opencc_pyo3

opencc_pyo3 is a Python extension module powered by Rust and PyO3, providing fast and accurate conversion between different Chinese text variants using OpenCC algorithms.

Features

• Convert between Simplified, Traditional, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japanese Kanji variants with OpenCC-compatible configurations.
• High-performance Rust + PyO3 backend for fast, memory-efficient Chinese text conversion in Python.
• Python API with OpenCC, OpenccConfig, config validation helpers, punctuation conversion, and Chinese text variant detection.
• Command-line interface for plain text conversion from files or standard input.
• Office and EPUB document conversion support for .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .odt, .ods, .odp, and .epub.
• PDF text extraction helpers, including PDFium-based page-by-page extraction utilities.
• CJK paragraph reflow helper for cleaning PDF-extracted text before conversion.

Supported Conversion Configurations

• s2t, t2s, s2tw, tw2s, s2twp, tw2sp, s2hk, hk2s, s2hkp, hk2sp, t2tw, tw2t, t2twp, tw2tp, t2hk, t2hkp, hk2t, hk2tp, t2jp, jp2t

Installation

1. Install from PyPI

pip install opencc-pyo3

2. Build and install the Python wheel using maturin:

# In project root
maturin build --release
pip install ./target/wheels/opencc_pyo3-<version>-cp<pyver>-abi3-<platform>.whl

Or for development (May require venv):

maturin develop -r

See build.txt for detailed build and install instructions.

Usage

Python

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC

text = "“春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟。”"
opencc = OpenCC("s2t")
converted = opencc.convert(text, punctuation=True)
print(converted)  # 「春眠不覺曉，處處聞啼鳥。」

CLI

You can also use the CLI interface via Python module or Python script:
Sub-Commands are:

• convert: Convert Chinese text using OpenCC
• office: Convert Office document Chinese text using OpenCC
• pdf: Convert extracted PDF document text using OpenCC

convert

python -m opencc_pyo3 convert --help
usage: opencc-pyo3 convert [-h] [-i <file>] [-o <file>] [-c <conversion>] [-p] [-n] [-E] [--detofu [<level>]] [--detofu-file <file>] [-D <slot:mode:path>]
                           [--in-enc <encoding>] [--out-enc <encoding>]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i <file>, --input <file>
                        Read original text from <file>. (default: None)
  -o <file>, --output <file>
                        Write converted text to <file>. (default: None)
  -c <conversion>, --config <conversion>
                        Configuration: s2t|s2tw|s2twp|s2hk|s2hkp|t2s|t2tw|t2twp|t2hk|t2hkp|tw2s|tw2sp|tw2t|tw2tp|hk2s|hk2sp|hk2t|hk2tp|jp2t|t2jp (default:
                        None)
  -p, --punct           Enable punctuation conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  -n, --norm-compat     Normalize CJK Compatibility Ideographs before conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  -E, --norm-compat-extended
                        Normalize extended Unicode compatibility forms before conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  --detofu [<level>]    Apply tofu-safe fallback after conversion. Levels: all/ExtB, ExtC, ExtD, ExtE, ExtF, ExtG, ExtH, ExtI. (default: None)
  --detofu-file <file>  Load additional detofu fallback mappings from a UTF-8 text file. Custom mappings override built-in mappings; requires --detofu.
                        (default: None)
  -D <slot:mode:path>, --custom-dict <slot:mode:path>
                        Load custom dictionary file. Format: slot:mode:path, e.g. STPhrases:append:custom.txt. Can be used multiple times. Available slots: STC
                        haracters|STPhrases|STPunctuations|TSCharacters|TSPhrases|TSPunctuations|TWPhrases|TWPhrasesRev|HKPhrases|HKPhrasesRev|TWVariants|TWVar
                        iantsPhrases|TWVariantsRev|TWVariantsRevPhrases|HKVariants|HKVariantsPhrases|HKVariantsRev|HKVariantsRevPhrases|JPSCharacters|JPSCharac
                        tersRev|JPSPhrases (default: None)
  --in-enc <encoding>   Encoding for input. (Default: UTF-8) (default: UTF-8)
  --out-enc <encoding>  Encoding for output files and redirected stdout. Interactive console output uses the terminal's Unicode stream. (Default: UTF-8)
                        (default: UTF-8)

office

Support OpenOffice documents and Epub (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .odt, .ods, .odp, .epub)

python -m opencc_pyo3 office --help                                         
usage: opencc-pyo3 office [-h] -i <file> [-o <file>] [-c <conversion>] [-p] [-n] [-E] [--detofu [<level>]] [--detofu-file <file>] [-f <format>] [-k]
                          [-D <slot:mode:path>]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i <file>, --input <file>
                        Input Office document from <file>. (default: None)
  -o <file>, --output <file>
                        Output Office document to <file>. (default: None)
  -c <conversion>, --config <conversion>
                        Configuration: s2t|s2tw|s2twp|s2hk|s2hkp|t2s|t2tw|t2twp|t2hk|t2hkp|tw2s|tw2sp|tw2t|tw2tp|hk2s|hk2sp|hk2t|hk2tp|jp2t|t2jp (default:
                        None)
  -p, --punct           Enable punctuation conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  -n, --norm-compat     Normalize CJK Compatibility Ideographs before conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  -E, --norm-compat-extended
                        Normalize extended Unicode compatibility forms before conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  --detofu [<level>]    Apply tofu-safe fallback after conversion. Levels: all/ExtB, ExtC, ExtD, ExtE, ExtF, ExtG, ExtH, ExtI. (default: None)
  --detofu-file <file>  Load additional detofu fallback mappings from a UTF-8 text file. Custom mappings override built-in mappings; requires --detofu.
                        (default: None)
  -f <format>, --format <format>
                        Target Office format (e.g., docx, xlsx, pptx, odt, ods, odp, epub) (default: None)
  -k, --keep-font       Preserve font-family information in Office content (default: False)
  -D <slot:mode:path>, --custom-dict <slot:mode:path>
                        Load custom dictionary file. Format: slot:mode:path, e.g. STPhrases:append:custom.txt. Can be used multiple times. Available slots: STC
                        haracters|STPhrases|STPunctuations|TSCharacters|TSPhrases|TSPunctuations|TWPhrases|TWPhrasesRev|HKPhrases|HKPhrasesRev|TWVariants|TWVar
                        iantsPhrases|TWVariantsRev|TWVariantsRevPhrases|HKVariants|HKVariantsPhrases|HKVariantsRev|HKVariantsRevPhrases|JPSCharacters|JPSCharac
                        tersRev|JPSPhrases (default: None)

PDF

Support PDF files as input, with built-in text extraction and OpenCC-based conversion powered by opencc-fmmseg (available since v0.8.4).

This command allows you to extract Chinese text from PDF documents, optionally apply CJK-aware paragraph reflow, and convert the result using OpenCC configurations.

Note
Only text-embedded (searchable) PDF documents are supported.
Scanned or image-only PDFs without an embedded text layer are not currently supported.

python -m opencc_pyo3 pdf --help
usage: opencc-pyo3 pdf [-h] -i <file> [-o <file>] [-c <conversion>] [-p] [-H] [-r] [-C] [--timing] [-e] [-n] [-E] [--detofu [<level>]] [--detofu-file <file>]
                       [-D <slot:mode:path>]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i <file>, --input <file>
                        Input PDF file. (default: None)
  -o <file>, --output <file>
                        Output text file (UTF-8). If omitted, defaults to "<input>_converted.txt". (default: None)
  -c <conversion>, --config <conversion>
                        Configuration: s2t|s2tw|s2twp|s2hk|s2hkp|t2s|t2tw|t2twp|t2hk|t2hkp|tw2s|tw2sp|tw2t|tw2tp|hk2s|hk2sp|hk2t|hk2tp|jp2t|t2jp (default:
                        None)
  -p, --punct           Enable punctuation conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  -H, --header          Preserve page-break-like gaps when reflowing CJK paragraphs (passed as add_pdf_page_header to reflow_cjk_paragraphs). (default: False)
  -r, --reflow          Enable CJK-aware paragraph reflow before conversion. (default: False)
  -C, --compact         Use compact paragraph mode (single newline between paragraphs). (default: False)
  --timing              Show time use for each process workflow. (default: False)
  -e, --extract         Extract PDF text only (skip OpenCC conversion). (default: False)
  -n, --norm-compat     Normalize CJK Compatibility Ideographs before conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  -E, --norm-compat-extended
                        Normalize extended Unicode compatibility forms before conversion. (Default: False) (default: False)
  --detofu [<level>]    Apply tofu-safe fallback after conversion. Levels: all/ExtB, ExtC, ExtD, ExtE, ExtF, ExtG, ExtH, ExtI. (default: None)
  --detofu-file <file>  Load additional detofu fallback mappings from a UTF-8 text file. Custom mappings override built-in mappings; requires --detofu.
                        (default: None)
  -D <slot:mode:path>, --custom-dict <slot:mode:path>
                        Load custom dictionary file. Format: slot:mode:path, e.g. STPhrases:append:custom.txt. Can be used multiple times. Available slots: STC
                        haracters|STPhrases|STPunctuations|TSCharacters|TSPhrases|TSPunctuations|TWPhrases|TWPhrasesRev|HKPhrases|HKPhrasesRev|TWVariants|TWVar
                        iantsPhrases|TWVariantsRev|TWVariantsRevPhrases|HKVariants|HKVariantsPhrases|HKVariantsRev|HKVariantsRevPhrases|JPSCharacters|JPSCharac
                        tersRev|JPSPhrases (default: None)

