ML-powered manga translator, written in Rust.
Getting Started · Docs · Bug reports · Discord
Koharu introduces a local-first workflow for manga translation, utilizing the power of ML to automate the process. It combines the capabilities of object detection, OCR, inpainting, and LLMs to create a seamless translation experience.
Note
Koharu runs its vision models and LLMs locally on your machine to keep your data private and secure.
Note
Join our Discord server for support and discussion.
- Multi-format project management for raster images, archives, and PDFs with page sequencing
- Selective pipeline for detection, OCR, translation, and inpainting at page or project scope
- Detection and segmentation for text regions, speech bubbles, and cleanup regions
- Multimodal OCR for dialogue, captions, and general page text
- Local GGUF inference and hosted providers for LLM and machine-translation workflows
- Generative inpainting for source-text removal and artwork reconstruction
- Proofreading for correcting OCR and translation output
- WebGPU-based canvas for manual cleanup, text placement, and page composition
- Multilingual text shaping and layout with automatic fitting, font fallback, vertical CJK, and right-to-left text
- Layered PSD export for flattened delivery and layered editing
- Agent-based workflow for project inspection, editing, and pipeline control
Koharu supports GPU acceleration with CUDA and ROCm / HIP on Windows and Linux, Metal on Apple silicon, and Vulkan on Windows and Linux. Runtime and hardware requirements vary by backend and operating system.
The CUDA backend targets CUDA 13.0 on Windows and Linux. Make sure to install the latest NVIDIA driver. CUDA 13.0 requires R580 or newer.
ROCm / HIP is available for AMD GPUs on Windows and Linux. Make sure to install the official ROCm Core SDK with HIP.
Metal is used on Apple silicon Macs.
Vulkan is available on Windows and Linux as an alternative to CUDA and ROCm / HIP.
The editor canvas uses WebGPU inside the embedded CEF webview. WebGPU requires a current graphics driver even when inference runs on the CPU.
Koharu uses the CPU when no accelerator is available or initialization fails. No GPU SDK is required, but inference is slower.
Koharu uses separate models for detection, OCR, inpainting, and translation. Vision and inpainting and translation and generation have separate model settings.
Detection, OCR, and inpainting models are selected separately.
The detection model finds text regions, speech bubbles, and segmentation masks.
OCR reads source text from detected regions.
Inpainting reconstructs the image behind source text before the translation is rendered.
Translation can use a local language model or a remote API.
- LFM 2.5: lfm2.5-1.2b-instruct
- Ministral 3: ministral-3-8b-instruct
- Gemma 4: gemma4-e2b-it, gemma4-e4b-it, gemma4-12b-it, gemma4-26b-a4b-it, gemma4-31b-it
- Qwen 3.5: qwen3.5-0.8b, qwen3.5-2b, qwen3.5-4b, qwen3.5-9b, qwen3.5-27b, qwen3.5-35b-a3b
- Qwen 3.6: qwen3.6-27b, qwen3.6-35b-a3b
- Qwen 3.8: qwen3.8-27b
- Gemma 4 uncensored: gemma4-e2b-uncensored, gemma4-e4b-uncensored, gemma4-12b-uncensored, gemma4-26b-a4b-uncensored, gemma4-31b-uncensored
- Qwen 3.5 uncensored: qwen3.5-2b-uncensored, qwen3.5-4b-uncensored, qwen3.5-9b-uncensored
- Qwen 3.6 uncensored: qwen3.6-27b-uncensored, qwen3.6-35b-a3b-uncensored
- Qwen 3.8 uncensored: qwen3.8-27b-uncensored
Hosted LLM providers: Atlas Cloud, OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, Grok, MiniMax, DeepSeek, and OpenRouter.
Machine-translation providers: DeepL, Google Cloud Translation, and Caiyun.
OpenAI-compatible endpoints are also supported.
Download release builds from the releases page. Installation requirements and first launch vary by operating system.
Builds are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Install on Windows with winget:
winget install koharuInstall on macOS with Homebrew:
brew install --cask koharuStartup, runtime, model, and provider errors are covered in Troubleshooting. Set RUST_LOG to debug or trace for verbose logs:
# macOS / Linux
RUST_LOG=debug koharu
# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:RUST_LOG="debug"; koharu.exePlatform dependencies and validation commands for local builds are listed in Development Setup.
- Rust 1.97.1 or later (Rust 2024 edition)
- Bun 1.3.14 or later
- LLVM 22.1.8 or later
- Ninja 1.13.2 or later
bun installbun devbun run buildThe executable is written to target/release.
If Koharu is useful in your workflow, consider sponsoring the project.
Thanks to all the contributors who have helped make Koharu better!
Copyright 2025-2026 Mayo Takanashi and Koharu contributors.
Koharu is dual-licensed under the MIT License or the Apache License, Version 2.0, at your option.