Challenges of AI PDF Translation Tools – How Are Security and OCR?

Note: This blog post was originally written in Japanese for our Japanese website. We used our machine translation platforms to translate it and post-edit the content in English. The original Japanese post can be found here.

In modern international business, translating PDF files provided in different languages is essential. In this post, we’ll explain key points to consider in PDF translation and free PDF translation services available on the internet. Finally, with the business setting in mind, we will take security issues as an example and introduce XMAT (TransMAT), which enables secure PDF translation.

Not sure about the differences between free and paid services or which one to choose? Want to streamline your PDF translation tasks? This post is recommended for those readers, so make sure to read to the end!

Points to note for AI PDF translation

Here are three key points to keep in mind when translating PDFs.

Types of PDFs

There are two types of PDF files: text-based PDFs and image-based scanned PDFs. Some machine translation services may not support scanned PDFs. Although text-based PDFs allow selecting and copying text, scanned PDFs are recognized as images and therefore require OCR or optical character recognition, a technology that converts them into editable text data.

Machine translation engines

Each machine translation engine has its own characteristics. For example, DeepL produces fluent translations, while Google offers fast translation and supports many languages. The engine that we provide, Kawamura NMT powered by Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), excels at translating Japanese, and it also has separate engines specialized for specific domains. To obtain highly accurate translation results, it is crucial to choose your machine translation engine according to the content and language of the source text.

Translation quality

Translation quality refers to whether the results of AI translation accurately convey the meaning and nuances of the original text. Translation quality varies depending on the performance of the machine translation engine and the quality of the source text. To improve translation quality, it is necessary to check whether there are any unnecessary line breaks or tables in the source text and to ensure that text in images is correctly recognized. Although the quality of AI translation has improved dramatically over the past few years, it is still not perfect. It is advisable to always have the translation checked by a human for omissions and mistranslations.

What about free PDF translation services on the internet?

Currently, there are several PDF translation services available on the internet for free. Here is a brief introduction to the features of Google Translate and DeepL, two representative services.

Google Translate

Even people who do not usually translate may have used Google Translate. Google Translate also offers a free PDF translation feature. Its features include the following (as of April 2024):

• Fast translation speed
• Extensive language support
• File size limit: up to 10 MB
• OCR not supported
• Translation processing requires uploading one file at a time
• Translation data is reused as training data

*As of April 2024

DeepL

DeepL is a machine translation engine provided by a Germany-based company established in 2017. Its features include the following (as of April 2024):

• Known for its fluent translations
• Strong in European languages
• OCR supported
• The free version allows file translation up to three times per month
• Translation data is reused as training data

*As of April 2024

Although there are currently free PDF translation services available, they often have many functional limitations, and there are security concerns that data used for translation may be secondarily reused. Because the secondary reuse of data can lead to the leakage of internal confidential information, caution is required when using such services for businesses.

What is AI translation cloud service XMAT?

As mentioned above, services that are available for free have various limitations and security issues. If you need to translate PDFs as part of your work, we recommend using secure, paid AI translation services.

XMAT (TransMAT), developed by Kawamura International, is an AI translation cloud service developed based on the corporate philosophy of “bringing transformative change to everyone who is in need of translation.” Its features include the following (as of November 2024):

• Flat-rate pricing starting at 5,500 yen per user per month
• Unlimited translation characters per month
• Multiple machine translation engines available, including Kawamura NMT, OpenAI, and DeepL
• Document translation feature allows translating multiple files at once
• Upload up to 30 files at a time, with a total size of up to 100 MB
• OCR supported
• Editing feature for source and translated text after translation
• Customizable machine translation engines
• ISO/IEC 27017 certification

*As of November 2024

With XMAT, you can use multiple machine translation engines on a flat monthly subscription without worrying about character counts. Choosing and switching engines according to the content leads to higher translation accuracy. Each engine is connected to its paid version, so data will not be used for secondary purposes, and security measures are thorough.

The file translation feature also includes OCR, enabling translation of both text-based and image-based PDFs. You can efficiently and securely streamline PDF translation right in your browser. If you are interested in XMAT, feel free to reach out to us for a free two-week trial.

Kawamura International’s services

Free services can be helpful for PDF translation, but it is important to understand their limitations and find a solution suited to your operations. XMAT addresses these limitations and provides high-quality, secure PDF translation. At Kawamura International, we not only provide machine translation services but also offer consultation services to help you carry out translation work more smoothly. If you are facing challenges or have issues with translation, contact us. We are happy to support you!