Scanned PDF doesn´t open in Trados

Hi, I get sometimes scanned PDF files, and often those don´t open in Trados. When I convert them into Word, it doesn´t always help either. Obviously these converted files are still different than the original ones. Do you have any suggestions now to deal with these files?

Thanks, Katharina

  • Katharina

    > Obviously these converted files are still different than the original ones.

    I am not sure, I understand what you mean here, but be aware that a PDF is not an editable format and that there is no way technically to translate it "as is". The only way to translate the content of a PDF is to extract the translatable text into a more or less layout-free format such as text or Word (which is layout capable, but the layout of the original PDF cannot be preserved entirely) and to deliver the translation in Word (or pure text).

    If the PDF contains embedded fonts, Studio or any other PDF conversion tool will be able to extract this text. If the PDF however is an image, such as a scan, the only way to extract the information is to OCR (optical character recognition) the text, which needs a separate software such as OmniPage or ABBYY.

    Translating PDF should always remain the exception, as it involves a lot of additional work. Always ask your customer if he does not have an editable format, as this exists most of the time (there has always been something before the PDF!!).

    Walter