Is the document translator free?

You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use. The upload limits without an account and on Free or Pro are 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar allows 50MB and 1,000,000 characters.

Can it translate a scanned document or a photo of paper?

Yes. Upload a JPG, PNG, or HEIC (iPhone) photo, or a scanned PDF, and we read the text before translating. A flat, well-lit, straight-on shot gives the best result. Accents are the first thing a blurry image loses, and in French they carry meaning — ou is "or" while où is "where", a is "has" while à is "to" — so give the output a quick read and check proper names and dates against the original.

How accurate is it? What's the difference between Fast and Advanced?

Fast is built for volume: getting the gist of a report, reading correspondence, triaging a stack of files. Advanced runs on a frontier model and is the tier for documents where wording matters — it keeps formal French register (vous throughout, correct letter formulas), handles legal and administrative phrasing, and reads idioms instead of translating them word by word. For a contract, an application document, or anything another person will judge you by, use Advanced.

Will the translation keep my document's original layout?

The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. French text runs about 15–20% longer than English, so the formatted output adjusts type size and line breaks to fit.

Can I submit this translation to USCIS, IRCC, or a French préfecture?

Not on its own. US immigration requires a certified translation with a signed accuracy statement, and French authorities generally require a traducteur assermenté — a sworn translator registered with a cour d'appel. What our translation does is let you read every line of your own file, fill out forms correctly, and confirm a document says what you need before you pay for certification.

Does it handle Canadian French, or only France French?

Any regional French, in both directions. Formal written French is close to uniform across France, Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, and francophone Africa, so a translated document reads correctly in all of them. Where everyday vocabulary splits — courriel vs e-mail, Belgian septante vs soixante-dix for 70 — we default to the international standard forms every reader understands, and Quebec-specific terms in source documents (cégep, RAMQ) are rendered in plain English rather than left behind.

What file formats can I upload?

PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), XLSX (Excel), and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned documents as JPG, PNG, or HEIC. Everything comes back either as clean translated text or as the same file with its layout preserved — you choose before translating. If you have a paper document, a phone photo is enough — no scanner needed.

French PDF & Document Translator — English ↔ French

Translate English to French or French to English while preserving your document’s layout. Upload your file, choose the target language, and get a natural translation that keeps the meaning of the original.

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See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

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A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places. — Original — A civil complaint filed in Mexico City, Spanish to English. Caption block, numbered pleadings, the evidence table and the signature block all keep their places.

An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions. — Original — An Italian birth certificate, photographed rather than scanned. The framed masthead, the field grid, the marginal annotations and the round seal all hold their positions.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Original — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact. — Translation — A handwritten archaeological field notebook from 1974. The engine reads the hand and keeps the ruled inventory table intact.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Original — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged. — Translation — A German hospital discharge summary. Diagnoses with ICD codes, lab values and the medication table survive the translation unchanged.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Original — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register. — Translation — A 1747 parish baptism register in Latin. Ruled columns, godparents and marginal notes stay aligned, so the genealogy still reads as a register.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Original — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place. — Translation — A scanned 17th-century Italian index of sermons. Two columns of dense small print, translated in place.

How French documents come out

Translate French PDFs, Word documents and scanned records into English, or prepare French versions of English files. Upload an acte de naissance, transcript, contract, research paper or family letter; PowerPoint, Excel and EPUB files also work. Download a translated file with its layout retained and wording that reads naturally in the target language.

French uses the same Latin alphabet as English, written left to right, so nothing needs mirroring — but French documents follow their own typographic rules, and a translation that ignores them looks careless to a French reader. Accented letters (é, è, ê, à, ç, ù) and the œ ligature (cœur, œuvre) are everywhere, including on capitals: SOCIÉTÉ, not SOCIETE — dropping accents on capitals is a typing shortcut, not correct French, and it can change meaning. French punctuation puts a space before colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points, and quotes with guillemets (« … ») rather than curly quotes. Numbers flip too: French writes the decimal comma and spaces out thousands (1 234,56 €, currency sign after the amount), and dates run day-month-year with lowercase month names (13 juillet 2026). French runs roughly 15–20% longer than the same content in English, so the formatted output adjusts type size and line breaks to fit.

Translate your document and keep its structure

The translator keeps your file’s structure while translating the text in context. The downloaded format depends on the source file.

PDFs and scanned pages: The translated PDF follows the page visually, with translated pages rendered as images. Selectable PDF text and identical fonts are not guaranteed.
Word documents and PowerPoint presentations: Start with DOCX or PPTX when you have it. Native paragraphs, table text and slide text can stay editable in the corresponding file format. Translated text inside pictures remains image content; review text wrapping and font changes in your editor.
Excel workbooks and EPUB books: Use the original XLSX or unprotected EPUB for a translated workbook or ebook. Review formulas, numbers and text cells in a workbook; check chapter order, navigation and text flow in your ebook reader.

