Add your ARB file
Drop one or more .arb files onto the converter above, or browse for them. They load into browser memory only — nothing is uploaded, so there is no size-based pricing and no server queue.
ARB to POT
Converting a .arb font to .pot repackages the same glyphs and metrics for a different delivery target. Free, private, and validated — the file never leaves your browser.
Private for supported formats — processed in your browser
Runs on your deviceConvert supported files
Drop ARB files here
Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.
Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.About converting Application Resource Bundle to GNU gettext template
Converting a .arb font to .pot repackages the same glyphs and metrics for a different delivery target. An .arb file is an Application Resource Bundle: a JSON object in which each key maps to a translatable string, and keys prefixed with @ carry that string's metadata — its description, its placeholder types and their formatting. It is the localisation format Flutter's intl tooling generates from and compiles to typed Dart accessors.
A .pot file is a gettext Portable Object Template: the same grammar as a .po file, but with every msgstr deliberately empty. It is the extraction output — the list of every translatable string found in a codebase — from which each language's .po file is created and later merged. For this route the practical draw is one canonical source of truth for what is translatable and carries source references, so a string can be traced back to the line that produced it — balanced against contains no translations, so it is easy to mistake an empty catalog for a broken one, which is worth knowing before you commit a large batch.
Why convert ARB to POT?
The practical trigger for this conversion is usually a mismatch: with .arb, the @-key convention doubles the entry count and looks odd to anyone new to it. Switching to .pot buys you one canonical source of truth for what is translatable, which is why it is the better fit for handing a complete string inventory to translators or a translation vendor. Because the conversion runs locally, trying it costs nothing but a few seconds of compute on your own machine.
ARB vs POT at a glance
| Aspect | Application Resource Bundle (.arb) | GNU gettext template (.pot) |
|---|---|---|
| Format type | Text-based — characters and structure, so there is no visual quality loss | Text-based — characters and structure, so there is no visual quality loss |
| How it stores data | the document is a single JSON object; ordinary keys map to strings, and @-prefixed keys map to metadata objects for the key of the same name | syntactically identical to .po; the difference is semantic — msgstr values are empty by definition |
| Strongest at | localising a Flutter application through gen_l10n | handing a complete string inventory to translators or a translation vendor |
| Weak spot | the @-key convention doubles the entry count and looks odd to anyone new to it | contains no translations, so it is easy to mistake an empty catalog for a broken one |
| Metadata | keys and their translated values are preserved. @-prefixed metadata — descriptions, placeholder types and formats — and the @@locale marker are skipped rather than converted, because flat key-value targets have nowhere to put them | identifiers, source strings and context survive. Empty targets are preserved as empty rather than being filled from the source. Header placeholders and source references are not carried into formats with no equivalent field |
Pick POT as the output
Select .pot in the output menu next to each file. The menu only offers targets this engine can genuinely produce, so if POT is selectable, the route is real and validated.
Convert on your device
Press Convert. The font tables are parsed and rewritten locally with fonteditor-core; glyph outlines, hinting, and kerning survive the trip.
Verify and download
Each result is signature-checked before the download unlocks, so a failed encode can never masquerade as a valid POT file. Outputs keep the original filename with the .pot extension.
ARB to POT questions, answered
Will converting ARB to POT lose quality?
There is no visual quality to lose — arb is text-oriented and pot is text-oriented, so the question is structural fidelity. Text, ordering, and basic structure are preserved; complex layout, embedded objects, and styling beyond the target's model are simplified.
Is it private to convert ARB files here?
Yes — the .arb file is processed inside your browser tab and never uploaded. The font tables are parsed and rewritten locally with fonteditor-core; glyph outlines, hinting, and kerning survive the trip. Close the tab and the file is gone from memory.
Where will the POT file work?
Any tool that reads .po reads .pot, since the grammar is the same. Novus Convert converts templates to and from the other localization formats and preserves the empty-target semantics — a template converted to XLIFF arrives with empty targets rather than targets echoing the source, which is what makes it still usable as a template.
Will the POT file be bigger or smaller than my ARB?
It depends on the content: syntactically identical to .po; the difference is semantic — msgstr values are empty by definition. Convert one representative file first and compare before batch-processing a large set.
What happens to the metadata in my ARB file?
In .arb, keys and their translated values are preserved. @-prefixed metadata — descriptions, placeholder types and formats — and the @@locale marker are skipped rather than converted, because flat key-value targets have nowhere to put them. Re-encoding through the browser pipeline does not carry embedded metadata into the output, which doubles as a privacy scrub — check the exported file if you specifically need tags preserved.
Can I convert POT back to ARB?
Yes — the reverse route exists as a separate tool. Bear in mind that round-tripping .arb → .pot → .arb is not a perfect undo when any lossy step is involved; keep your original if fidelity matters.