Changing Publii's Language

Publii has three languages for the UI preinstalled: English, Polish and German, but many more are available thanks to the helpful efforts of our community. In this section, we'll look at how to install and activate new language files in Publii.

The Languages Screen

The Languages screen in Publii displays the currently-selected language, and allows you to switch to any of the other installed translations for the Publii interface. To reach this screen, click on the Three-Dot Icon at the top-right of the main app window to open the menu, then select Languages in the list of options; you will be taken to the Languages screen where you can see the list of installed languages.

Publii Languages screen with English selected, German and Polish installed, and options to install or download more language packs. — Publii includes English, German and Polish. Click a language card to switch the interface language, or install an additional language pack.

Activating a Language

Activating an installed language couldn't be simpler; just click on the language box that you wish to use, and the UI will immediately switch to the newly-selected language. Your selection is saved as the app's language, so there is no need to restart Publii.

This setting changes the language of the Publii interface. It does not translate your website's content or theme.

Downloading New Languages

Thanks to the efforts of our community, there are several alternative language packs available for Publii. To use them, they will first need to be downloaded from Publii's GitHub Page for languages. To do so, follow these steps:

In the Publii app, open the Languages screen by clicking on the Three-Dot Icon to open the menu, then on the Languages option.
In the list of available languages, click on the Get more languages box; this will open your browser to the GitHub page specifically for Publii translations.
On this page, scroll down to the README and find the Current and upcoming translations by language code table.
Find the language that you wish to use. The Supports column shows the Publii version the translation was prepared for. Each complete language pack is compiled into a single .zip file; you do not need to download its individual source files.
Click the language code with the download arrow next to it to open the package's file page. For example, en-GB refers to British English and pt-BR refers to Brazilian Portuguese.
On the file page, click the download icon to download the ZIP package. Keep the file zipped; Publii will extract it during installation.

You can also use the repository's file finder to locate a specific language package in the downloads folder.

Community translations may not yet include all the text added in the latest Publii release. If a translation is missing, Publii uses the English text instead.

Installing a Language File

Once a language file has been downloaded, it will need to be installed. To do this, follow these steps:

In the Publii app, open the Languages screen as before by clicking the Three-Dot Icon to open the menu, then on the Languages option.
On the Languages screen, click on the Install language button at the top of the screen. This will open your file browser.
Navigate to the location where the language file was downloaded, and select the .zip file.
The language file will now be installed, and the new language will appear as an option on the Languages screen; simply click it to set the new language as the default.

You can also install a language pack by dragging its ZIP file onto the Languages screen. To update an installed language pack, download its newer ZIP package and install it in the same way.