python -m opencc_pyo3 convert -i input.txt -o output.txt -c s2t --punct

python -m opencc_pyo3 convert -i input.txt -o output.txt -c t2s --norm-compat

python -m opencc_pyo3 convert -i input.txt -o output.txt -c s2t --detofu all --detofu-file custom_detofu.txt

echo "這個細路哥很靈活" | python -m opencc_pyo3 convert -c hk2sp --custom-dict HKVariantsRevPhrases:append:my_hk_dict.txt
# output: 这个小男孩很灵活

echo "天龍八部書裡的喬峰是契丹人" | opencc-pyo3 convert -c t2s --norm-compat
# output: 天龙八部书里的乔峰是契丹人
 
python -m opencc_pyo3 office -c s2t --punct -i input.docx -o output.docx --keep-font

opencc-pyo3 office -c s2tw -p -i input.epub -o output.epub

opencc-pyo3 pdf -i input.pdf -o output.txt -c s2t --punct --reflow --norm-compat

my_hk_dict.txt:

--custom-dict accepts slot:mode:path and can be passed more than once. The token is validated before conversion: slot, mode, and path must all be present. Supported merge modes are append and override; common slots include STPhrases, TWPhrases, HKVariantsRevPhrases, and JPSCharactersRev.

細路哥	小男孩

Python API

OpenccConfig

OpenccConfig is an enum exported from opencc_pyo3 for config-safe usage:

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC, OpenccConfig

cc = OpenCC(OpenccConfig.S2TW)
print(cc.convert("汉字"))  # 漢字

Available enum values:

• OpenccConfig.S2T
• OpenccConfig.T2S
• OpenccConfig.S2TW
• OpenccConfig.TW2S
• OpenccConfig.S2TWP
• OpenccConfig.TW2SP
• OpenccConfig.S2HK
• OpenccConfig.HK2S
• OpenccConfig.T2TW
• OpenccConfig.TW2T
• OpenccConfig.T2TWP
• OpenccConfig.TW2TP
• OpenccConfig.T2HK
• OpenccConfig.T2HKP
• OpenccConfig.HK2T
• OpenccConfig.HK2TP
• OpenccConfig.T2JP
• OpenccConfig.JP2T
• OpenccConfig.S2HKP
• OpenccConfig.HK2SP

OpenCC

Core converter class backed by the Rust extension module.

• OpenCC(config: str | OpenccConfig = "s2t", preserve_ids: bool = False)
  • config: OpenCC conversion configuration. Invalid values fall back to s2t.
  • preserve_ids: Preserve characters inside Unicode IDS (Ideographic Description Sequence) structures such as ⿰, ⿱, and ⿲ during conversion. Default is False.
• OpenCC.from_dicts(config="s2t", specs=None) -> OpenCC
  • Creates a converter with programmatic, in-memory custom dictionary entries.
• OpenCC.from_dict_files(config="s2t", specs=None) -> OpenCC
  • Creates a converter with OpenCC-style custom dictionary files.
• convert(input_text: str, punctuation: bool = False) -> str
  • Converts text using the current config.
• detofu(text: str, level: str = "all") -> str
  • Replaces rare CJK extension characters with display-safe fallback characters.
• detofu_with_custom_file(text: str, level: str = "all", path: str) -> str
  • Applies DeTofu with additional UTF-8 fallback mappings from a file.
• detofu_with_custom_pairs(text: str, level: str = "all", pairs: list[tuple[str, str]]) -> str
  • Applies DeTofu with additional in-memory fallback character pairs.
• set_config(config: str | OpenccConfig) -> None
  • Changes the active config.
• get_config() -> str
  • Returns the current canonical config name.
• get_last_error() -> str
  • Returns the most recent config error message, or "" if none.
• zho_check(input_text: str) -> int
  • Detects the text type.
  • 1 = Traditional Chinese, 2 = Simplified Chinese, 0 = other / undetermined
• OpenCC.supported_configs() -> list[str]
  • Returns all supported config names.
• OpenCC.is_valid_config(config: str) -> bool
  • Validates a config string.
• OpenCC.available_slots() -> list[str]
  • Returns all 21 active canonical custom dictionary slot names.

