Before you start: which file works?
Document translation goes from English into Persian only, and it takes a PDF. If your text is in another format, export it as a PDF first.
You'll get a better result from a PDF whose text you can select with the mouse. Files exported from Word or a layout program usually are.
Keep these limits in mind:
- Files can be up to 100 MB, one at a time.
- Password-protected files can't be used. Remove the password first.
- Long books can go in one file. Files over 1,000 pages aren't accepted for now.
Step by step
Nothing is taken from your balance until you press start.
- Create an account or log in, and open PDF translation.
- Upload the file. Its words are counted and you see the estimated cost. This is free.
- Read one paragraph of your own file in three writing styles and pick one. This preview is free too.
- Choose economy or fast delivery. You see both prices side by side.
- Press start. You don't need to keep the page open.
- When the job is done, download the Persian PDF and the Word file from your account.
Three writing styles, one price
The styles aren't quality levels and all three cost the same; they differ in tone.
- Technical: for scientific, technical and academic text.
- Modern and easy to read: the default, for most books and reports.
- Classical and literary: for text that needs a literary tone.
Pick the style by reading the paragraph, not by its name. It comes from your own file.
What carries over into Persian?
The file is read first so its structure is known. That structure is then rebuilt in the right-to-left Persian version, wherever that can be done cleanly.
- Headings and subheadings, with their levels.
- Tables, as tables, wherever possible.
- Lists, including nested lists.
- Figures and charts, in their place. Text inside a chart is put into Persian where that works cleanly; otherwise the original image stays.
- Names of people and institutions, and reference-list entries, keep their original form.
- Terms are kept consistent through the whole book.
Pages aren't copied exactly. The page size follows the original, and you choose one of four cover designs, the running header and the text alignment. Where rebuilding a part isn't safe, such as a complex table, the original stays and is flagged for review.
Where does the cost come from?
The cost comes from the file's word count, not its pages. You see the price for your own file before you start.
Delivery speed matters too. Economy is the default and usually takes about a day, though that isn't guaranteed. Fast starts right away, usually takes a few hours, and costs more. The writing style doesn't change the price.
When you press start, the amount is held. At the end the real cost is charged, which can be a little higher or lower than the estimate. If the job fails or you cancel it, the held amount goes back to your balance.
If more than half of the book stays in English, nothing is charged and you still get the files. If only some sections fail, you resend just those and pay only for them.
What about scanned PDFs?
A scanned PDF is pictures of pages, with no selectable text. It may still be translated, but more slowly, and the result may be weaker, because the text has to be read from the image first.
A file with no readable text is turned away before anything is charged.
- To check, try to select a sentence. If you can't, the file is a scan.
- If you have the digital version, use it rather than a scan.
What you get
When the translation is done, these files are in your account:
- A right-to-left Persian PDF.
- An editable Word file with the Persian font embedded.
- An automatic book summary, free, with a free PDF. Very short texts don't get one.
- For a book, a print-quality version if you want one.
From the same translation you can also make slides, a mind map, a podcast or an audiobook, each billed on its own.
Review before any formal use
This is machine translation. It can misread a meaning, pick an unsuitable term or miss the tone. Before publishing, printing or handing it in, read it and correct it in Word, or give it to an editor. It is a draft to start from, not a final text.
- Compare the headings and the table of contents with the original.
- Check tables and numbers one by one.
- Find the parts flagged for review.
- Search for the key terms of your field and change them in Word if you prefer another word.