Translate a PDF into Ukrainian with the layout kept

What Ukrainian does to the text boxes of a PDF

A PDF locks every block of text into a fixed box, and Ukrainian often runs longer than English: words are long and their endings carry grammatical case. “Download” becomes Завантажити, “Terms and conditions” becomes Умови та положення, “Date of birth” becomes Дата народження. In running paragraphs the extra length spreads over the lines; in a table header, a caption or a button it shows at once.

The font matters as much as the length. Many Latin display fonts have no Cyrillic glyphs at all, and some Cyrillic fonts designed first for Russian are incomplete for Ukrainian. Four letters deserve a look, because they do not exist in Russian:

• і and ї (Україна, їжа);
• є (Європа);
• ґ (ґанок, ґудзик).

The apostrophe is also part of Ukrainian spelling (сім'я, м'ясо, п'ять). An empty box, a question mark or a glyph from a different typeface in place of these characters points to an unsuitable substitute font.

Plurals, numbers and names: Ukrainian conventions

Ukrainian has four plural forms, chosen by how the number ends. In a report or quotation in PDF form, every number followed by a noun takes a different agreement:

• 1 сторінка, 21 сторінка (one);
• 2 сторінки, 24 сторінки (few);
• 5 сторінок, 11 сторінок (many);
• 1,5 сторінки (other, used for decimals).

Numbers use a decimal comma and a space as the thousands separator: 12 500,75 грн, not 12,500.75. Dates run day, month, year with full stops: 24.08.2024. Quotations take angle quotation marks, «…», rather than English inverted commas.

Place names take their Ukrainian form, not the Russian one: Київ rather than Киев, Харків rather than Харьков, Львів rather than Львов. In a letter to one person, the polite “you” is often capitalised: Ви, Вас, Ваш. These are the first things to check in the free sample.

What Manuce delivers for a Ukrainian PDF, 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 Ukrainian translation sits in the same box, in the original font or an equivalent; images and background stay where they were. If the Ukrainian text is longer, its size is reduced until it fits. Because Cyrillic runs left to right, this re-laid-out PDF is produced, which is not the case for Arabic or Hebrew.

You also receive:

• a Word version with editable text, for reworking a box that has become too tight;
• a formatted PDF, simpler, following the flow of the text;
• the plain text.

Limits worth knowing:

• No scanned PDFs. A photographed or scanned page, with no selectable text, is not read.
• No sworn or certified translation. A diploma, birth certificate or court ruling submitted to an authority in Ukraine, the UK or elsewhere usually requires a sworn or certified translator. Manuce's translation then serves to understand the document or prepare the file, not to submit it.

Ukrainian carries a language supplement: a ×1.25 coefficient applies to the per-word rate and is already included in the quote shown.

Preparing the PDF and checking the result

Before uploading:

• Check that the text can be selected: search for a word from the document with your PDF reader's search function. If nothing is found, the file is an image.
• Remove pages that need no translation (appendices already in Ukrainian, blank pages): the quote is based on the exact word count.
• Note the items that must stay as they are: brand names, product references, standards (ISO 9001), email addresses.

In the free sample, read a whole paragraph: look for і, ї, є and make sure there are no Russian letters such as ы, э or ъ, which do not exist in Ukrainian; check how proper names are rendered and whether the terms you want unchanged have stayed that way.

On delivery, open the PDF and look at the tight areas first: table headers, footers, page numbering (Сторінка 3 з 10), chart labels. If the size reduction leaves a label hard to read, rework it in the Word version. For a document that will be published or sent to a partner, a read-through by a Ukrainian speaker remains the safest check.

In practice

1. Check that the PDF text can be selected (scans are not read).
2. Upload the PDF, choose Ukrainian and a level: the quote appears straight away.
3. Read the free sample: the letters і, ї, є, ґ, proper names, terms to keep.
4. Pay and download the re-laid-out PDF, the Word version, the formatted PDF and the plain text.
5. Check the narrow boxes and adjust them in the Word version if needed.