​Thank you both for the insights and for explaining how the LINGUAS file works!

​Duarte, I gave your suggestions a thorough try—including the environment variable method and attempting to swap out the .mo file in an existing language directory—but unfortunately, I still couldn't get the translation to register or display locally on my version of Inkscape.

​Since the local testing workarounds didn't pan out, I want to pivot my focus entirely to working directly on the Weblate server as you both recommended. I will prioritize the high-traffic areas Maren mentioned, like the main menus, the Export dialog, and the Fill and Stroke panels.

​Before I dive in, could you let me know if there are any specific documentation links, guides, or resources you recommend for learning how to navigate and use Weblate effectively?

Yoseph

On Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 7:49 PM Maren Hachmann <maren@goos-habermann.de> wrote:

Hi Yoseph,

for documentation, there is a threshold of '80% translated' per po file.

For the GUI translations, such a threshold does not exist, however we
may manually disable languages that have a very low percentage / no
translations, as has happened with Amharic in the past.

For a translation to be valuable to users, also the location of the
translated strings in the interface is important. You can have lots of
rarely seen strings translated, but the Fill and Stroke and Export
dialog and menu items are not, for example. When starting out, I'd not
focus on completion, but on the most important locations.

Let me know when you've uploaded your po file for the master branch for
the first time!
  Maren

Am 23.06.26 um 23:11 schrieb ዮሴፍ ፈለቀ:
> ​Thanks for the clarification!
>
> ​Regarding updating the LINGUAS file once the translation is available in
> the repository from Weblate: does the Amharic translation need to be 100%
> complete for you to add it to the file, or is there a minimum completion
> percentage required before it can be included so I can start testing it
> normally?
>
> ​Best regards,
> Yoseph
>
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Inkscape Translators mailing list --
>> inkscape-translator@lists.inkscape.org
>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
>> inkscape-translator-leave@lists.inkscape.org
>>
>>
>

_______________________________________________
Inkscape Translators mailing list -- inkscape-translator@lists.inkscape.org
To unsubscribe send an email to inkscape-translator-leave@lists.inkscape.org