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Spanish PDF not translating? Scans, wrong language and what to try.
If part or all of your Spanish PDF comes out still in Spanish, the cause is usually one of a few things: the page is a scan, the source language was guessed wrong, a passage did not fit its region, or a translation request was interrupted. This page goes through them in the order that is quickest to check.
Open the PDF layout translator ↗ Read the main guideQuick checklist
- Can you select text in the PDF? Open the file in any PDF viewer and try to select or search for a word. If you cannot, the page is an image.
- Is the source language set correctly? Try Spanish by hand instead of automatic detection.
- Open the review notes. They list every region the tool kept in the original language, with a reason.
- Retry or edit those regions. Use the retry buttons, or edit the English yourself and click Update PDF after editing.
- Check that the translation finished. A long file can be paused or interrupted, and completed work is kept.
What you see and what to do
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Whole page still in Spanish, with a note that a scanned page was kept unchanged | The page has no text layer. OCR reconstruction is not available on the layout translator, so scanned pages are kept as they are. | Use a version of the PDF that has selectable text, for example the original export from the program that made it. |
| Text inside a logo, stamp, chart or screenshot is still Spanish | Images and text inside images stay unchanged. | Handle that wording outside the tool. |
| A few regions kept in Spanish, with notes that the English cannot fit, would overlap other text, or would cross a table cell | The English would not fit its region at a readable size, would overlap other text or an illustration, or would cross a table cell, so the original was kept. | Shorten the English in the editor, click Update PDF after editing, or leave that region and fix it in your final document. |
| A region kept in Spanish with a note that a number or a measurement unit did not match the original | The tool found that a number or unit in the English did not match the original, so it kept the original. | Check the original value, then edit the English by hand if the translation is otherwise right. |
| "Translation missing" or "Translation interrupted" | A request for that region failed. Completed work is saved. | Click Retry untranslated regions, or Retry this region, or use Resume translation if the run was paused. |
| A message that the service is busy and is retrying | The PDF processor or translation service is queued. | Keep the tab open and wait. |
| Odd or partly English output on a short page | Automatic detection had little text, or the page mixes languages. | Set the source language to Spanish and translate again. |
Scanned Spanish PDFs
This is the most common reason for "nothing happened". A scanned or photographed page contains a picture of text, not text. The layout translator keeps such pages unchanged and says so in the review notes. The local document converter on the home page does include OCR, but only for English and Simplified Chinese, so it is not a route for reading Spanish scans. It also produces Markdown, not an English PDF. For a scan, the practical option today is to get a text-based PDF of the same document.
Language detection
Automatic detection is the default, and a short or mixed-language document can be misdetected. Choose Spanish by hand in the source-language menu. Portuguese is not in the source-language list today, so a Portuguese PDF will not translate correctly with this tool. The supported sources are Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German and English.
Regions that stay in Spanish
The tool prefers to keep the original over producing a broken page. That is why the review notes exist. Each note has a View and edit button that takes you to the page and highlights the original text, and where a retry makes sense there is a Retry this region button. After you edit, click Update PDF after editing so the English PDF is rendered again with your text, then download it. Until you update, the download button stays off.
Before you retry a large file
- The upload limit is 50 MB.
- Your PDF is kept for one hour of inactivity, so do not leave a half-finished review for long.
- Compare numbers, names and dates with the original even when everything translated.
Honest limits
- Scanned pages need OCR reconstruction before translation. That is a beta limitation: a scan has no text layer, so there is nothing to translate until it is recognised.
- Images and text inside images are not translated. Logos, stamps, charts and screenshots stay as they are.
- Mixed inline styling may need review. Bold spans, superscripts and footnote markers can shift after translation.
- Machine translation needs a human read for names, numbers and legal wording. The output is a draft you check against the original.
Privacy for this tool
This is a cloud tool. Your PDF is uploaded to Paperly for layout processing and kept for one hour of inactivity, and extracted text is sent to Alibaba Cloud Machine Translation when you click Translate to English. Use it only for files you are allowed to share. See the privacy page for details, and the comparison with the local converter if you are unsure whether the file may leave your device. The tool is a free beta.
Questions
Why is my Spanish PDF still in Spanish after translating?
The most common reason is that the page is a scan and has no text layer, so it is kept unchanged. Other reasons are the wrong source language, text inside images, or regions that did not fit. The review notes list each one.
Does Paperly have OCR for Spanish scans?
No. The layout translator does not reconstruct scanned pages, and the local converter OCR covers English and Simplified Chinese only.
Can I translate a Portuguese PDF?
Not today. Portuguese is not in the source-language list, which is Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German and English.
How do I retry only the parts that failed?
Use Retry untranslated regions, or Retry this region from a review note. If the run was paused, use Resume translation.
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