5 AI Manga Translation Prompts for Cleaner Text and Fewer Redraws

Upload a manga page and ask AI to “translate it,” and the result can be unpredictable. You might get enough to follow the story. You might also get dialogue crammed into speech bubbles, a character's expression subtly redrawn, or names that change from one page to the next.

A more reliable approach is to split the work into stages: read and check the source text, approve the translation, then place that exact wording into specific bubbles. Finally, compare the result with the original artwork, paying close attention to line art and screentones—the dot patterns used for shading.

The five prompts below cover a first translation pass, lettering approved dialogue, fixing an overflowing bubble, annotating sound effects, and keeping terminology consistent across pages. Replace the bracketed fields before using them with a model that supports reference images and image editing.

Choose a workflow that fits the job

A reader trying to follow an untranslated chapter needs a different workflow from an editor preparing finished pages. This Reddit discussion about automatic manga translation illustrates the demand for tools that make untranslated manga easier to read. Before choosing a tool, decide what you need the result to do.

For a first pass through a chapter, a dedicated tool such as AI Manga Translator combines text recognition, translation, and text replacement in one workflow. Test a dialogue-heavy page and a busy action page first. Check for missing text and misplaced dialogue before processing the whole chapter.

If you already have an approved translation, or just need to fix one overflowing bubble, upload the original page with precise editing instructions to the Promptsref Image to Image AI Generator. It accepts reference images and natural-language instructions. Generative editing can still redraw parts of the image, so check areas outside the lettering before accepting a result.

Prepare these four things before lettering

1. A clear image of a single page

Use a high-resolution digital source where possible. If you photograph a printed page, keep it flat and avoid glare or fingers covering the artwork.

For a scrolling webtoon, split the image at natural gaps between panels. Do not cut through a speech bubble or a line of text.

Zoom in on the smallest caption. If you cannot distinguish the strokes in the Japanese kana or kanji yourself, finding a clearer source will usually help more than repeatedly generating new versions. A higher output resolution does not guarantee that AI can recover illegible text.

2. A map linking each bubble to its approved translation

Identify every bubble you want to edit with a precise location, such as “top-right panel, right speech bubble,” and pair it with the approved wording. For complex layouts, you can number bubbles on a working copy, but keep the image used for final lettering clean.

Here is a sample mapping. The Chinese lines match the demonstration format used in Prompt 2; the English column explains their meaning.

This map helps prevent a frustrating mistake: the words are translated correctly, but one character's dialogue ends up in another character's bubble. Check each placement after generation anyway.

3. A short glossary and verified scene context

Record the approved character names, titles, honorifics, and attack names used on the page, along with any relevant context from the preceding page. Include facts you have checked—for example, “Rei is reporting to her teacher, using polite, restrained language.” Keep guesses out of the prompt.

Visual cues and context matter when resolving ambiguity in manga. The COLING 2025 paper Context-Informed Machine Translation of Manga examines how context affects manga machine translation.

In practice, settle the meaning using the full scene before moving on to lettering individual bubbles.

4. An untouched master copy

Keep the original pages, approved translations, and generated revisions in separate folders with clear filenames.

If an edit fails, return to the original or the last version that passed your checks. Repeatedly editing a result with degraded lines or smeared screentones can compound the damage.

5 AI manga translation prompts to copy and adapt

The initial prompt structures were drafted with help from the Promptsref AI Prompt Generator, then edited to add bubble locations, dialogue mappings, and boundaries for each edit. You can also give the generator your source language, target language, and the areas that must stay unchanged to tailor a prompt to your page.

These instructions aim to limit redraws. They cannot guarantee that every pixel outside the text areas will remain unchanged. Choose the prompt that addresses your current problem; you do not need to use all five at once.

The five before-and-after pairs below use original manga-style pages generated for this tutorial. The results show the outputs from the corresponding editing instructions, and still need to be checked for translation and lettering errors.

About the language in the examples: the illustrated edits use Simplified Chinese. The English-language prompts below retain that target language so they match the images. To make an English version of your own page, change Simplified Chinese to English, Chinese lettering to English lettering, and replace the sample dialogue and glossary entries with your approved English text. Rename language-specific placeholders as needed. The same editing boundaries apply.

Prompt 1: Translate dialogue and narration, leaving sound effects alone

Use this for a clear manga page with easily distinguishable speech bubbles. The prompt preserves the original right-to-left reading order, prohibits mirroring, and leaves sound effects (SFX) embedded in the artwork untouched.

Before: original dialogue and narration

After: generated Simplified Chinese translation

Edit the uploaded manga page. Translate only clearly readable Japanese dialogue and narration into natural Simplified Chinese, preserving meaning, speaker intent, and emotional tone. Use the visible scene and this verified context: [scene_context]. Keep the original right-to-left panel order; never mirror, flip, rotate, crop, or rearrange the page.

