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 POT
Converting a .po 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 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 GNU gettext template
Converting a .po font to .pot 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.
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 PO to POT?
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 .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.
PO vs POT at a glance
| Aspect | GNU gettext translation (.po) | 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 | entries are blank-line-separated blocks of msgid and msgstr, each a sequence of C-style quoted strings that concatenate across lines | syntactically identical to .po; the difference is semantic — msgstr values are empty by definition |
| Strongest at | translating open-source software, where gettext is effectively the default | handing a complete string inventory to translators or a translation vendor |
| Weak spot | keying on source text means an English typo fix invalidates every translation of that string | contains no translations, so it is easy to mistake an empty catalog for a broken one |
| 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 | 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.
PO to POT questions, answered
Will converting PO to POT lose quality?
There is no visual quality to lose — po 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 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 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 PO?
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 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 POT back to PO?
Yes — the reverse route exists as a separate tool. Bear in mind that round-tripping .po → .pot → .po is not a perfect undo when any lossy step is involved; keep your original if fidelity matters.