Translate a PDF into Vietnamese and keep the layout

What changes when a PDF goes into Vietnamese

Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet (quốc ngữ), left to right, so there is no change of reading direction. The difficulties are typographic.

• Stacked diacritics. One vowel can carry two marks: a vowel modifier and a tone. ê with a dot below becomes ệ; ơ with a hook above becomes ở. On capitals, Ể or Ở rise well above normal cap height, so in an all-caps heading with tight line spacing the top marks can collide with the line above.
• The font. Many brand or display typefaces lack ư, ơ, đ and the precomposed toned vowels. Where the original font does not have them, an equivalent font is used instead.
• Length. Vietnamese is built from syllables separated by spaces: « hợp đồng » (contract) counts as two words. A Vietnamese sentence often takes more room than its English source. When the translation overflows its box, the text size is reduced until it fits; on a caption that was already small, stacked accents at a very small size can become hard to read.

Vietnamese conventions your document should follow

A document meant for readers in Vietnam follows conventions worth checking before it goes out.

• No grammatical plural. Nouns do not change: « 1 trang », « 10 trang » (page). Quantity is carried by the number or by words such as các or những, so constructions like "page(s)" simply disappear.
• Numbers and dates. A full stop separates thousands and a comma marks decimals: 1.250,5, the reverse of British usage. Dates run day, month, year: 05/03/2025, or in words « ngày 5 tháng 3 năm 2025 ». Amounts in dong put the symbol after the figure: 150.000 ₫.
• Personal names. The order is family name, middle name, given name: in « Nguyễn Văn An » you address Mr An, not Mr Nguyễn. A list of signatories sorted by surname may need rethinking.
• Register. Vietnamese picks pronouns according to the relationship: « quý khách » for a customer in commercial material, « bạn » for a friendlier tone. Say who the PDF is for if register matters.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

For Vietnamese, the re-laid-out PDF is produced, since the script is Latin. You receive:

• the PDF in its original layout, with the original text removed and the translation placed in the same box, in the original font or an equivalent; images and background stay in place, and the layout work is included in the price;
• a Word version with editable text, handy for loosening a cramped heading or adjusting line spacing;
• a formatted PDF and the plain text, useful for reusing the translation elsewhere.

Limits to be aware of:

• A scanned PDF (an image of a page, with no selectable text) is not read. A photographed birth certificate or degree must first exist as a text PDF.
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. For a visa, marriage or qualification recognition file, authorities often require a certified translation, which means going to a sworn translator.

Vietnamese is a surcharged language: a ×1.25 coefficient applies to the per-word rate.

Preparing the PDF and checking the result

Before uploading, a few checks save trouble:

• Can you select the text? Try highlighting a sentence in your PDF reader. If nothing highlights, the page is an image.
• Was the PDF exported from the source file? A direct export from a word processor or layout software gives clean blocks; a PDF that has been "printed" several times can break sentences into fragments, which hampers translation.
• Proper names and acronyms. Note those that must stay unchanged (brand, product name) or that already have an official Vietnamese form.

On delivery, check first:

• all-caps headings: complete accents, nothing clipped at the top of the line;
• small text (footnotes, legal notices, captions): if the size reduction makes ặ or ữ illegible, shorten the wording in the Word version;
• tables of figures: consistent 1.000,00 separators across columns;
• the free sample: one paragraph of your own file translated at the chosen level, before you pay, shows the register and how the diacritics render.

In practice

1. Check that the text in your PDF can be selected.
2. Upload the file: the quote is based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free sample to judge register and diacritics.
4. Receive the re-laid-out PDF, the Word version, a formatted PDF and plain text.
5. Check all-caps headings, small text and figures.