what does it take to be a manga scanlator?

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

Okay, coming from someone who can take on all three jobs at once:

Translating - Firstly, you have to be very fluent in both Japanese (or whatever language the scans are in) and English. You can't just be okay at English. You need to be good enough to take the original language and make it into a nice sounding English phrase. Most Japanese will sound awkward if you directly translate it. You will not understand what I mean unless you speak an Asian language like Korean/Jap/Chinese.

At first, translating seems fun but then it starts to get tedious when half of the dialogue is stuff like "Oh, how was your day?" "It was okay, thanks." You feel like you want to give up because it won't be relevant to the main plot.

Coming from a non-Jap translator, the hardest thing is translating things that don't make sense or names. Because I have to write out the original Japanese sentence with the name and then translate the name from Japanese.

Cleaning - It's the easiest job obviously, but not so easy when the scan quality is poor or has a lot of dust specks on it. Also, if you want to be a GOOD cleaner, you need to be able to redraw.

For example, this is something that requires some serious skill to clean: (Spica)

Firstly you need to be able to redraw the bookshelves in the last panel. Because English text is not vertical like Japanese, you can't just cover it up that easily. Then the panel on the right with the teddy bear is pretty much impossible to redraw.

Another example of a hard to clean page: (Nagi no Asukara)

I only gave cleaning jobs for Nagiasu to the best cleaners in my group.

Typesetting - It's honestly not that bad except you NEED an eye for art. You need creativity. To be able to pick fonts, align text, and such, you need the ability of typography which not everyone has. If you mess up typesetting, readers will notice most of the time because it's even more noticeable than a spelling mistake or grammar mistake, at least for me.

The worse part about typesetting is how much time it takes. It took me around 10 hours to finish a chapter of Shitsuren Chocolatier which is around ~60 pages long per chapter. It has a lot of dialogue. For Gomen ne Idol-kun, it was around ~40 pages and took 4 hours since there was normal dialogue. Although, I had to do quality checking for Idol-kun because the translator for Chocolatier had perfect English already.

As a typesetter, you'll start to feel tired after a while. Which is why I typically typeset only 10 pages at a time now so I don't burn out.

One more thing, as a typesetter, you need to be able to cover up things that the cleaner cannot redraw/clean. Like in the above example I posted (the manga cap), the typesetter is responsible for putting English text (horizontal dialogue) above Japanese text (vertical dialogue) and making it work out.

I also think the typesetter should know English so they can make sentences shorter to fit bubbles, but that's just how my group does it.

Also, an example of a dialogue-heavy page (Shitsuren Chocolatier):

In General - It's hard to find dedicated translators who will do a chapter per week. I thought I was a dedicated translator until I started hating the job. When people don't read your releases, you stop having motivation to make more work. Which is why I love getting fanmail when I scanlate something. It makes me happy knowing people are reading my stuff.

We are doing it for free, out of our free time, for people to read. Do not expect it to be a timely release or something. I mean, props to groups that can release things quickly but most can't.

There are sooo many avid photoshopppers out there that shop photos in like 5 seconds

Because editing a comic book is different from this. Cleaning actually takes around a 1 minute per page without redrawing. I timed myself and the best I can do is 30 seconds per page (with a lot of dialogue).

I swear all you need is someone that can read the language

No, they need to be able to make it into English and not awkward.

a guy to just ease and type words in a speech bubble.

The hardest job because of how much dialogue a page has. I hate typesetting. I love it but I also hate it.

MayukaFeb 13, 2016 2:26 PM

Feb 13, 2016 5:23 PM

#4

Offline

Apr 2015

226

Mayuka said:

wow thats really informative

and thank you for explaing it to me (in great detail) and although all that you say is true, there are still raw scans that have very little dialogue and only speech bubbles, yet noone is willing to translate them.
I guess the reason for that would relate to what @-Senpai- said

but yeah it just depeneds on the mangas i guess.

also what is your scanlation group? i want to know if i read some of your stuff.... although most of it might be yaoi knowing you.. >.>

Mkim said:
I only beat off to 180 year old woman,
that's like 10 times legal age so I'm 10 times a good citizen who's not going to jail.

Kyubey said:
◕ ‿‿ ◕ do you want to be a mahou shoujo?

