Translate a PDF into Polish and keep the layout

What Polish does to a PDF layout

A PDF locks every line into a fixed box. Polish tests that constraint in three ways, whatever your source language.

• Length. Polish usually runs longer than English, with long words that do not break easily: niezależnie, zabezpieczenie, odpowiedzialność. In a narrow table cell or a form label, the text overflows quickly. When that happens, Manuce reduces the text size until it fits its box.
• Diacritics. Polish uses ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż. Fonts embedded in a PDF often hold only the characters used in the original document, so an English-only file may have no “ł” or “ź”. That is why the translation is set in the original font or an equivalent that contains these letters, rather than in empty boxes.
• Accented capitals. Headings in capitals produce “ŁÓDŹ” or “ZAŻÓŁĆ”: check that the accents do not collide with the line above in tightly spaced blocks.

Polish conventions to check in the document

An accurate translation is not enough: a Polish reader spots a foreign date or amount format at once.

• Dates: day, month, year, often with full stops: 14.03.2025, or written out with the month in the genitive: 14 marca 2025.
• Numbers: decimal comma and a space for thousands: 1 250,50 zł, with zł after the amount.
• Quotation marks: low opening, high closing: „umowa”.
• Plurals: four categories (one, few, many, other). A footer “Page 3 of 10” becomes Strona 3 z 10, but a counter changes form: 1 strona, 2 strony, 5 stron. If your PDF was generated with variable numbers, proofread these lines.
• Cases: a standalone label such as “Customer” is Klient as a heading but klienta in “customer details” (dane klienta). In a form with blank fields, the chosen form must match the surrounding sentence.
• One-letter words: Polish typesetting avoids leaving w, z, i, o, a or u at the end of a line. The re-laid PDF does not fix this; the Word version lets you adjust it if the document is going to print.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Manuce reads each text block in the PDF with its position, font, size and colour. You receive:

• the PDF in its original layout, with the source text removed and the Polish placed in the same box, images and background intact (this re-layout is included in the price);
• a Word version with editable text, to fix a case ending or break a long word by hand;
• a formatted PDF, simpler and readable without box constraints;
• plain text, useful for review or reuse.

Limits worth knowing:

• a scanned PDF (an image of a page, with no selectable text) is not read;
• when the translation is longer, the text size shrinks: a very dense block can end up small, in which case work from the Word version;
• Manuce does not produce sworn translations. Polish authorities and courts generally require a tłumaczenie przysięgłe for civil records, judgments or diplomas: a Manuce translation can serve as a working draft or for understanding, not as an official document.

Polish carries a surcharge: a ×1.25 coefficient on the per-word rate.

Preparing the PDF and checking the Polish version

Before uploading:

• Test selection: try to highlight a sentence. If nothing selects, the file is an image; go back to the source document and export a PDF with real text.
• Keep one source language per document: a PDF that is already bilingual gives a mixed result.
• Spot the tight areas (title blocks, tables, headers) where Polish is likely to be scaled down.
• Request the free sample: one paragraph translated at your chosen level before you pay, to judge the register (formal Pan, Pani, Państwo or a neutral tone).

After delivery:

• look for replacement characters (□ or ?) where ł, ś or ź should be;
• check dates, amounts and quotation marks against the rules above;
• check page and quantity counters (strona, strony, stron);
• have a Polish speaker review anything that will be signed or published.

In practice

1. Check that the text in your PDF can be selected.
2. Upload the file: the quote appears at once, based on the exact word count.
3. Choose a level and read the free sample translated into Polish.
4. Pay, then download the re-laid PDF, the Word version, the formatted PDF and the plain text.
5. Check diacritics, dates, amounts and plurals before sharing.