Add your PO file
Drop one or more .po 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.
PO to ANDROIDXML
Converting a .po font to .androidxml 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 PO 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 GNU gettext translation to Android string resources
Converting a .po font to .androidxml repackages the same glyphs and metrics for a different delivery target. A .po file is a GNU gettext Portable Object: a plain-text translation catalog in which each entry pairs a msgid — the original string, which doubles as its own key — with a msgstr holding the translation. It is the format most open-source software is translated in, and it is designed to be readable and diffable in a normal editor.
An Android string resource file — catalogued here as .androidxml — is the res/values/strings.xml of an Android application: a <resources> element containing <string name=…> entries, plus optional <plurals> and <string-array> groups. Because every Android project names the file strings.xml, there is no real extension to key on, so Novus Convert recognises these by the .android.xml suffix and files them under .androidxml to keep them distinct from generic XML. For this route the practical draw is integrated with Android's whole resource-qualifier system, so locale selection is automatic and real plural support using the CLDR categories rather than a bolted-on convention — balanced against escaping rules are a common source of subtly broken translations, which is worth knowing before you commit a large batch.
Why convert PO to ANDROIDXML?
The practical trigger for this conversion is usually a mismatch: with .po, keying on source text means an English typo fix invalidates every translation of that string. Switching to .androidxml buys you integrated with Android's whole resource-qualifier system, so locale selection is automatic, which is why it is the better fit for localising an Android application. Because the conversion runs locally, trying it costs nothing but a few seconds of compute on your own machine.
PO vs ANDROIDXML at a glance
| Aspect | GNU gettext translation (.po) | Android string resources (.androidxml) |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | entries are blank-line-separated blocks of msgid and msgstr, each a sequence of C-style quoted strings that concatenate across lines | entries are <string name=…> with the translatable text as element content; the name is the R.string identifier the code references |
| Strongest at | translating open-source software, where gettext is effectively the default | localising an Android application |
| Weak spot | keying on source text means an English typo fix invalidates every translation of that string | escaping rules are a common source of subtly broken translations |
| Metadata | identifiers, source strings, translations and context are preserved. Header fields, translator comments, source references and flags such as fuzzy are not carried into formats that have nowhere to put them — converting a reviewed catalog to a mobile resource file loses the review state, not the translations | string names and their text are preserved. Plural groups, string arrays, the translatable attribute and the directory-derived locale are not represented in flat catalog targets |
Pick ANDROIDXML as the output
Select .androidxml in the output menu next to each file. The menu only offers targets this engine can genuinely produce, so if ANDROIDXML 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 ANDROIDXML file. Outputs keep the original filename with the .androidxml extension.
PO to ANDROIDXML questions, answered
Will converting PO to ANDROIDXML lose quality?
There is no visual quality to lose — po is text-oriented and androidxml 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 PO files here?
Yes — the .po 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 ANDROIDXML file work?
Android Studio and the Gradle build read these natively, and translation platforms support them widely. Novus Convert parses the <resources>/<string> structure locally, rejects documents carrying a doctype or custom entities, and converts to and from the other localization formats; plurals and string arrays are outside the flat one-string-per-key model and are not carried across.
Will the ANDROIDXML file be bigger or smaller than my PO?
It depends on the content: entries are <string name=…> with the translatable text as element content; the name is the R.string identifier the code references. Convert one representative file first and compare before batch-processing a large set.
What happens to the metadata in my PO file?
In .po, identifiers, source strings, translations and context are preserved. Header fields, translator comments, source references and flags such as fuzzy are not carried into formats that have nowhere to put them — converting a reviewed catalog to a mobile resource file loses the review state, not the translations. 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 ANDROIDXML back to PO?
Yes — the reverse route exists as a separate tool. Bear in mind that round-tripping .po → .androidxml → .po is not a perfect undo when any lossy step is involved; keep your original if fidelity matters.