Scanlation is the fan practice of scanning manga chapters, translating them, and re-lettering the pages for distribution in another language, without authorization. It is the manga counterpart to the fansub.
Scanlation filled for manga the same gap fansubs filled for anime, and with the same shape: volunteer groups scanned magazine chapters, translated them, cleaned and re-lettered the pages, and released them to an international audience that had no legal way to read most series at all. At its peak the ecosystem ran on organized teams with translators, cleaners, typesetters, and proofreaders.
The legal position never changed: scanlations are unauthorized reproductions of copyrighted work, and publishers' tolerance thinned as official digital platforms spread. The industry's answer mirrored the anime story, same-day official digital releases in multiple languages, which removed the waiting that scanlation existed to defeat, and the scene contracted to the long tail of unlicensed series.
On this site, scanlation is vocabulary and history only. Our source texts are official releases in every case, because a quiz is only as sound as its source, and a fan translation, however skilled, is an interpretation layered on the work. The glossary records the term because the manga fandom's modern shape is unintelligible without it.
In use"Before official apps existed, a new chapter reached English readers as a scanlation or not at all."