OpenCC is a library for conversion between Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese Shinjitai, and regional wording variants.
The tool addresses the challenge of accurately converting text across different Chinese writing systems and regional conventions. It uses dictionary-based, deterministic conversion rather than machine learning models, ensuring stable and predictable results that run fast and work entirely offline. The dictionaries are decoupled from the library itself, allowing users to customize and extend them for specific needs. The project maintains strict distinctions between Simplified-Traditional character mappings and character variant relationships, with carefully reviewed entries that follow the principle of separating characters whenever they are distinguishable.
Developers should choose this tool if they need reliable Chinese text conversion without external dependencies or network calls. It suits projects handling content across Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong that require consistent handling of regional character preferences and terminology differences. The tool explicitly does not perform translation between different languages, such as between Mandarin and Cantonese or Japanese, so it is not appropriate for cross-language work. Support for Japanese character conversion is limited in scope.
The project maintains active engagement with its community through a dedicated discussion channel. Development activity shows consistent attention to the codebase with regular updates and refinements to both the conversion dictionaries and the underlying library implementation. The maintainers demonstrate commitment to the project's core design principles through detailed documentation of conversion standards and regional phrase inclusion criteria.
