Canvas, Webtoon’s platform for user-uploaded comics, is set for a significant upgrade aimed at helping creators earn more and share their work with a broader audience. Webtoon announced new features for Canvas designed to aid artists in building global followings and understanding their audience better. Manga creators will soon have access to an AI-powered translation tool allowing localization into English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Thai, Traditional Chinese, and German. A beta version will first launch for English-speaking users this spring, with wider availability slated for the summer.
Webtoon is also updating the Canvas dashboard to offer improved insights into series performance, enhanced readership analytics, and new community engagement tools. The ad revenue share program will expand to include creators working in any Canvas-supported language.
Webtoon president Yongsoo Kim explained these changes aim to help creators grow their audience, build fandoms, and earn more. The company seeks to address challenges with traditional distribution channels. The translation feature is designed to simplify content creation while preserving creative control.
The AI tool resembles Amazon’s Kindle Translate but uses Webtoon’s proprietary language model and a powerful external LLM to process text elements without storing content. The tool includes a glossary for consistency and context. As titles publish more episodes, the model will improve translation quality.
Despite potential AI errors, creators can submit error reports for human review. Kim emphasizes the tool is optional, with series removed from the platform if a creator opts out. Webtoon plans to support creators with AI and other technologies without replacing them, starting with the translation program.