Scan and translate paper documents - Google Translate

[blueST]

I have some printed paper documents in French that I want to translate into English. I've been trying to scan them to a PDF and then upload them to Google Translate, but what comes out of Google is less intelligible to me than the French that goes in. The quality of the scan's seems good but google just seems to completely mangle the text. Any tips on how I can get Google to work more effectively?

[NDA]

How much text is there?

My French wouldn't be good enough, but feel sure there'd be a PH'er who could do it it wasn't pages of it.

The alternative would be to type the french up and put that into Google.

[nyt]

Try Google's translate app.

Point your phone's camera at the scan and it translates in realtime

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/google-translate/i...


Available for IOS too I think.

[Corso Marche]

The translate app is good for this, as mentioned.

But if you want accuracy don't rely on the live translate function. Hit the shutter button at the bottom and it'll freeze a snap of it and do a thorough scan and deliver more accurate results.

You can then copy and paste the translation to another document for fine tuning.

[hutchst]

Some scan software allows you to scan to OCR or .rtf which might give better results.

[SGirl]

Bear in mind the fact that GT doesn’t necessarily give an accurate translation. I’ve seen quite a few cases where it’s left out a “not” or something. If the document is just for info, then GT will do. But if it’s important, I’d suggest you get a person to translate it.

[blueST]

Thanks all. It a French 4x4 off road guide for Pyrenees. All the route information I can understand as it is mostly gps coordinates and tulip diagrams. However, there is some really useful accompanying info on rights of way rules, places to stay, sights etc. that is just bulk text. Too much to expect someone to sit and translate, several full pages of A4.

I have tried the GT phone app, but if I hold the phone far enough away to get a full page width in the field of view the text is too small for it to read reliably.

Maybe if I could get some OCR software I could then just cut and paste into GT for better results.

[Corso Marche]

Can you throw a link up here to just one of the docs you've scanned ? Or 1 page etc

[blueST]

I’m not sure that I can post anything due to copyright and courtesy to the author. It’s their living compiling this info and they specifically don’t publish it digitally.

[Derek Smith]

blueST said:

Thanks all. It a French 4x4 off road guide for Pyrenees. All the route information I can understand as it is mostly gps coordinates and tulip diagrams. However, there is some really useful accompanying info on rights of way rules, places to stay, sights etc. that is just bulk text. Too much to expect someone to sit and translate, several full pages of A4.

I have tried the GT phone app, but if I hold the phone far enough away to get a full page width in the field of view the text is too small for it to read reliably.

Maybe if I could get some OCR software I could then just cut and paste into GT for better results.

Be very careful in translating anything relating to rules and regulations. I'd suggesting trying to find them already translated on the net.

[Corso Marche]

Understand the concern on copyright etc.

My query relates to how the text is written. It may not be conversational or "proper" written use of the language. It may be truncated, use acronyms, local slang, metaphors, or special interest terms/verbiage etc

Anybody you know with French would look at it for you?

[Corso Marche]

The other solution, if you persist with it yourself, is to try one paragraph using the GT app, and see what you get.
It's easy to do a paragraph at a time and paste into another document if it makes sense in its translated form.

[rdjohn]

I live in France and so am doing this fairly frequently, but I have Office 365.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum...

In review you can then translate to get the gist. For a better translation I cut and paste into Google translate.

[SGirl]

rdjohn said:

In review you can then translate to get the gist. For a better translation I cut and paste into Google translate.

Google Translate isn't foolproof by any means. And as there are copyright concerns I definitely wouldn't use GT because it retains all the info you give it. As a professional translator, I find many of my clients expressly forbid the use of GT for precisely this reason. Plus the fact that the output is frequently unusable garbage, and often contains inaccuracies or omissions.

Be very, very careful with GT. In translator circles, telling something their work looks like it was done with GT is very insulting.

[rdjohn]

SGirl said:

Google Translate isn't foolproof by any means. And as there are copyright concerns I definitely wouldn't use GT because it retains all the info you give it. As a professional translator, I find many of my clients expressly forbid the use of GT for precisely this reason. Plus the fact that the output is frequently unusable garbage, and often contains inaccuracies or omissions.

Be very, very careful with GT. In translator circles, telling something their work looks like it was done with GT is very insulting.

I was very clear about getting the gist, or something a bit better with Google. For translating route directions and places/things to do/see, it is pretty good.

[blueST]

It's the OCR ability of GT that seems to be the problem. If I manually type the text in, I get much much better translation. Need to find some good free OCR software for Mac.

[Corso Marche]

Are you manually hitting the shutter button like suggested, or loading a good quality snap of the page into GT ?
It's usually pretty decent with most languages using that method. (I use it that way 4-5 days a week with German and Russian)
The live translate where you point it at an image is very flaky.

[blueST]

I've tried using the shutter button in the mobile app and also scanning the page and loading it into GT on web. Both are failing to give me anything intelligible.