PDF files are a great file type for sharing content. PDFs can
be generated from almost any software as a way to exchange data easily without
any specific program requirements to read the content. Anyone with a phone,
tablet or computer should be able to view a PDF without issue. PDFs, however,
are not design files and are not meant to be edited or altered. This makes them
problematic to use for translation.
Most of the translation work completed by our company and
other translation vendors like us, involves overwriting the source text of the
original file. This involves opening the file in the original software which
created it and replacing all text with the appropriate translations.
Unfortunately, PDF files are not designed to be overwritten. Without the
flexibility of design software, our ability to replace the original text with
the translations and then format the translations is greatly restricted.
This does not mean that we can’t work from a PDF, just that
it typically involves a little more work. If the PDF was generated from
Microsoft word or Excel, it may be a simple matter of saving the PDF back to that
file type, at which point we can begin work like normal. However, if the PDF
was generated by more complicated software like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator,
we would need to recreate the file from scratch, in order to allow our
translation teams to properly work on the file. This is a more time-consuming
process, and often involves extra charges.
If you have a PDF that needs translation, send it over to a
PLG team member today and we will be happy to chat about the best way to handle
it!
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