Unlocking the Secrets Behind PDFs

Course Description

The ubiquity of Adobe PDFs (Portable Document Format) makes it nearly inevitable that translators will come across this file format at one time or another. Most translators who like to use translation technology (such as Translation Memory) feel their hands are tied when dealing with PDFs --- it is a "hardcopy" format, they say, and simply resort to printing out the document and translating in Microsoft Word.

Formatting and layout can also potentially become a huge stumbling block as many PDFs are created from advanced document publishing packages and detailed reproduction can be an insurmountable challenge.

In reality, however, most PDFs can be ported to a usable softcopy electronic format with little effort. It is important to learn to identify when a PDF can be easily transformed into softcopy and when you should simply refuse to handle a PDF, i.e. when you are being set up for the impossible.

In this short session we will examine
1) the anatomy of a PDF and how they are "born"
2) ways to transform PDFs
3) when a PDF should be transformed and when other options should be considered
4) communicating with your client about the PDF format
5) the translation service options available for PDFs and...
6) how to handle pricing when working with a PDF as source.