Verified project record

pot-app/pot-desktop

A cross-platform desktop application providing text translation, OCR, and text-to-speech through a graphical interface or local HTTP API. It aggregates built-in and external services including OpenAI, DeepL, Ollama, and Tesseract, and supports functionality extension via plugins.

Project overview

Project type: Workflow · Document Processing
Use cases: Documents & Office · Translation & Subtitles
Deployment: Refer to project documentation
License: GPL-3.0

Best for

PC users on Windows, macOS, or Linux who require a centralized desktop tool for text translation, OCR, and speech synthesis.
Users requiring offline or local processing through integrations such as Ollama and Tesseract.

Key capabilities

Translates text selected by the mouse via a configurable keyboard shortcut.
Translates text typed into an input window.
Performs optical character recognition on a selected screen region.
Captures a screen region and translates the recognized text.
Automatically translates text when it is copied to the clipboard.
Provides speech synthesis for translated text.
Allows users to install external .potext plugins to expand functionality.
Allows other software to trigger functionality by sending HTTP requests to a local server.

Limitations and risks

Application shortcuts do not work on Wayland desktops.
Built-in screenshot functionality fails on pure Wayland environments like Hyprland.
The Flatpak version lacks a system tray icon.
Crashes on Linux with Nvidia proprietary drivers due to Webkit2Gtk DMABUF issues unless disabled.
The Windows version requires WebView2 to be installed and enabled.

Getting started

Install the application via native installer packages or package managers such as winget and brew, then launch the application.

Evidence and sources

GitHub project description: 🌈一个跨平台的划词翻译和OCR软件 | A cross-platform software for text translation and recognition.
README: 鼠标选中需要翻译的文本，按下设置的划词翻译快捷键即可
README: - [x] 多接口并行翻译 ([支持接口](#支持接口)) - [x] 多接口文字识别 ([支持接口](#支持接口)) - [x] 多接口语音合成 ([支持接口](#支持接口)) - [x] 导出到生词本 ([支持接口](#支持接口)) - [x] 外部调用 ([详情](#外部调用)) - [x] 支持插件系统 ([插件系统](#插件系统)) - [x]…
README: - [x] [OpenAI](https://platform.openai.com/) - [x] [智谱 AI](https://www.zhipuai.cn/) - [x] [Gemini Pro](https://gemini.google.com/) - [x] [Ollama](https://www.ollama.com/) (离线) - […
README: 软件内置接口数量有限，但是您可以通过插件系统来扩展软件的功能。

Reviewed at: 2026-07-17T13:57:55Z