Translate a Technical Data Sheet PDF into Spanish

What changes when a data sheet goes into Spanish

A data sheet is mostly short labels, values and units, and that is where Spanish needs care.

• Decimal separators. Spain normally uses a decimal comma: 1,5 mm. Mexico and much of Latin America write 1.5 mm. If your source is English, a value such as 1.250 kg can be misread in Spain as one thousand two hundred and fifty.
• Plurals after decimals. Spanish uses the plural for anything other than exactly one: 1 metro but 1,5 metros. Abbreviated units in a table (m) avoid the issue; running text does not.
• Technical labels. Caudal máximo (maximum flow rate), presión de servicio (operating pressure), par de apriete (tightening torque), grado de protección IP67. Abbreviations take a full stop: máx., mín., aprox.
• Warnings. They open with an inverted mark: ¡Atención!, ¡Peligro!; a question in a note reads ¿Necesita ayuda?. A missing mark is immediately visible to a Spanish reader.
• Spain or Latin America. Vocabulary differs even in technical text: enchufe or tomacorriente for a socket, ordenador or computadora, fontanería or plomería. Know which market the sheet is for.

Tables, dimensions and narrow cells

Spanish runs longer than English and close to French. From an English source, expect labels to grow: Operating temperature becomes Temperatura de funcionamiento. From a French source, block sizes change little.

Manuce places the translation in the same box as the original text. When it is longer, the text size is reduced until it fits. On a data sheet this mainly affects:

• narrow cells in a specification table (Dimensiones (an. × al. × prof.));
• callouts placed on a dimensioned drawing;
• footers carrying references and legal lines.

Dimensions, references and codes stay as they are: M8×1.25, IP67, 230 V ~ 50 Hz, a part number such as PX-420. Check them anyway, especially wherever a decimal separator may have been touched. Text that is part of an image, a drawing or an outlined logo is not text and stays in its original language.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

Your sheet goes to Dédale, Manuce’s technical specialist. It reads the PDF block by block, with each block’s position, font, size and colour. You receive:

• the re-laid PDF: the original text is removed and the Spanish translation sits in its place, in the original font or an equivalent; images and background remain;
• a Word version with editable text, handy for correcting a value or adapting a term to your market;
• a formatted PDF and the plain text.

Keeping the original layout is included in the price. Spanish uses the Latin alphabet, left to right, so the re-laid PDF is produced, accents and ¿ ¡ ñ included. A typical two-page sheet of around 900 words is translated in a few minutes and kept in your client area.

What Manuce does not do:

• a scanned PDF (a page image with no selectable text) is not read;
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations. If a buyer or authority requires one signed by a certified translator, you will need to go to one;
• values are not converted between unit systems: inches stay inches, psi stays psi.

Preparing the file and checking the result

Before uploading:

• Open the PDF and try to select a line in the specification table. If nothing highlights, it is an image: go back to the source file and export a PDF with real text.
• Use the latest revision of the sheet; an outdated one will be translated with its errors.
• Decide which market it targets (Spain, Mexico, Argentina…) so you know what to check.

Then read the free extract, one paragraph translated at your chosen level, before paying. Check that a product line name or in-house term you want left untouched has been kept, and that the vocabulary suits your market.

On delivery, a targeted check is usually enough:

1. Compare every value with the original, line by line: decimals, tolerances (±0,05), ranges (de -20 °C a 60 °C).
2. Look at cells where the text size was reduced; if one is too small to read, edit the Word version or shorten the label.
3. Check the ¡ ¿ marks on warnings and abbreviations such as máx. and mín.
4. For a sheet going to customers, the Professional level, handled by the domain specialist, is meant to be ready to send.

In practice

1. Make sure the text in your PDF can be selected (not a scan).
2. Upload the sheet: the quote appears at once, based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free translated paragraph: terminology, decimals, regional vocabulary.
4. Pay, then download the re-laid Spanish PDF, the Word version, the formatted PDF and the plain text.
5. Check values and table legibility before circulating the sheet.