Is the runes document translator free?

You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use.

Can it read runes from a photo of a runestone?

Not reliably. Text recognition works on printed and typed text, and a runestone is neither: the runes are cut into weathered stone, often painted in modern times, wound along a band, and read in whichever direction the carver chose. A photo of a printed edition, a museum label or a report that contains the transliteration reads well; a photo of the stone itself is a gamble. Look the stone up (Rundata covers Scandinavia; the Anglo-Saxon corpus is small and well published), upload the transliteration, and keep the photo for the view.

How accurate is it? What is the difference between Fast and Advanced?

Fast is enough to skim a catalogue or a list of formulaic stone texts. Advanced runs a frontier model and is the right choice for anything you will rely on: resolving the ambiguous runes of the Younger Futhark from Old Norse grammar and the standard formulas, and reading Proto-Norse and Old English inscriptions. Editions mark damaged runes with brackets and question marks, and those should be carried through rather than smoothed away, so compare the output with the edition. Runic readings are debated by specialists, and for a stone that matters you should cite the corpus edition, not a translation made here.

Will the translation keep my document's layout?

The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. Corpus entries with transliteration, normalisation and translation on separate lines should keep that structure; check that nothing has been merged.

What happens if I translate English into runes?

Expect a transliteration, not a translation: the English words, letter by letter, in runes. That is what nearly everyone asking for a name or a phrase in runes wants, and it is a modern convention, since runes wrote Old Norse, Old English and their relatives, not modern English. Letters without a rune of their own (c, q, v, x, z) have to be mapped to the nearest sound. For a short text use the runes text page, which converts instantly with a fixed Elder Futhark mapping and links to the full rune table; a document uploaded here is not converted by that fixed table, so check which futhark the output uses and verify it letter by letter against a rune table.

Which runes: Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc, medieval runes, or Tolkien's?

The historical rows are all handled the same way: read the transliteration or Unicode runes, work out the language, translate. Elder Futhark is what tattoo and jewelry text usually means and the row the text page converter uses; Younger Futhark is what Viking-Age runestones use; the futhorc is for Old English; medieval runes add dotted forms to match more Latin letters. Tolkien is a separate case: the runes on his map of Thror in The Hobbit are real Anglo-Saxon runes spelling modern English, while the Cirth of The Lord of the Rings are an invented script, not historical and not in the Unicode Runic block.

What file types can I upload?

PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX, XLSX and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned pages as JPG, PNG or HEIC. Free and Pro accept up to 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar accepts up to 50MB and 1,000,000 characters. If your file shows runes through a special rune font, convert it to Unicode runes or add the transliteration first, otherwise the file contains only Latin letters.

Runes PDF & Document Translator — Runic Text into English, English into Runes

Read a document of runic inscriptions, whether typed runes or transliterations, in English, or render a text as runes. Runes are a script, not a language: English in runes is a letter-by-letter transliteration, and reading an inscription means translating the Old Norse or Old English behind it. Your file's layout is kept.

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See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

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A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places. — Original — A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places.

An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions. — Original — An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Original — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Translation — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Original — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Translation — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Original — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Translation — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Original — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Translation — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

How Runes documents come out

Runes are a script, not a language, so a runic document is a document in Proto-Norse, Old Norse, Old English or another Germanic language written in a different alphabet. Upload a PDF, Word file or image that contains runic text, typed in Unicode runes or transliterated into Latin letters, and get the inscriptions read and translated into English with the page layout kept: a corpus edition, a museum catalogue, a class handout, or a list of runestone texts. For a name or a single line in runes, the instant converter on the runes text page is the quicker tool.

