JGloss is an application for adding reading and translation annotations to words in a Japanese text document. This can be done automatically and manually. When a text document is first opened, words will be looked up in dictionary files and the first reading and translation (if any) is used to annotate the word. The user can then edit the annotations: choose among the readings and translations found in the dictionaries, enter own readings and translations, remove annotations and add new annotations. The document can be exported as plain text with annotations, HTML (with support for the Ruby Annotation XHTML specification) or LaTeX.

The application is designed as a translation aid for people learning Japanese. With some new document, you can first skim the text and change the annotations to match the likeliest meaning of the word. Then you can print/export the text with annotations and start working on the details of understanding the text without having to resort to a paper dictionary all the time.

JGloss is written in Java. It should work on any computer with support for the Java 2 Version 1.3/1.4 platform.