Feb 13, 2016 5:45 PM

#5

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

King_Savage said:
also what is your scanlation group? i want to know if i read some of your stuff.... although most of it might be yaoi knowing you.. >.>

http://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=69595 - Eien Scans

nah, most of our stuff is slice of life and josei. i try to pick series that are guaranteed to be good so we don't do romance (in general) that much. all of the good BL series are already taken by other groups.
we only have two BLs released.

ALSO ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE AN INSULT AT ME? JUST BECAUSE I LIKE BL DOESN'T MEAN I ONLY READ/WATCH BL
do you not see my top 10 favourite anime/manga list is made out of different demographics/genres ?!?!?!

there are still raw scans that have very little dialogue and only speech bubbles, yet noone is willing to translate them.

like what? is it a manga many people want to read? scanlation groups don't just do whatever they feel like. they have standards and preferences.

Feb 13, 2016 8:18 PM

#6

Offline

Apr 2015

226

Mayuka said:

do you not see my top 10 favourite anime/manga list is made out of different demographics/genres ?!?!?!

Actually no I didn't look. Just going off of most of your forum post lol

Hourou Musuko in manga favourite, I respect that lol

like what? is it a manga many people want to read? scanlation groups don't just do whatever they feel like. they have standards and preferences.

i can't recall which ones because when I see a manga isn't finished (either not translated or ongoing) I don't save it and try not to read those because I don't want to cry if they drop it while I start to enjoy it (I also really don't like waiting weekly for releases but I've been trapped in with "The Gamer" and "Boku Girl" T-T)
So I just hope that I come across it again when its finished

Mkim said:
I only beat off to 180 year old woman,
that's like 10 times legal age so I'm 10 times a good citizen who's not going to jail.

Kyubey said:
◕ ‿‿ ◕ do you want to be a mahou shoujo?

Feb 13, 2016 10:22 PM

#7

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

Well, if I see something that's not fully scanlated, I put it on my PTW with tags "scans" or hell, I might pick it up for my own group to do.

Weekly releases?? What? That's super fast. Getting it out once per week is an incredible feat. LOL I wish most series I followed were like Bleach/Naruto/OP where it's like weekly.

Feb 14, 2016 12:12 AM

#8

Offline

Apr 2015

226

Mayuka said:

Weekly releases?? What? That's super fast. Getting it out once per week is an incredible feat. LOL I wish most series I followed were like Bleach/Naruto/OP where it's like weekly.

lol I know but its worrisome to me, because if by some off chance it gets dropped I can't understand raws T-T and I don't want to get all excited and have my dreams shattered lol

It's happened recently when I was reading "Kono S O, Mi yo!"
I thought I seen [final chapter] but it meant "Final chapter we are going to translate" because they didn't like the ending

And its an emotional rollercoaster! When I see a new chapter of Boku no Hero Academia

Scrolling (neutral) ----> Sees new chapter (Hyped!) -----> Reading new chapter (Creaming in my pants!) ----> Chapter end (tears streaming down my face, light dimming from my eyes, reason for existing starts to fade)

Then its starts over again next week. lol

Mkim said:
I only beat off to 180 year old woman,
that's like 10 times legal age so I'm 10 times a good citizen who's not going to jail.

Kyubey said:
◕ ‿‿ ◕ do you want to be a mahou shoujo?

Feb 14, 2016 12:17 AM

#9

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

That's why I don't read ongoing series very often!! Haha :P

I only read it if I'm sure people want to scanlate it, like popular series.

Feb 14, 2016 1:25 AM

#10

PeenusWeenusCaim

Offline

Jan 2013

13743

So why exactly do releases take long? is it hard to be a scanlator? if someone could tell me.

The lack of money. It's also a pretty thankless job.

Feb 14, 2016 3:49 AM

#11

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

TR-8RCaim said:

So why exactly do releases take long? is it hard to be a scanlator? if someone could tell me.

The lack of money. It's also a pretty thankless job.

Yeah. The fact that two out of the three jobs take quite a bit of time to do, it's hard to get it released in a periodic time. And people quit halfway so that's why series gets dropped. Four out of six of the translators on my team are not replying to any of my messages right now.

Feb 14, 2016 3:57 AM

#12

Offline

Apr 2015

226

Mayuka said:

TR-8RCaim said:

The lack of money. It's also a pretty thankless job.

Yeah. The fact that two out of the three jobs take quite a bit of time to do, it's hard to get it released in a periodic time. And people quit halfway so that's why series gets dropped. Four out of six of the translators on my team are not replying to any of my messages right now.

