Chinese Conversion

How to Convert Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese

Traditional-to-Simplified conversion is the other direction: a Taiwan or Hong Kong source needs a Mainland or Singapore edition. Stroke-simplified forms replace many characters. Some distinctions that exist in Traditional Chinese collapse into one Simplified character.

That collapse is why you should not assume you can convert to Simplified and back and get the identical Traditional file. The dictionaries try, especially with phrase tables, but they are not a lossless archive.

Choose the source variant if you know it

OpenCC includes Traditional to Simplified, Traditional (Taiwan) to Simplified, Taiwan to Simplified with phrases, and Traditional (Hong Kong) to Simplified. If you know the file is Taiwan Chinese, pick the Taiwan source type. Details are in OpenCC conversion types.

Tools

Review

Skim technical terms and names. If the source mixed Japanese shinjitai or classical quotations, those need a person. See common conversion problems.