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/ 

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