Example:

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC, OpenccConfig

cc = OpenCC(OpenccConfig.S2T)
print(cc.get_config())  # s2t
print(cc.convert("汉字", punctuation=True))
print(cc.zho_check("汉字"))  # 2

cc = OpenCC("t2s", preserve_ids=True)
print(cc.convert("漢字 ⿰氵漢 馬"))  # 汉字 ⿰氵漢 马

cc.set_config("t2jp")
print(cc.convert("圖書館"))  # 図書館

# Phrase-aware Traditional ↔ Hong Kong Traditional conversions
print(OpenCC(OpenccConfig.T2HKP).get_config())  # t2hkp
print(OpenCC(OpenccConfig.HK2TP).get_config())  # hk2tp

print(OpenCC.supported_configs())
print(OpenCC.available_slots())
print(OpenCC.is_valid_config("s2hk"))  # True

DeTofu Display Fallbacks

DeTofu can replace rare CJK extension characters with more widely displayable fallback characters after normal OpenCC conversion. The canonical argument order is always input text, level, then custom source. level="all" is equivalent to ExtB and replaces ExtB and later extension characters; compact and CLI-friendly spellings such as B, ExtC, and ext-c are accepted.

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC

cc = OpenCC("s2t")

print(cc.detofu("𠉂𪠟𫝈𫬐", "all"))
print(cc.detofu_with_custom_file("𣭲毛", "all", "custom_detofu.txt"))
print(cc.detofu_with_custom_pairs("𣭲毛", "all", [("𣭲", "氄")]))

Custom DeTofu files use one mapping per line:

𣭲	氄	B

Custom Dictionaries

OpenCC("s2t") remains the recommended API for normal use and continues to use the built-in embedded dictionaries. Use custom dictionaries only when you need project-specific terms or overrides.

Custom dictionaries are applied during construction. The backend first loads the default embedded zstd dictionaries, then applies post-load customization with DictionaryMaxlength::from_zstd()?.with_custom_dicts(...) or DictionaryMaxlength::from_zstd()?.with_custom_dict_files(...). The final OpenCC instance remains immutable and optimized after construction. Runtime hot reload is not supported; rebuild a new OpenCC instance if dictionaries need to change.

In-memory custom dictionaries

Use OpenCC.from_dicts() for programmatic terms:

from typing import List

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC, CustomDictSpec

specs: List[CustomDictSpec] = [
    {
        "slot": "STPhrases",
        "pairs": [("帕兰蒂尔", "柏蘭蒂爾")],
        "mode": "append",
    }
]

cc = OpenCC.from_dicts("s2t", specs)

print(cc.convert("帕兰蒂尔是一家公司"))
# 柏蘭蒂爾是一家公司

File-based custom dictionaries

Use OpenCC.from_dict_files() for OpenCC-style dictionary files:

from typing import List

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC, CustomDictFileSpec

specs: List[CustomDictFileSpec] = [
    {
        "slot": "STPhrases",
        "files": ["custom_st_phrases.txt"],
        "mode": "append",
    }
]

cc = OpenCC.from_dict_files("s2t", specs)

Custom dictionary files use one mapping per line:

source<TAB>target

Example:

帕兰蒂尔	柏蘭蒂爾

Merge modes

• append: add custom entries to the existing dictionary slot. Duplicate keys follow the backend "last wins" behavior.
• override: replace the entire target dictionary slot with the custom entries or files.

Supported dictionary slots

Use canonical slot names without .txt, such as STPhrases, not STPhrases.txt. The Python wrapper may tolerate .txt, but the documented API uses canonical names only.

Custom dictionary behavior follows the same OpenCC dictionary-slot model. Choosing the wrong slot may have no effect or may affect a different conversion path. For s2t, use STCharacters or STPhrases. For t2s, use TSCharacters or TSPhrases. For Taiwan regional behavior, use TWPhrases, TWPhrasesRev, TWVariantsPhrases, TWVariants, TWVariantsRev, or TWVariantsRevPhrases. For Hong Kong regional behavior, use HKPhrases, HKPhrasesRev, HKVariantsPhrases, HKVariants, HKVariantsRev, or HKVariantsRevPhrases. For Japanese Shinjitai behavior, use JPSCharacters, JPSCharactersRev, or JPSPhrases.

