Translate a PDF into Dutch and keep its layout

What changes when a PDF goes into Dutch

In a PDF, every text block sits in a fixed-size box. Dutch brings a specific difficulty: closed compound words. Where English says "disability insurance" or "customer service agent", Dutch writes arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering or klantenservicemedewerker as a single word that cannot be broken just anywhere.

In practice, narrow areas (table cells, column headers, captions, footers) can be filled by one word. When the translation is longer than the source, Manuce reduces the text size until it fits. In running text the effect is slight; in a price table or a form with small fields it can be more noticeable. Those are the places to check first.

Line-end hyphenation also has its own rules. A word such as zeeëgel loses its diaeresis when split (zee-egel). If you edit the Word version, leave hyphenation set to Dutch rather than breaking words by hand.

Netherlands or Flanders: register, vocabulary, conventions

Written Dutch is shared by the Netherlands and Flanders, but a document aimed at one audience is proofread differently from one aimed at the other.

• Vocabulary: a mobile phone is a gsm in Belgium and a mobiel in the Netherlands; health insurance is handled by a ziekenfonds in one and a zorgverzekeraar in the other. This matters most in administrative, HR and sales documents.
• Register: formal u remains standard in official letters and contracts, while Dutch consumer brochures often use informal je or jij. Flanders tends to keep u longer. Make sure the whole document sticks to one choice.
• Addresses: Dutch postcodes have four digits and two letters (1012 AB Amsterdam); Belgian ones have four digits (2000 Antwerpen).

If the PDF targets one country specifically, have these terms checked by someone from that country, working from the Word version.

Dutch typography and numbers to watch

• The IJ digraph: at the start of a word both letters are capitalised (IJsselmeer, IJmuiden). An all-caps heading or a badly configured font can give Ijsselmeer, which is wrong.
• Diaereses and accents: België, coördinatie, ideeën, één. If the original font is replaced by an equivalent, check these characters display in the same weight as the surrounding text.
• Plurals: Dutch has only singular and plural, but the 's plural after some vowels catches people out: 1 pagina, 3 pagina's; 1 foto, 2 foto's.
• Numbers and dates: decimal comma and full-stop thousands separator (€ 1.250,00); months and weekdays in lower case (maandag 3 maart).
• Quotation marks: house styles differ (straight quotes, single quotes or low-high quotes); keep one convention throughout.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Manuce reads the PDF block by block, recording each block's position, font, size and colour. It delivers:

• a re-laid-out PDF: the original text is removed and the Dutch translation placed in the same box, in the original font or an equivalent, with images and background kept;
• a Word version with editable text, to swap a Flemish term or shorten a cramped compound;
• a formatted PDF and plain text.

What is not done:

• a scanned PDF (page images with no selectable text) cannot be read;
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. If a Dutch or Belgian authority asks for a beëdigde vertaling, you need a sworn translator.

Dutch is charged at the base rate (×1 coefficient). For documents going to Dutch-speaking clients, the Professional level, handled by the domain specialist engine, is the usual choice.

Preparing the PDF and checking the Dutch version

1. Test the text: try selecting a sentence. If nothing highlights, it is a scan; go back to the source file and export a PDF with real text.
2. Use the free sample wisely: pick a paragraph with technical terms, so you can judge compounds and register.
3. Inspect narrow areas: table cells, captions, footnotes. If the reduced size hurts legibility, shorten the wording in the Word version.
4. Proofread IJ capitals, diaereses, amounts and dates.
5. Align u or je, and vocabulary, with the target country.

In practice

1. Check that the text in your PDF can be selected (not a scan).
2. Upload the file and see the quote based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free sample paragraph in Dutch, then choose a level and pay.
4. Download the re-laid-out PDF, the Word version and the plain text.
5. Check narrow cells, IJ capitals, amounts and register.