Im sorry, I understand that feel.
and lawl, yeah i never understood how people do it for free. you guys the real mvp.

ive seen some teams take donations, but its understandable as they buy and scan it themselves

Mkim said:
I only beat off to 180 year old woman,
that's like 10 times legal age so I'm 10 times a good citizen who's not going to jail.

Kyubey said:
◕ ‿‿ ◕ do you want to be a mahou shoujo?

Feb 23, 2016 4:28 PM

#13

AsukaLangley

Offline

Jun 2015

4847

As the title states, I'm interested in becoming a scanlator, since I need something to do besides school work, and it seems people are always in need of them. Does anyone know how to become one, and if its something that a student can handle?

良い曲 // アスカ名言

ママ、ママ、わかったわ。ATフィールドの意味！！私を護っていてくれてる！私を見てくれてる！！ずっと、ずっと一緒だったのね！ママッ！！

気持ち悪い

Feb 23, 2016 4:35 PM

#14

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

Ask yourself, what are your skills? What can you do?

Are you a translator? Do you know both English and a secondary language like Chinese or Japanese?

Or are you a cleaner/typesetter? Do you know how to use an image editing program?

It's definitely doable for a student, though.

Feb 23, 2016 6:17 PM

#15

AsukaLangley

Offline

Jun 2015

4847

Mayuka said:
Ask yourself, what are your skills? What can you do?

Are you a translator? Do you know both English and a secondary language like Chinese or Japanese?

Or are you a cleaner/typesetter? Do you know how to use an image editing program?

It's definitely doable for a student, though.

Thanks for this information, but I have a few more questions:
1. If I want to become a scanlator, how do I get started (who to talk to, websites, contacts)?
2. How big of a commitment is it? Can I test it out for a while and quit if I think it isn't cut out for me?
3. If I want to be a translator, do I have to know how to navigate a photo-editor software or do I just need to be able to translate?

Thanks :)

良い曲 // アスカ名言

ママ、ママ、わかったわ。ATフィールドの意味！！私を護っていてくれてる！私を見てくれてる！！ずっと、ずっと一緒だったのね！ママッ！！

気持ち悪い

Feb 23, 2016 7:15 PM

#16

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

wataru99 said:

Mayuka said:
Ask yourself, what are your skills? What can you do?

Are you a translator? Do you know both English and a secondary language like Chinese or Japanese?

Or are you a cleaner/typesetter? Do you know how to use an image editing program?

It's definitely doable for a student, though.

Thanks for this information, but I have a few more questions:
1. If I want to become a scanlator, how do I get started (who to talk to, websites, contacts)?
2. How big of a commitment is it? Can I test it out for a while and quit if I think it isn't cut out for me?
3. If I want to be a translator, do I have to know how to navigate a photo-editor software or do I just need to be able to translate?

Thanks :)

1. Join an existing team (LIKE MINE !!!!) or form your own with your friends. Typically, go to any manga you like and there's gonna be a credits/recruitment page in the chapters.

2. Okay, well...
For a 30 page chapter: (this is my speed, and I am considered one of the fastest in each category so.. it's not that accurate lol)

Cleaning -> Around 1-2 hours, depending on redrawing. Will take more time if the pages are bad quality or need leveling
Typesetting -> Around 4-10 hours, depending on dialogue
Translating -> Around 2-5 hours, depending on dialogue and how complex it is

It's not a good idea to start on a series and then quit lol. People will be mad at you :C

3. You just need to be able to translate and type the English!

Feb 23, 2016 10:29 PM

#17

shawnofthedeadz

Offline

Oct 2013

1766

Thread "How to become a Scanlator?" Merged Here.
Before creating a new thread, please ensure that a similar thread has not been created before by using the search function.

~ S & F Guidelines ~ My Profile ~ My AnimeList / MangaList ~ ShawnOfTheDeadz.com ~

Jul 21, 2016 10:01 AM

#18

SilentlyCrying

Offline

Jul 2016

1

I tried my hand at cleaning up that super tricky page you linked to.

I'm warming up to become a cleaner/typesetter. How'd I do? :)

Nov 7, 2016 10:45 AM

#19

Offline

Jul 2012

48248

SilentlyCrying said:
I tried my hand at cleaning up that super tricky page you linked to.

I'm warming up to become a cleaner/typesetter. How'd I do? :)

If you want a proper reply from me, send me the HQ version of that haha