On Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 7:32 PM Maren Hachmann <maren@goos-habermann.de> wrote:

Hi all,

yes, Duarte is right.

When a new translation language is added, I need to update the LINGUAS
file. I'll do that once the translation is available in the repository,
coming from Weblate.

When I do that, I'll also check whether any other languages might be
missing.

Please get your po file from the Weblate server, because that one is
updated from the Inkscape codebase automatically.

If Inkscape is not available in the PATH, other programs on your
computer will not find it, and you will not be able to launch Inkscape
from the command line.

Thanks!
Maren

Am 19.06.26 um 11:26 schrieb Duarte Farrajota Ramos:
> Yeah, you are right, I could not get it to work either. I mostly use Weblate
> these days, so I might be giving you outdated or incorrect information.
> Looking at the source tree, there seems to be a hardcoded list of available
> languages for Inkscape at
> https://gitlab.com/inkscape/translations/-/blob/4c5583adc297cd4a2e2d68b0e3c371e1981ac47d/LINGUAS
> Which probably means you have to ask the developers to add that new language
> to the list, and will only be available in either future versions or alpha
> builds.
> Either way since this is likely to be a process that will take some time, in
> the meantime so you are not waiting around, you could try something else.
> Try translating your new po file normally with the correct language, but when
> you create the .mo file place it in the folder of some other existing language
> you don't plan on using, and replace the inkscape.mo file there (maybe rename
> the original for safe keeping), then from the UI pick that one language
> instead, and it should show you your translation in progress instead of the
> actual language you picked.
> Once it gets sorted out and your language does exist, you can then place it in
> the correct folder.
> On 19/06/2026 at 01:18, ዮሴፍ ፈለቀ <yosephfeleke22@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the detailed steps!
> I actually tried that exact setup before your email—compiling my progress into
> an inkscape.mo file and placing it under
> Inkscape\share\locale\am\LC_MESSAGES\inkscape.mo. However, when I open
> Inkscape, Amharic doesn't show up as an option in the language dropdown
> settings at all.
> To help me figure out what I might be doing wrong, could you clarify a couple
> of things?
> 1) The Source Files: I want to make sure I didn't download the wrong files
> from the server. Could you point me to the exact URL or directory where I
> should pull the correct .po files for the master branch?
> 2) System PATH: When installing Inkscape, there is an option that says "By
> default Inkscape does not add its directory to the system PATH." Does leaving
> this unchecked impact how Inkscape detects custom local translation folders?
> If these two things are not the source of the issue, do you have any idea what
> else might be causing it not to appear?
> Yoseph
> On Fri, Jun 19, 2026, 1:20 AM Duarte Ramos <duarte.framos@gmail.com> wrote:
> You can edit it by hand with any (programmer) plain text editor, like Notepad
> or Kate, but that is error prone and easy to mess up.
> For a more user friendly GUI approach, you can use any pot file editor like
> PoEdit or Lokalize, or any other that you find that you may like.
> I only used to use PoEdit, but they all probably have an option to compile and
> export an .mo file.
> You can then navigate to your Inkcape installation folder, under
> Inkscape\share\locale\
> You will find a list of languages. If your translation target isn't there,
> create one with the corresponding language ISO code. In it place a folder
> called LC_MESSAGES, such that it ends up being something like
> Inkscape\share\locale\##\LC_MESSAGES\ where ## is your language ISO code.
> In it place your .mo file named inkscape.mo you should then be able to run
> Inkcape normally, and see your language as an option in the UI language.
> You should end up with something like
> Inkscape\share\locale\am\LC_MESSAGES\inkscape.mo
> On 18/06/2026 at 22:28, ዮሴፍ ፈለቀ <yosephfeleke22@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a quick question regarding the workflow.
> I prefer not to do the translations directly inside the Weblate web interface,
> so I went to the server and downloaded a ZIP file containing the .po files to
> work on them locally. However, looking at the files has left me a bit
> confused.
> Could you please guide me on:
> What the best practice is for working on these .po files locally?
> How I can properly test the translations to see how they look inside Inkscape
> on my machine?
> Yoseph
> On Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 12:50 PM ዮሴፍ ፈለቀ <yosephfeleke22@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Maren and Duarte,
> Thanks so much for the warm welcome and for pointing me in the right
> direction!
> I will look through the documentation links you shared and log into the
> translation server to check out the master branch. I'll let you know if I run
> into any questions as I get started.
> Yoseph
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2026, 1:50 AM Duarte Ramos <duarte.framos@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Yoseph.
> UI translation these days is mostly done through
> https://translate.inkscape.org/
> Otherwise have you gone through
> https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Translation_information ?
> Let us know if you have any further difficulties.
> On 15/06/2026 at 00:06, ዮሴፍ ፈለቀ <yosephfeleke22@gmail.com> wrote:
> I want to work on translating Inkscape into Amharic. Can you please tell me
> what I need to do?
> Yoseph
>
>
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