Crane speaks six languages today. Five of them have never been read by someone who actually speaks them.
That is what this category is for.
Where things stand
| Language | In the app | Status |
|---|---|---|
| English | en-US | The source. Every other language is translated from it. |
| Deutsch | de | Complete — not yet reviewed |
| Español | es | Complete — not yet reviewed |
| Français | fr | Complete — not yet reviewed |
| Italiano | it | Complete — not yet reviewed |
| Português (Brasil) | pt-BR | Complete — not yet reviewed |
Complete means every one of the 847 strings has been translated. Nothing is missing and nothing falls back to English.
Not reviewed means nobody who speaks the language has read it. Those are two different claims, and we would rather say the honest one. If you open the language list inside Crane right now, each of those five carries this line:
Translated, but not yet checked by a native speaker
We wrote that so we would have to keep looking at it. Retiring it is the job.
Why "complete" is not "correct"
The drafts were machine-made. That produces a very particular kind of wrong — the kind a non-speaker cannot catch by staring harder:
- gender agreement that is confidently incorrect
- invented house terms where the language already has a normal word for the thing
- register that is too formal, too casual, or simply strange
- a literal translation of an English idiom that means nothing to a real reader
None of that shows up as a missing string. It shows up as an app that feels like it was not made for you.
What "done" looks like
Our rule, written into the code:
Remove a tag only when it is both complete and reviewed.
So a language leaves this list when a real speaker has read it end to end and we have fixed what they flagged.
How to help
Pick your language's thread in this category and say hello. Tell us roughly how much time you have — a full pass and a "just the obviously wrong bits" pass are both genuinely useful.
If your language is not here at all, see the Wanted thread.
What the work actually looks like
You do not need GitHub. You do not need to install anything. You do not need to touch JSON.
- We email you a single file,
translate.html. Open it in any browser. It works offline.
- You get the English line, and a box under it. Type the better wording. Leave a box empty to keep what is there.
- When you are done, enter your language code, click Export translation file, and email the file back.
- We import it and it ships in the next build.
We generate that file when you ask for it, not before. The English strings still change week to week — all 847 were rewritten the morning this was written. A file you downloaded a month ago would have you translating text that no longer exists.
Two rules that matter
1. Keep the placeholders exactly as they are.
Some lines contain {{something}} or %1$d. The app drops a real value in — a book title, a number, a count of seconds. If a placeholder is missing or renamed, that line breaks. The editor outlines a box in orange when you have lost one, so you will see it.
2. A few labels have a hard length limit.
Five rows in Crane put labels side by side in a fixed strip that cannot wrap and cannot scroll. Too long is not "a bit tight" — it fails our build and cannot ship.
| Where | Total characters allowed |
|---|---|
| Settings tabs | 41 |
| Book tabs | 37 |
| Bottom navigation | 48 |
| Player buttons | 28 |
| Player statistics columns | 25 |
Those budgets are the total across all labels in that row, measured on real hardware. For those specific labels, shorter is a requirement, not a preference. Everywhere else, write naturally.
Your language code
Use exactly these. They are the tags the app ships:
de Deutsch
es Español
fr Français
it Italiano
pt-BR Português (Brasil)
For a new language, ask us in the Wanted thread and we will tell you the tag to use.
Permission and credit
By sending us a translation you allow Cranesoft LLC to use, change, and ship it in Crane Audiobook Player, including in paid versions.
You keep the right to use your own words anywhere else you like.
We credit you. That is the default, not a favour you have to ask for. Tell us the name or handle you want next to your language. If you would rather stay anonymous, say so and we will leave you out — but we would much rather thank you properly.
Credited translators are listed in the pinned Translators thread in this category. We also want that credit inside the app itself; there is no credits screen in Crane yet, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. When there is one, you will be on it.
That permission note is deliberately short. If you would rather have something more formal before you contribute, say so and we will sort it out.
One oddity you may notice
If you see "Pseudo (QA)" in Crane's language list, ignore it. It is a testing aid full of deliberately mangled text, used to check that long words do not break the layout. It is not a language and it is not for you. It should not be in that list, and we are fixing it.