Replace text only inside its original speech bubble or narration box. Keep bubble outlines, tails, and positions unchanged. Use legible Chinese lettering with natural line breaks and clear margins. Preserve characters, facial expressions, poses, clothing, props, backgrounds, panel borders, screentones, line art, composition, and aspect ratio.

Leave sound effects and text outside dialogue or narration areas unchanged. Leave blurry, obscured, or uncertain text as it appears; do not invent missing words. Add no dialogue, explanations, decorative effects, or new objects. Return only the edited page image.

Before you run it: replace [scene_context] with verified story context. If you have none, use No additional verified context.

If Japanese text remains in the result, check whether it is unreadable text or a sound effect that the prompt explicitly protects. Do not immediately ask the model to erase every remaining Japanese character.

Prompt 2: Letter an approved translation without rewriting it

Use this when the translation is final and you do not want AI to polish or rewrite the dialogue. Replace the three sample mappings with the actual bubble locations and approved lines for your page.

Before: page awaiting the approved dialogue

After: generated lettering using the supplied Chinese dialogue

Edit the uploaded manga page using only the approved Simplified Chinese text in the mapping below. Replace the sample mapping with the actual panel locations and approved dialogue before processing:

[Top-right panel, right speech bubble] -> "别担心。"
[Top-right panel, left speech bubble] -> "我们走！"
[Bottom panel, only speech bubble] -> "等等我！"

Place each line only in its specified bubble. Preserve the exact approved characters and punctuation. Do not retranslate, paraphrase, correct, shorten, or add words. Adjust line breaks, lettering size, and spacing for legibility without changing bubble outlines, tails, or positions.

Modify only the mapped lettering areas. Leave all unmapped text and sound effects untouched. Preserve every panel, character, expression, pose, costume, prop, background, screentone, line, and the original aspect ratio. Do not mirror, crop, restyle, or add visual content. If a target cannot be identified unambiguously, leave it unchanged. Return only the edited page image.

What to check: compare the output with the approved text character by character. Pay particular attention to negatives such as “not” or “never,” as well as question marks and ellipses. A line that reads smoothly can still change the meaning of a scene.

Prompt 3: Fix one overflowing speech bubble

A translation can become too long for a narrow bubble, especially when it needs extra context. Before making the lettering smaller, shorten unnecessary wording in the translation, approve the revised line, and replace only that bubble.

For example, “I never meant for you to go there all by yourself” might become “I didn't mean for you to go alone,” if the scene allows it. Check that the shorter version preserves both the tone and the story information.

Before: page selected for a shorter line and revised lettering

After: generated page with revised Chinese lettering

Edit only this speech bubble in the uploaded manga page: [target_bubble_location]. Replace its current lettering with this user-approved shorter text: [approved_short_text]. Use that wording and punctuation exactly. Do not translate the rest of the page, rewrite the scene, omit story information, or modify any other dialogue.

Fit the approved text inside the existing bubble by adjusting line breaks, spacing, alignment, and lettering size. Keep the lettering comfortably readable and consistent with nearby bubbles. Keep clear margins between the text and the bubble border. Do not enlarge, reshape, or move the bubble or its tail. If the approved text cannot fit legibly, leave the target unchanged rather than deleting words.

Preserve all other lettering, panel borders, characters, expressions, poses, backgrounds, screentones, line art, reading direction, and aspect ratio. Do not mirror, crop, redraw, beautify, or add content. Return only the edited page image.

Before you run it: make [target_bubble_location] specific—for example, “second row, left panel, bubble above the main character's head.” Put the approved shorter line in [approved_short_text].

If the text still will not fit legibly, revise the wording yourself before trying again. Do not let the image model decide which words to drop.

Prompt 4: Keep the original sound effect and add a small note

Hand-drawn sound effects in action manga often overlap speed lines or impact shading. Erasing and replacing them can damage the surrounding artwork. One option is to keep the Japanese lettering and add a small translated note in nearby empty space.

Before: action page with Japanese sound effects

After: generated page with a Chinese sound-effect note

Edit the uploaded action manga page only to add one approved Simplified Chinese sound-effect note. Preserve all original Japanese sound effects, especially lettering integrated with speed lines, impact marks, or action graphics. Do not erase, translate in place, replace, redraw, or cover the original SFX.

Add this exact note: [approved_chinese_note]. Place it only in this user-identified blank area: [blank_area_location]. Use small, legible lettering that remains visually secondary to the original sound effect. Do not cover a character, face, hand, prop, panel border, motion line, or existing text. If the designated area is not blank or cannot hold the note clearly, leave the page unchanged rather than choosing another location.