What people translate to and from French

Immigration and civil-status paperwork

French actes de naissance, marriage certificates, and diplomas turn up constantly in US and Canadian immigration files, and English documents flow the other way to French préfectures and consulates. Upload the scan and you get a clean English (or French) version in minutes — enough to fill out forms correctly, see exactly what a clerk will see, and catch problems before you pay for certification. For the final submission itself, USCIS and French authorities require a certified or sworn translation; see the FAQ below for how that works.

Contracts and business documents for the francophone market

France is the eurozone's second-largest economy; Quebec's Charter of the French Language (tightened by Bill 96) requires French versions of contracts, warranties, and product documentation offered there; and francophone Africa — home to the world's fastest-growing French-speaking population — runs its tenders (appels d'offres) and official correspondence in French. Companies use this tool in both directions: to read incoming French contracts, CGV (terms of sale), and RFP packets, and to produce working French drafts of their own agreements and manuals for a bilingual lawyer to finalize.

Research, coursework, and transcripts

A large share of historical, mathematical, and scientific literature exists only in French, and French universities issue relevés de notes (transcripts) and thesis abstracts that admissions offices abroad ask to see in English. Students and researchers upload journal articles and book chapters as PDFs and read them in English with their layout intact.

Family letters, parish registers, and genealogy

Quebec parish records, Acadian and Louisiana civil registers, WWI-era letters, and French colonial archives are the raw material of a lot of North American family history. Photograph the page (JPG, PNG, or HEIC) and upload it: printed and typewritten documents read well, and clear handwriting often does too. Older cursive is the honest limit — plan to check names and dates against the image. French record formulas like « l'an mil huit cent… » ("in the year eighteen hundred…") come through in plain English.

What to watch for in French document translation

Most English–French document errors aren't vocabulary — they're register and convention. French business and administrative writing is formulaic: a letter closing with « Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées » should become "Yours sincerely", not a word-by-word "I beg you to accept the expression of my distinguished salutations"; going the other way, an English memo turned into French must commit to vous and hold it, because slipping into tu mid-document reads as unprofessional. False friends do real damage in exactly the documents people translate: actuellement means currently (not actually), éventuellement means possibly (not eventually), demander is to ask (not demand), and a société is simply a company. Conventions trip up machines and humans alike: 03/07/2026 is 3 July in a French document, 1 234,56 uses a decimal comma, and a notaire is a full civil-law legal officer, not an American notary public. Careless translation also imports English capitalization — months, languages, and nationality adjectives are lowercase in French (les investisseurs américains). These traps are what the Advanced tier exists for; whichever tier you use, proofread dates, amounts, and anything above a signature line first.

French document translation FAQ

Is the document translator free?: You can try it free, with no account needed, and signing in gives you a larger daily allowance. Pro and Scholar are there for longer documents and regular use. The upload limits without an account and on Free or Pro are 20MB and 100,000 extracted characters per file; Scholar allows 50MB and 1,000,000 characters.
Can it translate a scanned document or a photo of paper?: Yes. Upload a JPG, PNG, or HEIC (iPhone) photo, or a scanned PDF, and we read the text before translating. A flat, well-lit, straight-on shot gives the best result. Accents are the first thing a blurry image loses, and in French they carry meaning — ou is "or" while où is "where", a is "has" while à is "to" — so give the output a quick read and check proper names and dates against the original.
How accurate is it? What's the difference between Fast and Advanced?: Fast is built for volume: getting the gist of a report, reading correspondence, triaging a stack of files. Advanced runs on a frontier model and is the tier for documents where wording matters — it keeps formal French register (vous throughout, correct letter formulas), handles legal and administrative phrasing, and reads idioms instead of translating them word by word. For a contract, an application document, or anything another person will judge you by, use Advanced.
Will the translation keep my document's original layout?: The translator produces a translated PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB file that aims to preserve the original layout, including tables, columns and headers. Text size, fonts and line breaks may change, so review the result against the original. French text runs about 15–20% longer than English, so the formatted output adjusts type size and line breaks to fit.
Can I submit this translation to USCIS, IRCC, or a French préfecture?: Not on its own. US immigration requires a certified translation with a signed accuracy statement, and French authorities generally require a traducteur assermenté — a sworn translator registered with a cour d'appel. What our translation does is let you read every line of your own file, fill out forms correctly, and confirm a document says what you need before you pay for certification.
Does it handle Canadian French, or only France French?: Any regional French, in both directions. Formal written French is close to uniform across France, Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, and francophone Africa, so a translated document reads correctly in all of them. Where everyday vocabulary splits — courriel vs e-mail, Belgian septante vs soixante-dix for 70 — we default to the international standard forms every reader understands, and Quebec-specific terms in source documents (cégep, RAMQ) are rendered in plain English rather than left behind.
What file formats can I upload?: PDF, DOCX (Word), PPTX (PowerPoint), XLSX (Excel), and EPUB, plus photographed or scanned documents as JPG, PNG, or HEIC. Everything comes back either as clean translated text or as the same file with its layout preserved — you choose before translating. If you have a paper document, a phone photo is enough — no scanner needed.

See “Keep formatting” in action

Real examples of the “Keep formatting” option: original on the left, translated document on the right. Click either page to enlarge.

1 / 6

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