iCE User Manual

Complete guide to Loqu8 iCE — instant Chinese text comprehension for your desktop.

Getting Started

1. Download from ice.loqu8.com for Windows, macOS, or Linux
2. Launch the app — it appears as an icon in your system tray
3. Click the tray icon to open the popup window
4. Type or paste Chinese text, or enable LiveScan to capture text from your screen
5. Tap any word to hear it pronounced and see its full definition

On first launch, iCE walks you through a brief onboarding to set your native language and preferences.

The Interface

Popup Window

iCE's main interface is a compact popup window. The top area shows annotated Chinese text with pinyin, tone colors, and definitions. The bottom area shows detailed word information when you tap any word.

The popup appears when you click the tray icon or press the global hotkey. It stays on top of other windows so you can reference it while reading.

Toolbar

Status Bar

The bottom bar shows your tier badge (Free, Pro, or Trial countdown), lookup time, and version. Tap the tier badge to manage your account.

System Tray

iCE lives in your system tray (Windows/Linux) or menu bar (macOS). The tray icon changes color to show capture status. Right-click for quick actions: toggle capture, show popup, open settings, or quit.

Capture Modes

LiveScan (Pro)

The flagship capture mode. When enabled, iCE watches your mouse cursor and automatically looks up Chinese text you hover over. Works across any application — browsers, PDFs, email, chat apps, documents.

Highlight Capture (Pro)

Drag to select a rectangular region of the screen. Best for text in images, dense layouts, or capturing a specific paragraph.

Manual Input

Type or paste Chinese text directly into the popup. Always available, no Pro subscription required.

Display Modes

Word Mode

For single words or short compounds (1–4 characters). Shows the character with large pinyin, full definition with multiple entries, parts breakdown for compound words (e.g., 法律 → 法 + 律), and character data including radical, stroke count, HSK level, and frequency.

Phrase Mode

For sentences and short phrases (5–20 characters). Shows the full phrase with inline pinyin and tone colors. Tap any word to expand its detailed entry below.

Passage Mode

For longer text (20+ characters). Shows the full annotated passage with paragraph breaks, ruby pinyin above each word, and optional ruby definitions below.

Annotations

• Pinyin — Romanized pronunciation with tone marks (e.g., nǐ hǎo)
• Bopomofo — Zhuyin phonetic symbols (ㄅㄇˇ ㄏㄚˇ) for Taiwan's system
• Definitions — Brief translation in your selected language
• Tone colors — Characters colored by tone
• HSK level — Chinese proficiency level (HSK1–HSK9)
• Ruby pinyin — Small pinyin shown directly above each character inline
• Ruby definitions — Small definitions shown directly below each character inline

Toggle these in the Settings panel → Display section. Pinyin and Bopomofo are mutually exclusive.

26 Definition Languages

iCE supports definitions in 26 languages. Change the definition language in Settings → Definition Language.

Free users get English plus their system language. Pro users unlock all 26. Language packs are included in the app — no additional download required.

Cantonese & Hokkien

Cantonese — Choose between two romanization systems:

• Jyutping (粵拼): Standard romanization (e.g., 月 = jyut6)
• Yale (耶魯): Textbook romanization (e.g., 月 = yuht)

Hokkien — Uses POJ (白話字 Pe̍h-ōe-jī) romanization (e.g., 月 = goe̍h).

Dialect pronunciations appear in the word detail view when available (~17K Cantonese entries, ~5.5K Hokkien entries).

Tone Colors

Characters can be colored by their pronunciation tone. Three presets are available:

Other presets: Pleco (follows the Pleco dictionary app's colors) and No color (default text color). Change in Settings → Tone Color Preset.

Pronunciation

Auto-Pronounce (Pro)

When enabled, iCE automatically speaks any captured text aloud. Toggle in Settings → Auto-Pronounce.

Tap to Speak

Tap any word in the popup to hear it pronounced. This is always free.

Speech Rate

Adjust pronunciation speed in Settings → Speech Rate. Slower rates help with tone recognition; faster rates approximate natural conversation speed.

Adaptive Knowledge

iCE tracks which words you've seen and gradually dims familiar vocabulary so new words stand out. This happens automatically — no flashcard drilling required.

• Words you look up repeatedly are marked as "known"
• Known words are displayed at reduced opacity (4 dimming levels)
• New or rare words appear at full brightness, drawing your attention
• The system uses FSRS-6 (a spaced repetition algorithm) to model your memory

Display options (Settings → Known Word Display):

• Show All — no dimming, all words at full opacity
• Dim Known — gradually dim familiar words
• Hide Known — fully hide words you've mastered

Settings

Open Settings via the gear icon in the toolbar.

Display

• Show Pinyin / Show Bopomofo — pronunciation system (mutually exclusive)
• Show Definition — show/hide word definitions
• Tone Color Preset — iCE Default, Pleco, or None
• Zoom Level — scale the popup content (0.5x–2.0x)
• Prefer Traditional — show traditional characters instead of simplified
• Ruby Pinyin / Ruby Definitions — inline annotations above/below characters

Behavior

• Auto-Pronounce (Pro) — speak text automatically on capture
• Speech Rate — pronunciation speed (0.5x–2.0x)
• Dismiss on Blur — auto-hide popup when clicking elsewhere
• Pin Popup — keep popup visible until manually dismissed

Plans & Pricing

Pricing: Monthly $9/mo · Annual $69/yr · Lifetime $149

New users can start a 7-day free trial of all Pro features. No credit card required.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Troubleshooting

LiveScan isn't capturing text

• Ensure LiveScan is enabled (active icon in toolbar)
• Check that the text is actual rendered text, not an image
• For browser text, install the iCE browser extension for better accuracy
• Try Highlight Capture as a fallback

No pronunciation / speech not working

• Verify the Kokoro TTS model files are present in the data directory
• If Kokoro is unavailable, iCE falls back to the system's native TTS engine
• Check Settings → Speech Rate isn't set to 0

Popup doesn't appear

• Click the system tray icon to toggle the popup
• Check that "Dismiss on Blur" isn't hiding the popup immediately
• Try enabling "Pin Popup" in settings

System Requirements