Typing helpers

CustomDictSpec and CustomDictFileSpec are exported for typed Python code:

from typing import List
from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC, CustomDictSpec

specs: List[CustomDictSpec] = [
    {
        "slot": "STPhrases",
        "pairs": [("帕兰蒂尔", "柏蘭蒂爾")],
        "mode": "append",
    }
]

cc = OpenCC.from_dicts("s2t", specs)

Notes:

• Custom dictionaries are loaded at construction time.
• Existing OpenCC objects are immutable after construction.
• Runtime hot reload is not supported.
• Rebuild a new OpenCC instance if dictionaries need to change.
• Invalid slots, invalid modes, malformed lines, or unreadable files raise errors.
• OpenCC("s2t") remains the recommended API for normal users.
• Use from_dicts() for programmatic or in-memory custom terms.
• Use from_dict_files() for OpenCC-style dictionary files.

Reflow helper

• reflow_cjk_paragraphs(text: str, add_pdf_page_header: bool, compact: bool) -> str
  • Reflows PDF-extracted CJK text by merging broken line wraps while preserving paragraph structure.
  • add_pdf_page_header=True keeps explicit page-gap style boundaries.
  • compact=True uses single newlines between paragraphs.

Example:

from opencc_pyo3.opencc_pyo3 import reflow_cjk_paragraphs

raw_text = "我来到\n无人海边。"
clean_text = reflow_cjk_paragraphs(raw_text, add_pdf_page_header=False, compact=False)  # 我来到无人海边。

PDF extraction APIs

The package exposes PDFium-based PDF extraction helpers in opencc_pyo3.pdfium_helper.

Import from opencc_pyo3.pdfium_helper:

• extract_pdf_pages_with_callback_pdfium(path: str, callback, add_page_header: bool = False) -> None
• extract_pdf_text_pdfium_progress(path: str) -> str
• extract_pdf_text_pdfium_silent(path: str) -> str
• extract_pdf_text_pages_pdfium(path: str) -> list[str]
• extract_pdf_text_pages_pdfium_progress(path: str) -> list[str]
• make_progress_collector() -> tuple[callback, list[str]]
• make_silent_collector() -> tuple[callback, list[str]]

Example:

from opencc_pyo3 import OpenCC
from opencc_pyo3.opencc_pyo3 import reflow_cjk_paragraphs
from opencc_pyo3.pdfium_helper import extract_pdf_text_pdfium_silent

raw = extract_pdf_text_pdfium_silent("input.pdf")
text = reflow_cjk_paragraphs(raw, add_pdf_page_header=False, compact=False)
converted = OpenCC("s2t").convert(text, punctuation=True)

Development

• Rust source: src/lib.rs
• Python bindings: opencc_pyo3/ init.py, opencc_pyo3/opencc_pyo3.pyi
• CLI: opencc_pyo3/ main.py

Benchmarks

Historical benchmark results for opencc-pyo3 v0.10.2, collected by the Benchmark on macos-latest workflow.

Package: opencc_pyo3
Version: 0.10.2
OS: macOS 26.4 (arm64)
CPU: Apple M1 (Virtual)
Cores: 3
Memory: 7.0 GiB
Python: 3.10.11
Rust: rustc 1.97.0 (2d8144b78 2026-07-07)
Configs: s2t, s2tw, s2twp
Text sizes: 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 characters

BENCHMARK RESULTS

Summary

For representative Medium through XLarge inputs, s2t is consistently the fastest configuration, reaching about 46.6 million characters per second for the 100,000-character sample. The regional s2tw and phrase-aware s2twp pipelines perform additional dictionary work and reach about 33.9 million and 33.0 million characters per second, respectively, at the same size. Mean and median timings are now close on the larger samples, indicating that full-input warmups and shuffled execution substantially reduced the earlier CI outlier distortion. Results for the 100-character sample should still be treated as microbenchmark-scale measurements, where timer and scheduling noise have a larger relative effect.

Reproduce Benchmarks

python bench/opencc_benchmark_md.py --ci --configs s2t s2tw s2twp --sizes Small Medium Large XLarge --iterations 120 --warmup 15 --warmup-full-text --shuffle-order --export md json --output-dir bench/out

Projects That Use opencc-pyo3

OpenccPyo3Gui

License

MIT

Powered by Rust, PyO3, OpenCC, Pdfium and opencc-fmmseg.