Pleco Software

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pleco Software
FoundedNew York, NY, United States (2000)
Founder
  • Michael Love
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsApps
Websitepleco.com

Pleco Software (pronounced Pl-ee-ko) provides an English and Chinese Dictionary application for iOS and Android devices. The Pleco Software company was founded in May 2000 by Michael Love.[1]

Features[]

Pleco allows different ways of input, including Pinyin input method, English words, handwriting recognition and optical character recognition.[2][3] It has many sets of dictionaries (including the Oxford, Longman, FLTRP, and Ricci), audio recordings from two different native speakers, flashcards functionality, and a document reader that can look up words in a document.[4] Pleco is a free application with in-app purchases, additional functions and large dictionaries (including English, French, German, Mandarin, Cantonese, classical Chinese, and a traditional Chinese medicine reference).[5]

History[]

Pleco was started by Mike Love in May 2000 when he was 18 years old.[6] The application was first launched on the Palm Pilot in 2001. In 2013, Pleco 3.0 was released.[7][8] In November 2017, Endymion Wilkinson's Chinese History: A New Manual was added.[9]

Reception[]

As of July 2021, Pleco Chinese Dictionary had 4.7 stars on the iOS App Store, based on 1,300 ratings,[10] and 4.6 stars out of 5 on Google Play, based on over 40,000 ratings.[11]

In a 2013 opinion article for the New York Times, the British chef Fuchsia Dunlop wrote, "Pleco has absolutely changed my life", and "it's completely brilliant for traveling."[12] In 2018, New York Times columnist Lucas Peterson said he found Pleco to be a "useful translation app".[13]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ About Pleco, retrieved April 1, 2014
  2. ^ Millward, Steven (January 26, 2012). "Pleco: Chinese Character Recognition App Finally Comes to Android". Tech in Asia. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  3. ^ Shu, Catherine (January 25, 2013). "Translator App Waygo Reads Chinese Menus For Hungry Travelers". Techcrunch. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  4. ^ "My Back Pages: Digital Diary Traces Memories". Chengdu Living. November 25, 2010. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  5. ^ Chen, David (January 31, 2010). "Tech Review: Taiwan: Pleco for iPhone and iPod touch". Taipei Times. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  6. ^ "Meet the man behind Pleco, the revolutionary Chinese language learning app that's older than the iPhone". Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  7. ^ Butler, Robert (March 12, 2013). "The Only Chinese Dictionary App Worth Your Time". Language Clan. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  8. ^ "Pleco Chinese Dictionary for iOS and Android Version 3.0". Language Resource Group. February 12, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  9. ^ Chinese History: A New Manual
  10. ^ Pleco Chinese Dictionary on the App Store. Accessed 26 July 2021.
  11. ^ Pleco Chinese Dictionary on Google Play. Accessed 26 July 2021.
  12. ^ Kate Murphy, "Opinion: Fuchsia Dunlop", The New York Times, 1 June 2013.
  13. ^ Lucas Peterson, "How to Travel to (and Around) China, From VPNs to T.P.", The New York Times, 30 January 2018.
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