Septalingua
Read, translate and understand with AI and offline tools
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Septalingua - Read, translate and understand with AI and offline tools

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Septalingua is a privacy-first reader for books, documents and images in 20+ formats. Translate and explore grammar with AI, use online medical references and downloadable offline dictionaries. Recognize printed text locally with OCR, edit PDFs and images, and protect backups with on-device encryption. Available as a web app and PWA in 9 interface languages. All implemented features are free during public alpha, subject to technical and usage limits.

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Hey Product Hunt! 👋

I'm Alex, the solo developer behind Septalingua.

The project started with a simple idea: reading foreign-language books and complex documents shouldn't require constantly switching between readers, translators, dictionaries, and AI chatbots.

What began as a personal reading tool has grown into something much bigger.

Today, Septalingua is a privacy-first smart reader and document workspace, available in your browser and as a PWA.

What you can already do:

  • Open 20+ formats of books, documents, and images, including EPUB, FB2, FB3, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, CBZ, and more.

  • Translate and understand text: Explore words, sentences, and paragraphs with contextual AI explanations, grammar analysis, and idiom breakdowns.

  • Use dictionaries and professional references: Medical and pharmacological terminology databases are available online through the translator. Wikidata/Wiktionary-based dictionary resources can also be downloaded for offline use. Legal terminology resources are currently being prepared and populated, with an initial preview available.

  • Recognize text locally: Offline OCR processes printed text from images and scans, with cropping, alignment, result correction, and the option to create PDFs with a text layer.

  • Edit documents and images: Work with PDF pages, annotate images, convert photos into PDFs, and save edited copies.

  • Build your personal vocabulary: Save words, notes, and bookmarks in your reading context.

  • Protect your data: Books and personal reading data stay on your device. Backups can be stored locally or in your chosen cloud storage, with optional password-based encryption performed on your device.

The interface currently supports 9 languages: English, Italian, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Ukrainian. More languages are planned.

Why Privacy First?

I believe users should decide how their documents are processed.

Local reading, downloaded offline dictionaries, and offline OCR work on your device without sending document content to external services.

When you choose online translation or AI assistance, the selected text and necessary context are transmitted to the relevant external provider. These services currently use commercial AI and translation platforms.

I don't recommend using online AI or translation tools for sensitive documents or personal data. For such materials, local processing is the safer choice.

You also decide where to store your backups. Encryption is performed on your device, and your backup password is never sent to the server. Please keep it safe: if you lose it, I cannot recover it for you.

Where is Septalingua heading?

I'm currently improving OCR, expanding medical terminology coverage, preparing legal dictionaries, and refining the user interface.

One of the next major steps is launching the Septalingua community — a dedicated space where language learners, readers, and professionals will be able to discuss difficult passages, share knowledge and reading experiences, exchange ideas, and help shape the platform through feedback.

Other upcoming developments include additional languages, better text-to-speech, more AI models and providers, device synchronization, and native applications.

My long-term vision is to develop a protected AI-assisted environment for professional document work, including medical, legal, and enterprise use cases.

Private AI models, professional ontologies, and Zero-Knowledge / Zero-Disk architectures are part of that longer-term research roadmap, not features available today.

A note about pricing

Septalingua is currently in free public alpha testing. All implemented and enabled features are available to testers without charge, although some technical and usage limits apply because I fund and develop the project independently.

My long-term commitment is to keep offline tools, a substantial range of online features, and access to medical, legal, and other specialized reference resources free, subject to applicable licensing terms.

Some advanced AI services may eventually become paid. I also plan to introduce Bring Your Own API Key (BYOK) support alongside native applications, allowing users to connect compatible AI services using their own keys.

I'd really appreciate your feedback!

  • Is the reading and document workflow intuitive?

  • Are contextual AI explanations and specialized dictionaries useful together?

  • Which features would you prioritize next?

  • What would make you comfortable working with your own documents in Septalingua?

  • What would you like to see in the upcoming Septalingua community?

I'm building this independently, and every thoughtful suggestion helps shape the project's future.

Thank you for taking a look!

🌐