Is Smartcat Translator for Figma free?

Smartcat Translator for Figma comes with Smartcat at no extra charge. Smartcat has a Forever Free tier, where organizations get 15,000 Smartwords every month, which you can use to automatically translate your Figma designs. If you need more Smartwords, choose a subscription plan that fits you content translation volumes, our purchase Smartwords on as-needed basis.

How many languages can I choose?

As many as you need! There are no limits to the number of languages in any given Figma file, page or frame. Smartcat supports more than 280+ languages for automatic translation.

Can I translate a specific frame or a selection?

Yes, if you select a particular frame or a group of frames, and pick the new language to translate into, this language will be added only to selected frames. If you don’t select anything on a page, all frames on that page will be translated.

Can I check how many Smartwords will I use for translation?

As you select a particular frame or multiple frames at once, Smartcat Translator will estimate the number of words in your selection. If you clear the selection, it will show the number of words in your entire page.

Can I edit the translations manually?

Yes. After you switch to a particular language, you can then click on any text object and correct its text. As you do so, the “Lock this translation” flag will be turned on for that text object to avoid your edits from being overwritten with the automated translation. But you can turn this flag off if you want to discard your edits. To see the properties of a text object and the “Lock this translation” flag, go to the Smartcat Translator menu by clicking the menu button in the top left corner of the plugin window and turn the 'Show text object properties' toggle on. After that, select any text object, and at the bottom of the plugin window you will see the current textual representation of the object and the "Lock this translation" flag, which you can toggle

What’s the difference between automatic and professional translation?

Automatic translation is a quick way to test your designs in multiple languages. It use professional machine translation engines, as well as reuses professional translations that were done before. While being the most convenient option for testing, you can’t guarantee that the resulting translations will be perfect and will capture all the context that your designs have. Professional translation is made by real people. They may start with the same automatic translation, but they review each string and ensure the quality and consistency. If you want to use translation in your final product (for example, to deliver your clients multilingual designs), you will probably want to to go with the professional translation.

Can I use professional translation after I already translated everything automatically?

Yes, and that’s exactly how Smartcat Translator for Figma works: you always start with an automated translation so that you can preview the translations and adjust the layout. Once you connect your Figma page to Smartcat, all the text in the frames you translate becomes exposed for professional editing/review, and your automated translations are also exported into Smartcat as a baseline version professional translators can iterate upon. This allows to speed up the translation process and cut on professional translation costs.

Can I change my designs while they are being professionally translated?

Yes, you can, and we’re proud to be the first and only translation solution for Figma that allows designers, copywriters and linguists efficiently work in parallel. You can adjust your designs, add or delete text objects, and once you synchronize changes to Smartcat, we will update the corresponding translation project to add new strings (or as we call them, segments), or remove the ones that no longer exist in your designs.

How can I push my changes to Smartcat? How can I pull professional translations back into Figma?

Just click the sync button in Smartcat Translator. It will both push your changes and pull translations in one go.

How can I check the status of professional translation?

You can either check it in your Smartcat project or right in the plugin. The statuses for each language are shown on the language buttons — just hover over the percentage icon next to the language name. Note, to see the most up-to-date status you need to launch the synchronization with Smartcat first.

Who can do professional translation for me? Do I have to order paid translations?

The main thing Smartcat gives you is a professional environment to work on your content, where we perform spell-checking, validate your translations against 30+ different criteria, highlight glossary terms and so on to ensure you can deliver quality translations. However, we’re not limiting you to ordering paid translations from professional translators. Smartcat is an open platform where you can perform translations yourself, invite your own teammates or colleagues (for example, from the translation/localization department) or hire linguists from our Marketplace.

How much does professional translation cost?

It really depends on your budget, on languages you’re translating from and into, on the subject, and on who you are inviting to do the translation. For example, you can invite your teammates and pay no extra charge, or invite a large translation agency and pay $0.25 per word or even more. Smartcat offers a marketplace of 500,000+ individual freelancers and 3,000+ language companies, so you have plenty of options to choose from. Typical translation rates on our marketplace vary between $0.05 and $0.10 per word.

Do I have to find professional translators by myself? How do I know they provide quality translation?

You don’t have to manage this all by yourself. While we will automatically suggest some linguists from the Marketplace you can work with, we also offer Autopilot as an add-on subscription to our paid plans. Autopilot will take care of all the translation project management tasks and give you a quality guarantee that you can typically expect from large language service providers.