Meikipop Guide

Meikipop is an incredibly fast OCR popup dictionary that lets you look up Japanese text anywhere on your screen. Point your mouse at any Japanese text, press a hotkey, and get instant dictionary definitions. Magic.

Unlike browser extensions, Meikipop works with any on-screen text.

Installation

Prebuilt Binaries (Recommended)

1. Download the latest release from the Meikipop Releases page
2. Extract the archive to a folder of your choice
3. Run the executable

The prebuilt binaries include the dictionary, so no additional setup is required.

From Source

Requires Python 3.10+.

1. Clone or download the repository
2. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   pip install lxml
   

3. Build the dictionary:

   python -m scripts.build_dictionary
   

4. Run:

   python -m src.main
   

macOS Permissions

macOS users need to grant the following permissions in System Preferences:

• Input Monitoring - For hotkey detection
• Screen Recording - For capturing screen content
• Accessibility - For mouse position tracking

Basic Usage

1. Launch the application - A system tray icon will appear
2. Select scan region - On first run, you'll be prompted to select a screen region to scan
3. Position your mouse over Japanese text you want to look up
4. Press and hold the hotkey (Shift by default)
5. View the popup - Dictionary results appear instantly
6. Release the hotkey to hide the popup

Right-click the system tray icon to access settings and options.

Configuration

Access settings through the system tray icon's right-click menu. Configuration is saved to config.ini in the application folder.

Available options:

• Hotkeys - Change the trigger key
• Themes and colors - Customize the popup appearance
• Scan region - Switch between region-specific or fullscreen scanning
• Auto scan mode - Enable continuous scanning without holding the hotkey
• OCR provider - Choose between Google Lens, meikiocr (local), or OwOCR (WebSocket)

Anki Mining Fork

If you want to create Anki cards directly from Meikipop, check out pnotisdev's fork. It adds:

• Anki card creation (Alt+A) - Captures screenshots and context sentences
• Duplicate detection - Prevents adding words already in your deck
• Automated audio - Fetches audio from languagepod101.com
• Additional shortcuts - Alt+C to copy text, Alt+J for Jisho
• More dictionaries - Supports monolingual dictionaries like kaikki

Limitations

The original Meikipop is focused specifically on dictionary lookups. It does not support:

• SRS flashcard mining (use JL or the Anki fork above)
• Multiple dictionaries simultaneously

Tips

• Auto scan mode is useful for games where text changes frequently and you want continuous lookups
• Particularly useful for JRPGs with complex menus where text appears all over the screen, compared to VNs where text is usually in a predictable location
• For games that can be text hooked, consider using Textractor + JL instead
• Click the system tray icon to quickly toggle Meikipop on/off