Translator

A launcher provider plugin that allows you to quickly translate text directly from the Noctalia launcher.

Features

• Quick Translation: Translate text instantly from the launcher
• 100+ Languages: Support for over 100 languages including major European, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern languages
• Auto-detect Source: Automatically detects the source language
• Translation Cache: Caches translations for faster repeated queries
• Clipboard Integration: Copy translations to clipboard with a single click

Usage

1. Open the Noctalia launcher
2. Type >translate to enter translation mode
3. Select a target language (or type the language code directly)
4. Type the text you want to translate
5. Click the result to copy it to clipboard

Examples

# Translate to French
>translate fr Hello world

# Translate to Spanish
>translate es How are you?

# Translate to German
>translate de Good morning

Supported Languages

The plugin supports over 100 languages. Here are some of the most popular:

European Languages:

• fr - French (français)
• en - English
• es - Spanish (espagnol)
• de - German (allemand)
• it - Italian (italien)
• pt - Portuguese (portuguais)
• ru - Russian (русский)
• nl - Dutch (néerlandais)
• pl - Polish (polski)
• sv - Swedish (svenska)
• da - Danish (dansk)
• no - Norwegian (norsk)
• fi - Finnish (suomi)
• cs - Czech (čeština)
• hu - Hungarian (magyar)
• ro - Romanian (română)
• tr - Turkish (türkçe)
• uk - Ukrainian (українська)
• el - Greek (ελληνικά)
• he - Hebrew (עברית)
• And many more...

Asian Languages:

• ja - Japanese (日本語)
• zh - Chinese (中文)
• ko - Korean (한국어)
• hi - Hindi (हिन्दी)
• th - Thai (ไทย)
• vi - Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)
• id - Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
• ar - Arabic (العربية)
• fa - Persian (فارسی)
• And many more...

African Languages:

• sw - Swahili
• zu - Zulu
• xh - Xhosa
• yo - Yoruba
• And more...

You can use either the language code (e.g., fr, ja, ru) or the language name in English or French (e.g., french, japanese, russian, français, japonais, russe).

Configuration

• Translation Backend: Choose the translation service to use (currently supports Google Translate and DeepL/DeepL Free)
• Realtime Translation: Toggle between translating as you type or only upon pressing Enter (useful for saving API usage)
• API Key: The API key required for premium backends like DeepL

IPC Commands

You can quickly open the translator via IPC, which is useful for keybindings:

# Toggle the translator launcher (opens with >translate )
# Pass empty string "" to use default (no language pre-selected)
qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle "" ""

# Open translator with a specific language (e.g., French)
qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle "fr" ""

# You can use language codes or names (fr, french, français, etc.)
qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle "english" ""

# Open translator with text to be translated (e.g. selected text)
qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle "english" "$(wl-paste -n -p)"

Integration with Keybindings

Add this to your Window Manager's keybinds configuration:

Niri

spawn

Super+T { spawn "qs" "-c" "noctalia-shell" "ipc" "call" "plugin:translator" "toggle" "" "" }
Super+Shift+T { spawn "qs" "-c" "noctalia-shell" "ipc" "call" "plugin:translator" "toggle" "fr" "" }

spawn-sh

Super+T { spawn-sh "qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle \"\" \"\"" }
Super+Shift+T { spawn-sh "qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle \"fr\" \"\"" }

Sway

bindsym Super+t exec qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle "" ""
bindsym Super+Shift+t exec qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call plugin:translator toggle "fr" ""

• With empty string "": Opens the launcher with >translate already entered, ready for you to select a language and type text to translate.
• With a language parameter: Opens the launcher with >translate [language] already entered, ready for you to type text to translate to that language.
• With both language and text parameter: Opens the launcher with >translate [language] [text] already entered, ready for you to hit the enter or to see the result (if you enabled realtime translation)

Requirements

• Noctalia 4.4.1 or later
• Internet connection (for translation requests)