YomiNinja v0.8.0

Hi everyone! YomiNinja v0.8 is finally here! This release introduces the Comic Text Detector, Manga OCR integration on macOS, a more accurate overlay, and many other enhancements and bug fixes. More updates are coming in the next few weeks, introducing image filters to improve OCR accuracy, support for vertical text in Apple's OCR engine (macOS only), support for more TTS voices, and more.

Enhancements:

• Added Comic Text Detector for manga text detection.

• Added Manga OCR integration to the macOS version.

• The positioning and sizing of extracted text have been improved.

• Added an option to filter out extracted furigana.

• Added an option to control the visibility of furigana generated by extensions.

• Added an option to automatically append ending punctuation marks to the extracted text to avoid potential sentence-mining issues.

• Added an option to switch text positioning modes (Block-based, Line-based, Word-based, or Character-based).

• Added an option to run YomiNinja at system startup.

• Added an option to disable hardware acceleration, potentially solving the issue where the overlay turns black.

• Added Manga OCR settings tab.

• Added a button to restore default hotkeys.

• The app stability has been improved.

• The app can now run even if PaddleOCR fails on startup.

• Updated dev dependencies and reworked the build system to natively support ARM64 CPUs (experimental).

• Bumped the built-in Yomitan version to 24.7.8.0.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Google Lens results were ordered incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue that prevented signing in to jpdb.io using a Google account.

• Fixed an issue where PaddleOCR settings were not saved.

• Fixed an issue that caused the app to freeze when closing it.

Known Issues:

• Before updating the app, you need to manually delete the app permissions (accessibility and screen recording) in the macOS privacy settings.

• The app might fail to fully load on the first launch. However, it should start without issues on subsequent launches.

• The ARM64 version might show the message "YomiNinja is damaged and can't be opened." You can work around this issue by following step 4 of this article.

• Problems with multi-monitor systems on Linux and macOS.

• Potential issues with fullscreen applications on macOS.

Download YomiNinja v0.8

Comic Text Detector

The text detector can be selected from the MangaOCR settings tab and has good accuracy with manga, much better than the previous Paddle alternative. In rare cases, it can even be more accurate than Google Lens in detecting manga text.

0.7.2 - MangaOCR + Paddle Text Detector

0.8 - MangaOCR + Comic Text Detector

Overlay Enhancements

The overlay in previous releases didn't accurately display the extracted text, especially with manga. This problem became even more evident once the Comic Text Detector was integrated, showing poor readability. So, I decided to rework the overlay as soon as possible. As a result, the overlay is now much more accurate in almost all situations without needing to tweak settings like the font size.

I highly recommend setting the font size and letter spacing to 100% from now on, as it should provide the best results in most cases.

PaddleOCR

0.7.2

0.8

Google Lens

0.7.2

0.8

Controlling Furigana Visibility

The visibility of furigana generated by extensions such as JPDB Reader can now be easily controlled, making the text less cluttered. Additionally, if the OCR extracts furigana from the original text, that can also be removed.

0.7.2

0.8

Furigana Filter

0.7.2

0.8

Performance and Support for ARM64 CPUs

Some users reported slow performance and bugs on macOS. Therefore, I updated some development dependencies and reworked the build system to include ARM64 versions. Fixing all the breaking changes took some time, but I’m hopeful that this update solves some of those issues. Currently, I don't have access to an ARM Mac to test it myself. However, I inspected the file, and it seems promising. I'll rely on your feedback to validate its functionality.

I'm considering acquiring an M-series Mac at some point. In theory, it should also allow me to run Linux and Windows for ARM as well. This could be quite beneficial because If the ARM version of the app for Mac proves successful, I'll also consider adding ARM versions for Windows and Linux.

Future Updates

I underestimated the time required to develop for multiple platforms, and I apologize for the delays. Testing each feature across different platforms to ensure universal functionality takes considerable time. To increase release frequency, I will now focus on fewer features simultaneously and release new versions as soon as a couple of features or fixes reach a stable state.

Any feedback is appreciated, so please let me know your suggestions!
Thank you so much for your patience and support!

Download YomiNinja v0.8
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Getting Started With YomiNinja
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YomiNinja GitHub Repository ‎