vibe-reading

This is a Chrome browser extension that translates PDF documents paragraph by paragraph, entirely on your own computer, with no internet connection required and no API fees. It was inspired by a popular browser extension called Immersive Translate but takes a different approach: instead of sending your text to a cloud service, it relies on AI models built directly into Chrome itself. The extension targets researchers and students who regularly read academic papers in a foreign language and want a side-by-side reading experience.

When you open a PDF, the extension displays the original text on the left side and the translated version on the right. Clicking any translated paragraph scrolls the original document to the matching section and highlights it, so you can cross-reference quickly. The extension also detects the source language automatically, so you only need to choose which language you want to translate into. A right-click option lets you trigger a full-document translation without opening the extension panel.

Beyond basic translation, the extension offers two AI-powered features. First, after processing the full document, it generates a summary organized into four sections: background, related work, key findings, and conclusion. Second, you can highlight any piece of text in the paper and type a question to ask the AI directly about that passage. Both features run through Gemini Nano, an AI model that Chrome downloads and keeps locally on your machine.

The setup requires Chrome version 138 or newer. You also need to enable two experimental Chrome features (Prompt API and Translator API) in the browser flags menu, then download an on-device AI model that is roughly 2.4 gigabytes in size. The extension only works on Chrome running on Windows 10 and 11, macOS 13 and later, Linux, and Chromebook Plus. It does not work on mobile browsers or on other browsers like Edge. The license is MIT.