen tone density—and generatively complete backgrounds and edge areas.
Effect: For simple backgrounds, it completes the task instantaneously. When dealing with complex overlapping character lines, its results substantially reduce the need for manual corrections, directly addressing the major challenge of redrawing.

3. 'Intelligent Typesetter': Layout Restoration Technology

Translation is not simply a matter of pasting the text back into the artwork. Our Document Reconstruction Engine takes over the typesetting process.

How does it work? The engine analyzes the original font, font size, and alignment. After obtaining the (often longer) translation, it automatically calculates the optimal line breaks and font scaling to perfectly fit the space of the original speech bubble, while maintaining optimal readability.
Special optimization for webtoons: For webtoons, our engine pays particular attention to the 'breathing rhythm' of the vertical flow, ensuring that line breaks and spacing match the pacing of mobile reading.

4. 'Soulful Translation': Context Awareness

Finally, translation takes place. Our translation module is closely integrated with the visual analysis above. During translation, it knows the following information:

"This text comes from an explosive bubble."(Use a more intense tone in translation)
"This text comes from a thought bubble."(Render as an internal monologue)
"All dialogue for this character."(Keep the character's tone consistent)

Conclusion

Shangyi AI’s mission is to leverage AI to upgrade manga localization from a labor-intensive 'handicraft workshop' into a highly efficient, automated industrial process. While we recognize that AI cannot fully replace human artistic sensibilities, our aim is to free creators and translators from 80% of repetitive, mechanical tasks—empowering them to focus on the 20% of work that is most creative and culturally significant.

We are not only solving translation challenges, but also enhancing artistic productivity.

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