# How to best translate PDF documents to English? **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/how-to-best-translate-pdf-documents-to-english/33317 **Category:** Questions **Created:** 2025-11-26T12:08:42Z **Posts:** 15 ## Post 1 by @anon57862721 — 2025-11-26T12:08:42Z I am aware of [DeepL](https://www.deepl.com/en/translator/files) but I was hoping to find another option that works well to translate PDFs and other docs to English in a privacy respecting way. And that doesn’t cost or doesn’t too much. Please share your solutions. Any help is much appreciated! Thank you. --- ## Post 2 by @TinFoilHat — 2025-11-28T22:22:10Z If you only want to translate the text, without formatting, try LM Studio, and use models like Gemma 3. Edit: If it forms a part of legal document and you need to follow a list of glossaries, that might also work, but you will need to double check the consistency. Depending on the length of your document, you might need to set a large context length, e.g. 60-80k. --- ## Post 3 by @kissu — 2025-11-29T12:26:03Z [LibreTranslate](https://libretranslate.com/) could be used for this and there are [Android apps](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.bnyro.translate/) that could also apparently plug themselves to it so that you could take a photo and translate from there. :hugs: --- ## Post 4 by @Average_Joe — 2025-12-01T10:58:31Z You seem concerned about maintaining your privacy and security when you open your PDF files. I made this thread earlier and I think you’ll find some useful information: [PDF Reader That Is The Best For User Privacy? - #65 by Average\_Joe](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/pdf-reader-that-is-the-best-for-user-privacy/15410/65) --- ## Post 5 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-01T11:00:18Z That is not what I was asking if you read my OP again. But thank you. I did read that thread and am already aware of DangerZone. --- ## Post 6 by @Bhaelros — 2025-12-01T11:42:24Z Have you tried Lumo? It is not able to create PDF or Word file but at least it is able to translate books. --- ## Post 7 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-01T12:54:41Z I have not tried it yet. I want to translate business documents so I do want accuracy and reliability. I can give it a shot but I don’t have high hopes from AI. --- ## Post 8 by @Bhaelros — 2025-12-01T13:02:30Z Even DeepL is using AI on its translation. Not sure if you can find something better for business related documents. Also if you want privacy, you should get DeepL Pro and avoid free version --- ## Post 9 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-01T13:08:55Z Yeah, that’s what I am thinking too. I see no other option. Atleast DeepL Ai seems purpose built for translation. Others don’t. Thanks again! --- ## Post 10 by @TinFoilHat — 2025-12-01T13:21:21Z If it is business then you would really need to use platform that offers custom dictionary / glossary. In my limited experience, generic LLM does good enough for most translation tasks, if you supplied a well defined system prompt and custom dictionary / glossary. --- ## Post 11 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-01T13:49:35Z Thank you for the insight. I think LibreTranslate and DeepL are the only two options I have that seemed to work well enough. --- ## Post 12 by @randombyte — 2025-12-13T10:00:42Z A bit late, as I only just joined, but has anybody tried [https://translate.kagi.com](https://translate.kagi.com)? It’s in beta, but it’s free, and this is what they state about their accepted document formats: TXT, MD, DOC, DOCX, CSV, PDF, PPTX, XLSX, XLS, RTF, TSV, HTML, ODT, ODS, JSON, YAML, SRT, ASS, ENV, LOG, VTT, MDX, RMD, IPYNB, TEX, WS, ROFF Up to 150MB and 60K characters --- ## Post 13 by @anon57862721 — 2025-12-13T10:01:43Z Thank you for sharing. I feel stupid to have forgotten Kagi had this. I’ll give this a shot. --- ## Post 14 by @mindless_geek — 2025-12-13T13:48:06Z I think you can do it in google translate too. --- ## Post 15 by @yes — 2025-12-13T15:06:03Z > [@mindless_geek](#): > > google # :upside_down_face: