How to Lower PDF Translation Costs

Translating a PDF document is a simple task if done right, however, if done wrong it can easily turn into an expensive, time-consuming headache for everyone involved in the process. Over the years we have met countless cases of companies and individuals facing additional unnecessary costs and issues related to the translation of PDF documents, which can be easily avoided with the right information.

In this article, we will cover guidelines on how to make the right choices when translating a PDF document, cover the most common mistakes, explain how to save costs and approach the whole PDF translation process with quality and consistency in mind for the final result.

Portable Document Format (PDF), according to its creator Adobe, "is a file format used to present and exchange documents reliably, independent of software, hardware, or operating system. PDF is now an open standard maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)".

PDF’s popularity can be credited to how universal it is. It can be applicable to any modern business, some even rely on it as their core format. But such universality comes at a cost which lays at the core of how PDF works.

The result of this process is what makes PDF so popular – you receive a “flattened” file which is highly compatible and which at a first glance looks as good as the source while only being a fraction of its initial size. However, this is a one-way process which comes at a cost - once a document undergoes the PDF compression process it cannot be reversed back to its source and becomes non-editable.

The best way to translate a PDF is to work on the source file. PDF files always represent a finalized version of a document. For this reason, the best way to approach translation involving a PDF file is to have its source at the ready.

Source files can originate from a wide range of software applications, as pretty much anything nowadays allows you to save a source document in a PDF format. Some of the most common programs that create PDFs are Adobe Software Suite / Microsoft Office applications / Open Office / Libre Office etc.

We fully understand that sometimes due to various reasons the source file is not available. Perhaps the company you work in is very big and communication between departments to track down the source file is difficult? Or perhaps you outsourced the design of your documents to a marketing agency and they are hesitant to share the source files with you (this is actually quite a common factor; our recommendation is to always ask them for the source when they deliver the project to you).

Such scenarios happen all the time when the PDF source is not available. This makes it necessary to use multiple other methods of extracting the data from PDFs and converting them into a more editable format. The usage and application of those methods and their outcome highly depend on the quality of the PDF itself – is the PDF marketing material, simple text, a technical spreadsheet, or a simple scanned document? Each one of these PDF types needs a special approach and method of conversion.

PDFs are here to stay, and issues related to translating them will always follow. That is why we recommend you follow a simple procedure of keeping a document’s source file just in case. You never know when a need to translate it may arise, and when it does you will be ready.

We have stated multiple benefits such as lowering your costs, improving quality and not wasting time – simply by keeping a source file of a document you wish to translate. Meanwhile, easily avoiding all the issues which are related to not having one at hand.

But when obtaining the source file is impossible, there are always other conversion options available to translate a document in a manner as close as possible to its original.