June 8, 2026
How to Translate a PDF Online
Translating a PDF isn't as simple as pasting text into Google Translate. Here's how to get an accurate translation without losing the document structure.
Why You Can't Just Copy-Paste a PDF
Copying text from a PDF often breaks at line endings, splits hyphenated words, and loses paragraph context. The result is a mess in a translation tool. For short extracts it works. For a 20-page contract or research paper, it doesn't.
How Online PDF Translation Works
The right approach: extract the text layer from the PDF, send it to a translation engine that understands paragraph context, then rebuild a clean document. Papyrio uses DeepL — consistently rated the most accurate neural translation engine — to translate the extracted text, then outputs a clean PDF preserving the original structure.
Which Languages Are Supported
DeepL supports 25+ languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Turkish, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Source language is auto-detected.
What Happens to the Formatting
Headings, paragraphs, and page breaks are preserved in the translated output. Complex layouts — multi-column text, tables, decorative elements — may be simplified. The output is always readable; it just may not pixel-match the original design.
What About Scanned PDFs
Scanned PDFs have no text layer to translate. Run the PDF through OCR PDF first to extract the text, then translate. The OCR step adds a few seconds but makes the document fully translatable.