Translations

Guide to implementing multi-language support in LVGL Pro projects.

Implement multi-language support in your LVGL Pro projects using the XML translation module to define and manage translated strings efficiently.

Overview

The XML translation module allows defining and using translated strings directly within XML files.

It's built on top of LVGL's translation module.

Check LVGL's translation module documentation to learn more about selecting the active language, retrieving translations, and fallback behavior.

Usage

Example XML translation definition:

<translations languages="en de hu">
 <translation tag="dog" en="The dog" de="Der Hund" hu="A kutya"/>
 <translation tag="cat" en="The cat" de="Die Katze" hu="A cica"/>
 <translation tag="snake" en="A snake" de="Eine Schlange" hu="A kígyó"/>
</translations>

In the root translations tag, the languages attribute defines the available languages, e.g., languages="en de hu". Language codes are free-form, but ISO-style codes are recommended.

Each translation defines a tag, which acts as the lookup key, and attributes for each language.

Translations may be omitted — fallbacks will be applied when needed. Refer to the LVGL translation module documentation for details on fallback behavior.

Code export

Based on the translations defined in XML, C code is exported in the format required by the Translation module of LVGL, and it is also registered automatically when the UI is initialized.

Relation to fonts

To effectively handle Asian (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, or Korean) characters it's recommended to use a <tiny_ttf> font, as it loads the characters to draw on demand from a single TTF file. This way:

1. Any character can be rendered (assuming the font supports it)
2. Any size can be rendered

If you would like to use a C array font instead, it's recommended to use the fallback feature of the fonts to chain multiple fonts, e.g. one per language.

Learn more on the Fonts page.