Translate a PDF into Chinese (Simplified), layout kept

What changes when a PDF goes into Chinese

A PDF locks every block of text into a fixed box. In Simplified Chinese, the same content uses two to three times fewer characters than English or most European languages, but each hanzi fills a full square, so the overall space taken changes little. A 60-character English sentence often becomes 20 to 30 characters covering roughly the same width. Boxes therefore overflow less than people expect, though narrow columns and long headings may still need smaller text.

Other differences you will see on the page:

• No spaces between words: lines can break between almost any two characters, with no hyphenation.
• Full-width punctuation: commas become ，, full stops 。, colons ：, and quotation marks “ ”. Each mark takes the width of a whole character.
• No plural forms: Chinese has a single form. "3 files" becomes 3个文件, with a measure word (个) but no plural ending, so strings like {n} file(s) lose their awkwardness.
• No true italics: Chinese typefaces rarely include them and slanted hanzi read poorly. Bold works better for emphasis.

Fonts, dates and numbers: the Chinese-specific traps

Fonts are the most sensitive point. A Latin typeface such as Garamond or Helvetica contains no Chinese characters; reused as it is, it would display empty boxes. Manuce sets the translation in the original font or an equivalent one, and for Chinese that equivalent has to contain hanzi, so its design will differ from your Latin font. Check that the result still fits your brand guidelines, especially on covers and marketing material.

Number and date conventions change as well:

• Dates run from year to day: 15 March 2024 becomes 2024年3月15日.
• Large numbers are grouped in ten-thousands (万) and hundred-millions (亿): 3,000,000 is 300万. In financial reports, check that amounts and their units have not been mis-scaled.
• Proper names: brands and company names often stay in Latin letters, while personal names may be rendered in characters. If your organisation has an official Chinese name, make sure that is the one in the delivered file.
• Register: letters and manuals aimed at mainland China tend to be more formal than casual English copy; the free sample lets you judge the tone.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Manuce reads the PDF text block by block, with its position, font, size and colour. It returns a PDF in which the original text is removed and the Chinese translation placed in the same box; images and background stay as they are. If a translation runs longer, its text size is reduced until it fits. This re-layout is included in the price, and because Chinese is written left to right, the re-laid-out PDF is produced.

You also receive:

• a Word file, so you can edit the Chinese text freely;
• a formatted PDF;
• plain text, handy for review or for rebuilding graphics.

Limits worth knowing:

• A scanned PDF (an image of a page with no selectable text) is not read.
• Text embedded in images, such as diagrams, screenshots or logos, stays in the source language, since images are kept unchanged.
• The target is Simplified Chinese (mainland China, Singapore). For Taiwan or Hong Kong, order Traditional Chinese, which Manuce treats as a separate language.
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations: a degree certificate or civil document for a Chinese authority may require one from an accredited translator.

Preparing the PDF before you upload it

• Test text selection: try highlighting a sentence or searching for a word. If nothing selects, the page is an image; go back to the source file and export it to PDF again.
• Spot text inside images: chart labels, stamps, screenshots. These will not be translated, so plan to rebuild them using the Chinese plain text.
• Give tight areas some room: table cells, column headers and already small footnotes may have their text shrunk further. Hanzi have many strokes and become hard to read at very small sizes; if you control the source, widen these areas before exporting.
• Pick the right variant: readers in Beijing, Shanghai or Singapore need Simplified; readers in Taipei or Hong Kong need Traditional.
• Use the free sample: one paragraph of your file translated at the chosen level before you pay, to check terminology and tone.

Checking the Chinese PDF you receive

Even if you do not read Chinese, you can run several checks:

• No empty boxes (□) or question marks in place of characters, which would point to a font display problem.
• Consistent punctuation: no Latin comma , or full stop . inside a Chinese sentence, which should use ， and 。.
• Text sizes: find any reduced blocks and judge whether they remain legible in print.
• Figures, references and units: compare page by page with the original, paying attention to dates converted to the 年月日 format.

For documents going to partners or customers (brochures, contracts, manuals), have a Chinese-speaking reader review them and choose at least the Professional level, translated by the domain specialist. Chinese is a surcharged language: a ×1.6 coefficient applies to the per-word rate.

In practice

1. Check that your PDF's text can be selected.
2. Upload the file and choose Chinese (Simplified) as the target language.
3. Review the instant quote and the free one-paragraph sample.
4. Download the re-laid-out PDF, Word file, formatted PDF and plain text.
5. Check fonts, punctuation and figures, and arrange a review if the document is external.