Request: Add support for Chinese (Simplified) localization

[jiasongji]

Hi, thanks for the great work on Cap — it’s one of the cleanest and most efficient screen recorders available today.

I would like to request official support for localization, especially Chinese (Simplified).

Why this matters
Cap is becoming popular among users in China and other Chinese‑speaking regions.

Many users prefer or require a localized UI for accessibility and ease of use.

Cap’s UI is clean and minimal, so adding localization would not require a large amount of translation work.

macOS already supports .lproj‑based localization, so adding language support would integrate naturally with the system.

What has been tried
I attempted to add a custom zh-Hans.lproj folder with MainMenu.strings and Localizable.strings, but Cap does not load external localization files.

This confirms that localization is currently not implemented at the framework level.

Suggested solution
Add a localization system (e.g., using .strings or JSON-based i18n).

Expose UI strings for translation.

Allow community contributions for additional languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.).

Community help
I am willing to contribute a full Simplified Chinese translation once localization support is added.

Thanks again for your excellent work — looking forward to seeing Cap support more languages in the future.

[linear]

CAP-626

[tembo]

Thanks for the detailed request. There's actually active work happening on Chinese localization that you might want to follow:

Existing Issues

• Support for Chinese Language? #1006 - "Support for Chinese Language?" (tracked as CAP-474 in Linear)
• Chinese Simplified language #1208 - "Chinese Simplified language" (tracked as CAP-523 in Linear)

Active PR
PR #1547 ("feat: add desktop i18n and zh-CN translations") implements a lightweight i18n provider for the desktop app with Simplified Chinese translations. It covers:

• A new apps/desktop/src/i18n.tsx file with ~370 lines creating the i18n provider
• zh-CN translations for settings screens and the main recorder UI
• Language toggle in settings
• Updates to 24 files including settings pages, camera/microphone selects, and the main recording interface

The implementation uses a custom SolidJS-based i18n context rather than an external library. You can review the approach at #1547

Prior Attempt
PR #1497 was a previous localization attempt that was closed without merging. The Greptile review noted that locale preference wasn't persisted across sessions - something PR #1547 may address.

Scope Notes
The current PR focuses on the desktop app only. The web app (apps/web) would need separate work using something like next-intl or react-i18next for Next.js. There's also PR #1400 open for Traditional Chinese README documentation.

Since you mentioned willingness to contribute translations, coordinating with the author of #1547 could be valuable - they may need help expanding coverage beyond the initial settings/recorder screens to include the setup, editor, and screenshot-editor views.