There is no single runic alphabet. The Elder Futhark (24 runes, roughly 150 to 800 CE) wrote Proto-Norse and early Germanic in a few hundred short inscriptions on bracteates, weapons and stones. The Younger Futhark (16 runes, the Viking Age) wrote Old Norse on thousands of runestones in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, in long-branch and short-twig variants, and was later expanded with dotted runes into the medieval runes used into the 1400s. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc (up to 33 runes) wrote Old English on objects such as the Franks Casket and the Ruthwell Cross. Runologists rarely work from the runes alone: the convention in corpus editions and in Rundata (the Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a transliteration into Latin letters (in print, usually bold), a normalised Old Norse text (usually italic) and a translation, with brackets for damaged or lost runes and dots or colons for the word dividers. A document built that way is the ideal upload, and so is typed Unicode runic text (ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲ). Photographs are the weak case: weathered stone, lichen, modern paint, runes wound along a serpent band, bind-runes, and inscriptions that run right to left or turn corners defeat reading from an image. Fonts matter too: a PDF that shows runes through a legacy rune font stores them as ordinary letters, and a translation then treats them as Latin text.

Translate your document and keep its structure

The translator keeps your file’s structure while translating the text in context. The downloaded format depends on the source file.

PDFs and scanned pages: The translated PDF follows the page visually, with translated pages rendered as images. Selectable PDF text and identical fonts are not guaranteed.
Word documents and PowerPoint presentations: Start with DOCX or PPTX when you have it. Native paragraphs, table text and slide text can stay editable in the corresponding file format. Translated text inside pictures remains image content; review text wrapping and font changes in your editor.
Excel workbooks and EPUB books: Use the original XLSX or unprotected EPUB for a translated workbook or ebook. Review formulas, numbers and text cells in a workbook; check chapter order, navigation and text flow in your ebook reader.

What people translate to and from Runes

Runestone texts and corpus editions

The provincial volumes of Sveriges runinskrifter, Danmarks runeindskrifter, Norges innskrifter med de yngre runer and the Rundata database present each inscription as transliteration, normalised Old Norse and translation. Students and enthusiasts upload pages from those editions, catalogue entries, or their own lists of inscriptions in transliteration to get the Old Norse read into English with the entry structure kept. The runestone formula is repetitive (X raised this stone in memory of Y, his father; he died in the east with Ingvar), which helps; the interesting variation is in bynames, place names, the verse endings on some stones, and the carver signatures (Öpir, Åsmund Kåresson) that recur across Uppland.

Reading Old Norse and Old English behind the runes

A runic text is only as readable as the language under it. Younger Futhark uses one rune for several sounds (ᚴ for k and g, ᛏ for t and d, ᚢ for u, o, y and ø), skips nasals before consonants and never doubles a letter, so kuþ can be Guð or Goð and the reading depends on Old Norse grammar and the standard formulas. Elder Futhark inscriptions are in Proto-Norse, a stage older than the sagas, and many are names, maker's marks or single words whose meaning is debated. Anglo-Saxon inscriptions are Old English. For the languages themselves, the Old Norse and Old English document pages cover editions, spelling and the usual traps.

Tattoos, jewelry and modern text in runes

Most requests for English in runes are for a tattoo, a ring, a pendant or a piece of art. Two honest points. Writing English in Elder Futhark is a letter-for-letter transliteration by a modern convention, not a translation, and c, q, v, x and z have no rune of their own; the runes text page does this instantly and deterministically and explains the mapping. If you want the words themselves to be old, translate into Old Norse or Old English first (composition, which someone who reads the language should check) and then transliterate, using Younger Futhark for Old Norse and the futhorc for Old English. A document can go through here for that purpose, but for a single line the text page is quicker, and either way check the result against a rune table.

Photos of runestones, museum labels and finds

A phone photo of a runestone in a churchyard, a museum caption, a page from an excavation report, or a Bryggen rune-stick from Bergen in a catalogue are all common uploads. Printed captions and reports read well. The stone itself does not: reading from a photograph of weathered granite is unreliable, and even a clear, freshly painted inscription defeats text recognition when the runes run along a curving band. The workable path is to find the published transliteration (Rundata gives one for nearly every Scandinavian stone, under a signum such as Sö 179 or DR 42) and upload that, or type the runes in Unicode. Treat any reading from a stone photo as a guess to verify, not a result.

