Meikipop Setup Guide

Meikipop is an incredibly fast OCR popup dictionary that lets you look up Japanese text that appears on your screen. Just hover your mouse over any text and you will get instant dictionary definitions.

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 come with the dictionary included, so no extra setup is needed. Binaries are available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

pip Install

If you have Python installed, you can also install Meikipop via pip:

pip install --upgrade meikipop
meikipop

The dictionary will download automatically on first run.

From Source

Requires Python 3.10+.

1. Clone or download the repository
2. Install in editable mode:

   pip install -e .
   

3. Run:

   meikipop
   

macOS Permissions

macOS users will need to grant these 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 launch, you'll be asked to select a screen region to scan
3. Hover your mouse - Position over the Japanese text you want to look up
4. View the popup - Dictionary results show up automatically

By default, Meikipop uses auto-scanning on mouse movement, so no hotkey is needed. You can reconfigure it to require a hotkey press if you prefer.

Right-click the system tray icon to access settings and options. Click it to quickly toggle scanning on/off.

Configuration

You can access settings through the system tray icon's right-click menu. Configuration and dictionaries are stored in platform-specific locations:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\meikipop\
• Linux: ~/.config/meikipop/
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/meikipop/

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 - Continuous scanning on mouse movement (enabled by default)
• Scan interval - Configure how frequently the screen is scanned
• Popup content - Fine-grained control over what shows in the popup
• OCR provider - Choose between meikiocr (local, default), Google Lens, Chrome Screen AI, or OwOCR

Anki Mining Forks

If you want to make Anki cards directly from Meikipop, there are a couple of community forks worth checking out:

pnotisdev's fork

pnotisdev's fork 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

zurcGH's fork

zurcGH's meikipop-anki adds:

• Yomitan-style Anki integration - Card creation workflow similar to Yomitan
• Frequency and pitch accent - Displays frequency info and pitch accent marks
• Yomitan-api integration - Uses your existing Yomitan dictionaries (bilingual and monolingual)
• Toggleable features - Enable or disable individual features as needed

Limitations

The original Meikipop focuses specifically on dictionary lookups. It doesn't support:

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

Tips

• Auto scan mode (on by default) works well for games where text changes frequently and you want continuous lookups
• Especially handy for JRPGs with complex menus where text shows up all over the screen, compared to VNs where text is usually in a predictable spot
• For games that can be text hooked, consider using Textractor + JL instead
• Click the system tray icon to quickly toggle Meikipop on/off
• Meikipop includes a kanji dictionary with meanings, readings, and example words
• Compatible with Magpie for upscaled games