Preserve all dialogue, panels, character anatomy, poses, expressions, costumes, backgrounds, screentones, line art, composition, reading direction, and aspect ratio. Add no decorative effects or extra explanation. Return only the edited page image.

Before you run it: if you have confirmed that the scene shows a heavy object hitting a door, a Chinese note might be 砰！ (roughly “BANG!”). Enter the approved wording in [approved_chinese_note] and identify the actual empty area in [blank_area_location]. For an English edit, use an approved English note and update the target language in the prompt.

If the composition has no suitable empty space, add a note outside the panel in a layout editor instead of squeezing it over the artwork.

Prompt 5: Keep names, titles, and character voices consistent across pages

Do not assume that each new page generation remembers the names used on the previous page. Provide the same glossary and character voice notes with every page in the chapter.

Before: page selected for translation with a shared glossary

After: generated Chinese translation using the supplied glossary

Translate the clearly readable Japanese dialogue and narration in the current uploaded manga page into Simplified Chinese. Use this approved glossary: [source_term -> approved_Chinese_term]. Follow these verified character voice notes: [character_voice_settings]. Use only this supplied continuity context: [relevant_previous_scene_context]. Do not invent events from pages that are not provided.

Keep names, titles, relationships, and recurring terminology consistent with the glossary. Preserve each speaker's established tone without adding explanations or changing plot information. Follow the original panel order and place each translation inside its own bubble or narration box, using legible lettering and natural line breaks.

Edit only the dialogue and narration text areas. Preserve sound effects, panel layouts, characters, expressions, poses, costumes, backgrounds, screentones, line art, composition, and aspect ratio. Do not mirror, crop, restyle, or add content. Leave unreadable or uncertain source text unchanged rather than guessing. Return only the edited image of the current page.

Before you run it: format Chinese glossary entries like 玲 -> 玲; 黒羽隊 -> 黑羽队. For an English translation, replace the right-hand terms with the spellings and names you have approved for that work, and change [source_term -> approved_Chinese_term] to match. Format voice notes like Rei: polite when addressing her teacher; no internet slang.

These are examples of the format, not established facts about your manga. Replace them with verified details, save the notes in a text file, and supply them again for every page in the chapter.

How to edit a manga page in five steps

1. Clear the reference slots and upload the current page. Remove built-in sample images and unrelated references left over from the previous page. Make sure the model receives the page you actually want to edit.

2. Match the original aspect ratio. Choose a model that supports reference-image editing, then select an output ratio that matches your page. Do not force a tall webtoon into a square. After generation, check all four edges for cropping.

3. Use the prompt for the problem at hand. Address one issue at a time and replace every bracketed placeholder. For Prompt 2, remove all three demonstration lines and enter the real bubble locations and translations.

4. Generate one result before processing more pages. Set the output count to one. Check the credit cost, output resolution, and text legibility before moving on to the next page.

5. Compare the original and the result side by side. Decide whether an error came from text recognition, translation, or lettering, then correct that stage. Avoid open-ended follow-ups such as “improve the whole page,” which give the model no clear editing boundary.

Common questions about AI manga translation

Can ChatGPT translate a manga page directly?

You can upload a manga page and ask it to extract and translate the text. If you want a finished image with the translation placed inside the bubbles, you also need an image-editing feature and instructions that explicitly ask for that result.

The ChatGPT Image Inputs FAQ describes limitations with non-Latin text, unclear images, and precise spatial positioning. Use the draft translation and context analysis as a starting point, then check the source text and bubble assignments.

What if it keeps misreading vertical Japanese, handwriting, or blurry scans?

Keep the full page available for context, and provide a clear crop of the questionable bubble for a second text-recognition pass. Enlarging a blurry image alone cannot restore strokes that are missing from the source.

If the original is genuinely illegible, find a clearer copy or instruct the model to leave that text unchanged for later review. Do not let a guess fill in a crucial line of dialogue.

Why does the artwork change even when I ask AI to preserve it?

A natural-language instruction cannot lock every pixel outside the lettering. Even when the translation is correct, a generated edit can alter expressions, lines, or screentones.

If your requirement is that everything outside specified text areas remain identical to the original, keep the original on a locked base layer and use selections and separate layers for cleanup and lettering. You can also use AI for the translation and place the text manually.

Can I post an AI-translated manga on social media or my website?

Translating a work does not give you permission to publish it. Check the rights and permissions that apply before sharing it publicly. The answer depends on the work, any license you have, and applicable exceptions.

WIPO's copyright FAQ lists translation among the uses a copyright owner may control. Using a translation to help with personal reading and publicly republishing a translated comic are different uses. AI-generated translation does not automatically authorize public distribution or commercial use.