What to watch for in Runes document translation

The first trap is thinking runes are a language. A rune translator that goes from English to runes is transliterating, and one that reads a runestone is translating Old Norse; the two operations are unrelated, and confusing them produces English words in Younger Futhark spelling, or Old Norse read as if it were English. The second is the Younger Futhark's economy: sixteen runes for a language with far more sounds, no doubled letters, and nasals dropped before consonants, so the transliteration is only the start of a reading (stin is steinn, ikuar is Ingvarr, kuþ is guð). The third is the state of the text. Editions mark lost runes in square brackets, uncertain ones with parentheses or dots beneath the letters, and conjectures with question marks, and a translation that silently fills the gaps misrepresents the stone. Direction, ligatures and dividers matter: some inscriptions read right to left or boustrophedon, bind-runes join two letters on one staff, and the word dividers on the stone are the only punctuation. Elder Futhark inscriptions carry the extra difficulty of Proto-Norse, where a single word can have several competing interpretations in the literature. Finally, rune fonts: a PDF that displays runes through a legacy font extracts as plain letters, so if the translated text reads as if it were English, or as gibberish, the runes were never in the file as runes.

Runes document translation FAQ

Is the runes document translator free?: You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use.
Can it read runes from a photo of a runestone?: Not reliably. Text recognition works on printed and typed text, and a runestone is neither: the runes are cut into weathered stone, often painted in modern times, wound along a band, and read in whichever direction the carver chose. A photo of a printed edition, a museum label or a report that contains the transliteration reads well; a photo of the stone itself is a gamble. Look the stone up (Rundata covers Scandinavia; the Anglo-Saxon corpus is small and well published), upload the transliteration, and keep the photo for the view.
How accurate is it? What is the difference between Fast and Advanced?: Fast is enough to skim a catalogue or a list of formulaic stone texts. Advanced runs a frontier model and is the right choice for anything you will rely on: resolving the ambiguous runes of the Younger Futhark from Old Norse grammar and the standard formulas, and reading Proto-Norse and Old English inscriptions. Editions mark damaged runes with brackets and question marks, and those should be carried through rather than smoothed away, so compare the output with the edition. Runic readings are debated by specialists, and for a stone that matters you should cite the corpus edition, not a translation made here.
Will the translation keep my document's layout?: The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. Corpus entries with transliteration, normalisation and translation on separate lines should keep that structure; check that nothing has been merged.
What happens if I translate English into runes?: Expect a transliteration, not a translation: the English words, letter by letter, in runes. That is what nearly everyone asking for a name or a phrase in runes wants, and it is a modern convention, since runes wrote Old Norse, Old English and their relatives, not modern English. Letters without a rune of their own (c, q, v, x, z) have to be mapped to the nearest sound. For a short text use the runes text page, which converts instantly with a fixed Elder Futhark mapping and links to the full rune table; a document uploaded here is not converted by that fixed table, so check which futhark the output uses and verify it letter by letter against a rune table.
Which runes: Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark, Anglo-Saxon futhorc, medieval runes, or Tolkien's?: The historical rows are all handled the same way: read the transliteration or Unicode runes, work out the language, translate. Elder Futhark is what tattoo and jewelry text usually means and the row the text page converter uses; Younger Futhark is what Viking-Age runestones use; the futhorc is for Old English; medieval runes add dotted forms to match more Latin letters. Tolkien is a separate case: the runes on his map of Thror in The Hobbit are real Anglo-Saxon runes spelling modern English, while the Cirth of The Lord of the Rings are an invented script, not historical and not in the Unicode Runic block.
What file types can I upload?: PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX, XLSX and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned pages as JPG, PNG or HEIC. Free and Pro accept up to 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar accepts up to 50MB and 1,000,000 characters. If your file shows runes through a special rune font, convert it to Unicode runes or add the transliteration first, otherwise the file contains only Latin letters.

See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

1 / 6

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