Translate a PDF
Drop a PDF with selectable text. You get a translated PDF that follows the original page layout as closely as possible, plus an editable Word (DOCX) copy.
Don't upload confidential documents on the free tier. Why?
Most PDFs you receive were exported from Word, a design tool or a website, so the words are stored as real text. DropTranslate reads that text block by block, translates it, and writes each translation back into the same place on the page, shrinking the font a little when the new language runs longer. Pictures, lines, logos and the page size stay as they were. A PDF fixes every line in position, so the result can never be a perfect copy of the original. That is why every PDF job also gives you a DOCX version you can open and edit.
How it works
Drop your PDF
We check that the file has selectable text and show the page count and credit cost before anything is charged.
Pick the language
Leave the source on Auto-detect or choose it, then pick one of 60 target languages.
Download PDF and DOCX
The PDF keeps the page layout as closely as we can. The DOCX is there for editing and for pages the PDF can't hold neatly.
What changes, what stays
Translated
- Text blocks on every page: headings, paragraphs, lists, table cells and captions
- Text in page headers and footers
Kept as-is
- Images, logos, lines, backgrounds and page size
- The number and order of pages
- Words that are part of a picture (a photo, a scanned page or a chart saved as an image)
Layout: Good for simple documents, best effort for complex layouts
Reports, letters, invoices, forms and other business documents usually come out well. Magazine-style pages, tight multi-column layouts, text on curves and very full tables are harder: the text may be shrunk to fit or look crowded. Use the DOCX copy when that happens.
- Scanned PDFs (each page is a photo, with no selectable text) can't be translated yet. We tell you before any credits are used. Support for scans is planned.
- Right-to-left targets (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu): use the DOCX download. The PDF is labelled best effort, because right-to-left lines mixed with numbers and Latin words are hard to rebuild inside fixed PDF boxes.
- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Devanagari and Thai text is written with embedded Noto fonts so the characters display on any device. The typeface won't match your original font.
- Limits: 50 MB, 300 pages and 100,000 words per file.
Tips
- Not sure if your PDF has a text layer? Try to highlight a sentence with your cursor. If you can, it will work.
- If the PDF is password-protected, save an unlocked copy first.
- If you still have the Word file the PDF was made from, translate that instead. Word files keep their layout far more reliably.
Not a certified translation
Machine translation, not a certified or sworn translation. If your document goes to an authority, check what it requires first.
Certified, sworn or machine translation: which one do you need?
Questions
Will the translated PDF look exactly like the original?
Close, but not always exactly. Each block of text is replaced in its original position, and the font shrinks when the translation is longer. Simple documents usually look very similar; dense or heavily designed pages can look crowded. That is why you also get an editable DOCX.
Can I translate a scanned PDF?
Not yet. In a scanned PDF each page is an image, and reading text from images is planned for a later release. If your PDF has no selectable text, we tell you before any credits are used.
Why do I also get a Word file?
A PDF can't reflow text, so when a translation is much longer than the original, the PDF version has to squeeze it. The DOCX has the same text in an editable document, which is easier to fix, reformat or send to someone for review.
How many credits does a PDF cost?
One credit per page of up to 500 words of original text. The exact cost appears after you drop the file and before you confirm. New visitors get 100 free pages and a free account adds 50.
Does it work for Arabic or Hebrew?
Yes, as a source or target language. For right-to-left targets the DOCX download is the reliable one, and the PDF is labelled best effort.