Translate a PDF into Danish, layout and all

Length and compound words: what Danish changes in a PDF

Danish closes up its compound nouns: where English writes customer service or delivery date, Danish writes kundeservice and leveringsdato. Overall length is often close to English, but the text contains long unbroken words such as ansættelseskontrakt (employment contract) or kvalitetskontrolafdelingen (the quality control department). In a PDF this is what matters: a twenty-five-letter word cannot wrap like two short ones, and a narrow box may no longer be wide enough.

Manuce places the translation in the original box; if the Danish overflows, the text size is reduced until it fits. The places to watch are:

• table column headings, where a single compound can force a noticeable reduction;
• title blocks, captions and footers, already set small;
• single-line headings, where Medarbejderhåndbog replaces Staff handbook.

Splitting these words is a well-known error in Danish, called særskrivning: kunde service instead of kundeservice. Correct Danish keeps them joined, however long; it is the layout that adapts, not the spelling.

Æ, ø, å and Danish conventions to check

The three Danish letters æ, ø, å, and their capitals Æ, Ø, Å, must exist in the font being used. Many PDFs embed fonts cut down to the characters in the source document, so an English or German PDF may never have contained an ø. Manuce uses the original font or an equivalent one; check the result for empty boxes, or for a visibly different typeface mid-word in names like København or Ærø.

Writing conventions differ from English too:

• numbers: decimal comma and full stop for thousands, 1.250,50;
• amounts: 1.250,00 kr. or DKK 1.250,00;
• dates: 03.03.2025 or 3. marts 2025, with months and weekdays in lower case;
• quotation marks: »citat«, with the chevrons pointing inwards;
• addresses: postcode before the town, 2100 København Ø.

Danish plurals have only two forms (1 side, 2 sider), so counters rarely cause trouble. On register, professional Danish addresses readers as du: it is the norm in letters, manuals and sales material, while the formal De now reads as distant or old-fashioned. A document that speaks to the reader should therefore sound fairly direct.

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 Danish translation placed in the same box; images and background stay as they were. This re-laid-out PDF is included in the price.

You also receive:

• a Word version with editable text, handy for reworking a heading that was shrunk too far or hyphenating a long compound by hand;
• a formatted PDF, where the text flows freely without box constraints;
• plain text, for a website or another tool.

What Manuce does not do:

• it does not read scanned PDFs: if the text cannot be selected, there is nothing for it to translate;
• it does not produce certified (sworn) translations. Where a Danish authority asks for a certified translation of a certificate or diploma, it will generally expect one from a statsautoriseret translatør;
• it does not take glossaries or terminology instructions: a product name or acronym that must stay unchanged is best checked in the free sample, then in the delivered translation.

Preparing the PDF and checking the Danish version

Before uploading:

• try selecting a sentence in the PDF; if it highlights, Manuce can read the text;
• use the PDF exported from the original application rather than a scanned print-out;
• note any Danish names already in the document (Ærø, a company ending in ApS or A/S) so you can check them afterwards.

Use the free sample, one paragraph translated at the level you choose, to judge the tone: sales copy in De rather than du, or a technical term left in English, shows up within those few lines.

Once delivered, check the re-laid-out PDF for:

1. boxes where the text size was reduced, particularly in tables;
2. æ, ø and å in headings and bold text, where the font often changes;
3. figures, amounts and dates, compared against the original;
4. company and VAT numbers, which stay as they are; the Danish CVR-nummer does not replace them.

If a reduction makes a passage hard to read, rework it in the Word version, where you can shorten the wording or widen a column.

In practice

1. Check that the text in your PDF can be selected (not a scan).
2. Upload the PDF: the quote appears straight away, based on the exact word count.
3. Choose Danish and a level, then read the free sample.
4. Pay and receive the re-laid-out PDF, the Word version, the formatted PDF and plain text.
5. Check tables, æ, ø and å, figures and dates.