How to translate a PDF

What is a PDF

It stands for Portable Document Format, a document format created by Adobe that preserves the layout of the document as the author intended. This document format does not allow for modifications, making it widely used in various professional fields. However, just like emails, other official documents, or web pages, businesses often need to translate them.

How to translate a PDF without altering it, quickly, while preserving its quality and characteristics? What are the free solutions for translating a PDF? Many free solutions exist, such as Google Translate, Deepl, or Reverso. However, they do not provide the best conditions for translating a PDF. Copying and pasting text from a PDF is often challenging due to the locked format, and elements may be missing (special characters, etc.), spaces may be added, and so on.

You can translate a PDF with Google Translate by uploading your document to the online software, selecting the original language and your desired target language. Click the « translate » button to get the result in a few seconds, and then you can download your translated document in the chosen language.

Free Online Translator: Caution This solution is not ideal; your document’s layout will need to be adjusted or corrected in dedicated software like Adobe Acrobat or by starting from a Word document or a Google Docs file. Another weakness of free online document translation is its quality; the translation remains quite literal. If it’s a technical document with specific vocabulary, you will need to check and edit your text. Data Security Risks Data security on free platforms is not guaranteed, as their privacy policies are often vague and poorly regulated. Thus, these online solutions may use your documents to improve their translation engines and retain a copy of your translation result. So, you should exercise caution regarding the PDF documents you want to translate .

Translation of a PDF file by specialized tool

The Advantages of a Paid Tool Google Workplace or Microsoft Office allows you to translate all types of editable documents without the need to return to Adobe Acrobat for further editing. However, there are other professional solutions dedicated to translating PDF documents. Their goal is twofold: to provide high-quality translations while preserving the layout of all types of PDF documents. Additionally, paid PDF document translation software offers many guarantees in terms of data security.

Translating a PDF Document with SYSTRAN

You can translate all types of PDFs (scanned, editable, images) while preserving the original layout. The output file is an editable Word document, allowing you to refine the translation before publication..

Conclusion
A professional machine translation solution must be secure, powerful and simple to use and deploy. Particular attention should be paid to security when the solution is hosted in the cloud: localization, law applied… It is also important to ensure linguistic coverage, managed document formats, and the possibility of customizing the translation with your own jargon