What is a Scanned PDF

A scanned PDF refers to a digital format file created by using scanning devices (such as scanners) to convert paper documents into digital format and save them as PDF files. This type of PDF file is essentially an image file because it contains scanned images of the original paper documents rather than editable text content. The characteristics of a scanned PDF include:

Image Quality

The quality depends on the resolution and settings of the scanner. High-resolution scans can produce clearer and more detailed images.
Non-editable

Since the content is an image, the text cannot be directly edited unless the text in the image is converted to editable text through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.
Difficult to search

The text content in the document cannot be searched unless it has been processed by OCR.

Scanned PDFs are often used to save digital copies of paper documents such as contracts, books, and reports, and are frequently used in many industries.

Legal and Government

Used for archiving contracts, case files, regulations, and notices.
Medical and Insurance

Electronic storage of medical records, examination reports, prescriptions, and claim documents.
Education and Publishing

Digitization of teaching materials, books, lecture notes, student files, and old newspapers.
Finance and manufacturing

Management and Review of Bank Documents, Transaction Records, Design Drawings, and Quality Inspection Reports

How to Identify a Scanned PDF

The most common method to identify a scanned PDF isText selection and copying. If you cannot select, copy, or edit the text, then this PDF is likely a scanned version. Other methods include checking the file size, zooming in to see if the text is blurry, using the search function, and viewing the file properties. These methods can all help effectively distinguish between scanned PDFs and regular PDFs.

Challenges in Translating Scanned PDFs

The characteristics of 'image-based text' bring significant challenges to translating scanned PDFs, and we need to address the following issues:

OCR recognition accuracy

It is necessary to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to convert images into text. However, the accuracy of OCR recognition can be affected by various factors such as image quality, font style, and language, leading to errors in text extraction.
Formatting and layout issues

After converting a scanned PDF into text, the layout and formatting may become chaotic, requiring additional editing work to restore the original format and layout.
Image and graphic content

Charts, images, and other non-text content included in the PDF also need special handling and translation, sometimes requiring redrawing or re-annotation.
Handwritten text

If the scanned PDF contains handwritten text, the difficulty of OCR recognition will be greater, and the accuracy will be lower, increasing the complexity of translation.

Scanned PDF Translation Display

The scanned PDF translation example shown below is throughthe online document translation website O.Translatortranslated.

1. Literary Translation, Difficulty Index 3

In the translation of literary works, ChatGPT can refer to relatively rich contextual information, and the document layout is relatively fixed, so the OCR recognition difficulty is low.

2. Legal Document Translation, Difficulty Index 4

Compared to literary works, legal documents contain a large number of technical terms and have a more complex layout, making OCR recognition and post-translation formatting more challenging.

3. Mathematical Documents and Papers Translation, Difficulty Index 5

For mathematical documents and papers, which involve a large number of formulas and charts with text often interspersed, the requirements for OCR recognition and formatting technology are extremely high. Nevertheless, O.Translator performs excellently in these scenarios and can handle them with ease.

Attempt Translation

From the above examples, it can be seen that O.Translator has achieved significant results in handling the translation of scanned PDFs. If you wish to try using O.Translator for translation, please click the following link:

The Ultimate Tool for Translating Scanned PDFs