Paste long text or choose a PDF, EPUB, Word, TXT or Markdown file. Follow the progress, pause when you need to, and save a new translated copy.
Unpublished writing, client documents, research notes and internal reports stay on the machine you are sitting at.
The model, the translation and the result all stay local. There is no server involved and nothing to opt out of.
Paste a paragraph or a full manuscript. Seam handles the complete text without exposing internal passage boundaries or asking you to switch modes.
Open PDF, EPUB, DOCX, TXT or Markdown. Save a new translation in the original format.
Completed pages and text segments are saved. Close the app mid-run and continue where you left off.
Swift for speed, Balanced for everyday writing, Pro for nuanced prose. Switch or remove one at any time.
Every translation is searchable and kept locally. Small edits update the existing entry rather than piling up duplicates.
See the text and document workflows, both running on your computer.
The source stays on the left and the translation grows on the right as it is produced. A highlight tracks the passage being worked on, so you always know where it is.
Every translation is saved locally and searchable. Refining a source updates the same entry instead of piling up near-identical duplicates.
Choose PDF, EPUB, Word, TXT or Markdown. Seam saves progress and creates a new file in the original format. Review its layout before sharing.
Preview completed text segments, browse earlier ones or follow the latest. PDF jobs show completed page previews.
Swift for speed, Balanced for everyday writing, Pro for prose headed for publication. Downloaded once, then never online again.
Three steps from source to saved translation.
Pick Swift, Balanced or Pro on first run. PDF layout resources may download the first time you translate a PDF.
Select the source and target languages, then paste text or open a PDF, EPUB, DOCX, TXT or Markdown file.
Follow completed pages or segments, pause and resume, then save the translated document in its original format.
Seam is not the right tool for every job. Here is an honest look at where it fits and where something else is better.
| Seam | Cloud translation services | Web translators | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your text is uploaded | Never | Yes, under a policy | Yes |
| Length limit | None | Plan-dependent | Usually capped |
| Works without internet | Yes | No | No |
| Account required | No | Yes | Sometimes |
| Raw translation quality | Good | Usually the best available | Good |
| Speed on a long document | Minutes to hours | Seconds to minutes | Seconds |
| Depends on a remote service | No | Yes | Yes |
If you need the highest possible quality on a short marketing page and the text is not confidential, a large cloud service may be a better fit. If the document is long, private, or both — that is what Seam is for.
Here are the exact specifications before you install.
| Operating system | Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit) |
|---|---|
| Memory | 4 GB RAM minimum · 8 GB recommended · 16 GB for the largest model |
| Disk space | 1.1 – 1.8 GB per translation model, plus the app |
| Graphics card | Not required. Runs on the processor. |
| Internet | Needed to download a model. PDF layout resources may download on first use; text translation runs locally. |
| Languages | 23, in either direction |
| Input | Pasted text, PDF, EPUB, DOCX, TXT and Markdown files |
| Interface languages | English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Italian |
The things people ask before installing.
Document text is passed to a model on your own computer, not uploaded to a translation service. A model download is needed first, and PDF layout resources may download on the first PDF run.
Models are downloaded when you choose one. PDF layout resources may also download once when you first translate a PDF. Document text is translated locally.
No. There is no sign-in, no profile and no email required. Seam does not know who you are and has nowhere to send that information anyway.
No fixed cap for pasted text. Seam breaks long text and document content into smaller sections. Longer jobs simply take more time on your computer.
No. Seam aims to preserve PDF page layout and the structure of EPUB and Word files, but it cannot guarantee a 100% match. Longer translated sentences, fonts, tables and mixed formatting can move or reflow content. Inspect the saved file before sharing it.
23 languages in either direction: English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malay, Turkish, Polish, Dutch, Ukrainian, Czech and Hebrew.
They trade speed for fidelity. Swift is fastest and lightest on memory, Balanced is the best choice for most writing, and Pro gives the most nuanced results for prose headed for publication. You can keep more than one and switch between them.
In a file on your own computer, alongside the models you downloaded. Deleting a translation in the app removes it from that file. Nothing is synced anywhere.
No. There is no telemetry, no usage tracking and no crash reporting that leaves your machine. Problems are written to a local log file you can read yourself.
Practical writing about translating long and confidential documents — useful whatever tool you end up using.
A practical file-by-file workflow for previews, saved progress and a final layout check.
A practical spreadsheet template for keeping names, product terms and technical language consistent.
Find skipped lines, duplicate paragraphs and lost numbers without comparing every word.
What you can verify yourself, what you cannot, and how to spend human review where it matters.
A controlled workflow for academic prose, terminology, references, formulas and final verification.