To apply automatic translation to scanned PDF documents

There may be cases where you need to scan paper documents and save them as PDF files in your business. You may also receive such PDF files from your business partners. If you want to automatically translate these PDF files, what methods are available?
In this article, we will introduce some reasons why PDF translation may not work well and how to solve them. If you are looking to streamline your translation work during business, please take a look at this as a reference.

PDF files contain scanned documents stored as images, and cannot be extracted as text data (these PDF files are called "image PDFs" or "scanned PDFs"). Additionally, many automatic translation services only support translation of text. Therefore, in the past, it was necessary to convert images to text using a process called OCR before using automatic translation. Furthermore, in translated files, the layout is often not preserved.
To restore the original layout, editing is necessary. Due to these steps, it is not possible to smoothly proceed with PDF translation.

The Google Translate app has a feature called "Real-time Camera Translation" that is equipped. When you launch the app and point your smartphone's camera at the document you want to translate, it can automatically translate while maintaining the layout. It is very convenient, but the Google Translate app is a free service and does not guarantee the confidentiality of translated documents. This is because there is a possibility that the data may be reused according to the terms of use. There are concerns about using the Google Translate app to translate business documents. The leakage of data from highly confidential documents used in business settings can directly affect the company's credibility, so caution must be taken when using it.

How to Use Google Cloud Translation API

This month, the MTrans Team has started offering document translation services for Google Cloud Translation API. With this API, you can achieve the same functionality as Google Translate's real-time camera translation and automatically translate image PDFs while maintaining the layout. Additionally, since Google does not reuse data, your data will also be kept confidential.

I immediately tried out the document translation function. First, I printed our English homepage and scanned the paper to create an image PDF. The following image is an excerpt from that image PDF.

This was automatically translated into Japanese using the Translation API documentation translation feature.

As you can see, the layout has been maintained and automatically translated. The text is recognized correctly and the translation accuracy is also high.

How to Translate PDF Files Using DeepL

"DeepL" is a translation service provided by DeepL Inc. It is highly praised for its accuracy and supports 26 languages including Japanese, English, and German. Compared to Google Translate, which supports over 100 languages, it may seem to have a smaller number of supported languages. However, since it covers most languages commonly used in business settings, it can be said that DeepL is sufficient. The usage is very simple. After accessing the DeepL website, select "Text Translation" and paste the text you want to translate. Then, select the desired language for translation and it will be automatically translated.

There are both free and paid versions of DeepL translation available. Each has different security measures and character limits, so be sure to choose the plan that best suits your needs.
If you wish to use the paid version, "DeepL Pro", you can either apply directly to DeepL or choose the services of MTrans Team, which uses the DeepL translation engine.
For more information on the differences between the free and paid versions of DeepL (DeepL Pro), please refer to this article.
>What are the differences between the free and paid versions of DeepL (DeepL Pro)? ~Pricing, security, character limits~

How to Translate PDF with MTrans Team

MTrans Team is an automatic translation system that allows you to easily translate foreign language text in one step. You can start using it immediately when the need for translation arises. Simply log in to the MTrans Team website beforehand, enter the text you want to translate in the text box, or import the file you want to translate by dragging and dropping, and you can start the translation process.

The feature of MTrans Team is that the productivity of its functions improves with each use. By introducing MTrans Team, you will be able to use a dedicated database and learn industry terms and commonly used phrases within the company, which can be reused for future translations. This can lead to standardization of terminology throughout the company and reduction of editing costs, resulting in increased efficiency in business operations.

At our company, we are developing an automatic translation service that allows for easy use of image PDF translation in response to customer requests.
The MTrans Team has a robust security system in place, so there is no need to worry about data leaks as with typical online services.
If you are interested in our MTrans solutions, please feel free to contact us.

Related Services

AI Automatic Translation Software MTrans Team

Translate Office with the easy translation software MTrans for Office

MTrans for Memsource

MTrans for Trados