How to Translate a PDF in Foxit Reader: A Complete Guide and Alternative

Need to translate a PDF in Foxit Reader? Foxit now offers AI-powered translation tools that can translate selected text or entire PDF documents while preserving the original layout. However, the best method depends on the type of PDF you are working with, especially if your document is scanned, image-based, or contains complex formatting.

In this guide, we'll explain how to translate a PDF in Foxit, how to handle scanned PDFs with OCR, and how Wondershare PDFelement V13 provides an alternative workflow for translating, summarizing, understanding, and editing PDF documents with AI.

Quick answer: If you only need a quick translation, Foxit's AI translation tools can handle selected text and full PDF documents. If you also need OCR, AI summarization, document analysis, rewriting, or editing after translation, PDFelement provides a more complete PDF workflow.

Free Download Free Download Free Download Free Download

AI Powered | Fast & Accurate | 50+ Languages

Part 1: Can Foxit Translate PDF Files?

Yes. Foxit currently supports AI-powered PDF translation, allowing users to translate selected text as well as entire PDF documents. Its AI translation workflow can automatically detect the source language and lets users choose a target language. Foxit also provides a side-by-side view for reviewing the original and translated content.

For users who only need to translate a standard digital PDF, this can be a convenient solution. Foxit's current AI PDF Translator supports PDF uploads of up to 25MB and 120 pages per file, and its AI translation tools support multiple languages.

However, PDF translation becomes more complicated when the document is scanned, image-based, or requires additional work after translation. In those cases, you may need OCR, editing, summarization, rewriting, or document analysis in addition to translation.

Part 2: How to Translate a PDF in Foxit

Method 1: Translate Selected Text

Step 1: Open your PDF in Foxit PDF Reader or Foxit PDF Editor.

Step 2: Select the text you want to translate.

Step 3: Open the AI Assistant or translation option and choose the target language.

Step 4: Review the translated result in the AI panel.

This method works well when you only need to understand a paragraph, sentence, or specific section without translating the entire document.

Method 2: Translate an Entire PDF

For a full-document translation, Foxit's AI translation workflow allows you to upload or open a PDF, select the target language, and translate the document while preserving its original formatting and layout as much as possible.

Step 1: Open the PDF and access the document translation feature.

Step 2: Select the target language.

Step 3: Start the translation process.

Step 4: Review the translated PDF and compare it with the original document.

Foxit states that its AI PDF Translator can preserve elements such as formatting, layout, tables, images, and overall document structure during translation.

Part 3: How to Translate a Scanned PDF

A scanned PDF is different from a normal PDF. Instead of containing editable text, it usually consists of images of pages. As a result, simply selecting text and translating it may not work.

The typical workflow is:

1. Run OCR to recognize text in the scanned PDF.
2. Review the recognized text for OCR errors.
3. Translate the recognized content.
4. Edit or format the translated document if necessary.

Foxit AI also supports translation of scanned and image-based PDFs through OCR.

For users who frequently work with scanned contracts, research papers, invoices, manuals, or archived documents, an integrated OCR + translation workflow can reduce the need to switch between multiple tools.

Part 4: How to Translate PDF with PDFelement V13

If you need more than basic translation, Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor Wondershare PDFelement Wondershare PDFelement offers an alternative workflow that combines PDF editing and AI-powered document tools.

PDFelement V13 is designed around a broader AI PDF workflow: recognize the document, translate its content, understand the information, and continue editing the PDF without moving between multiple applications.

Step 1: Open Your PDF

Launch PDFelement and open the PDF you want to translate. You can work with regular PDF files as well as scanned or image-based documents.

Step 2: Recognize Scanned Content with OCR

If the PDF is scanned or image-based, run OCR before translating it. OCR converts the text embedded in document images into searchable and editable content, making it easier to review and process the document.

This step is particularly useful for scanned contracts, books, forms, receipts, reports, and other image-based PDFs.

Step 3: Open AI Translate

After opening the document, access AI Translate to translate selected text or the full PDF. Select your target language and choose the translation mode that best fits your document.

PDFelement's translation workflow includes fast translation for everyday use and professional translation for documents where terminology and context require greater precision.

Step 4: Translate Selected Text or the Entire PDF

For a quick translation, select the text you need and translate it directly. If you need a complete translated document, use the PDF translation workflow to translate the selected page range or the entire file.

PDFelement supports AI-powered PDF translation in more than 50 languages, giving users more flexibility when working with multilingual documents.

Part 5: What Else Can PDFelement V13 Do?

Translation is often only the first step when working with a foreign-language PDF. After translating a document, you may still need to understand its key points, extract information, rewrite sections, or prepare the content for further use.

This is where the broader AI capabilities of PDFelement V13 become useful.

1. AI Summarizer for Long PDFs

Instead of reading a lengthy translated document page by page, use AI summarization to identify the main points and key information. This is particularly useful for research papers, business reports, manuals, contracts, and other long documents.

You can use the workflow of Translate → Summarize → Review when you first need to understand a document written in another language.

2. AI Knowledge Base for Document Understanding

For users working with multiple related PDFs, a single-document translation may not be enough. PDFelement V13's AI knowledge-base direction makes it possible to organize document information and use AI to work with a larger body of PDF knowledge.

This creates a more practical workflow for teams handling product documentation, research materials, policies, contracts, technical manuals, or other document collections.

3. AI-Powered OCR and Document Processing

Scanned PDFs can create a major barrier to translation because the text is stored as images. With OCR, the document can first be converted into recognizable text before translation and editing.

This makes the workflow much more straightforward:

Scanned PDF → OCR → AI Translate → Review → Edit

4. AI Writing and Proofreading

Translation does not always produce the final wording you want. If you are preparing a translated report, business document, proposal, or academic material, you may need to improve clarity, grammar, terminology, or tone afterward.

PDFelement's AI capabilities can help with proofreading and rewriting PDF content, allowing translation and content refinement to happen within the same PDF workflow.

5. Edit the Translated PDF

After translation, you can continue editing text, images, pages, annotations, and other PDF elements instead of exporting the content to another application.

This is particularly useful when the translated document needs to be delivered as a polished, editable business document rather than simply used as a reference.

Part 6: Foxit vs. PDFelement for PDF Translation

Both Foxit and PDFelement can translate PDF documents with AI. The better choice depends on how much you need to do beyond translation.

If your primary goal is simply to translate a PDF, Foxit is a reasonable choice. Its current AI tools support both selected-text and full-document translation.

If your workflow involves OCR, translation, summarization, document analysis, rewriting, and PDF editing, PDFelement V13 is worth considering because these tasks can be handled within one PDF environment.

Need to Translate a PDF Without Installing Software?

If you only need to translate a PDF occasionally, installing desktop software may not be necessary. Wondershare AI PDF Translator provides a browser-based option for translating PDF documents into more than 50 languages while maintaining the original document format.

This can be useful when you need a quick translation from a computer without installing a PDF editor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Foxit Reader translate PDF files?

Yes. Foxit supports AI-powered PDF translation, including translation of selected text and full PDF documents. Its current AI PDF Translator can preserve the document's formatting and layout during translation.

Can Foxit translate a scanned PDF?

Yes. Foxit AI can translate scanned and image-based PDFs using OCR to recognize the text before translation.

Can I translate an entire PDF with Foxit?

Yes. Foxit supports full-document PDF translation. You can select the target language and translate the document while maintaining its original layout and structure.

How do I translate a scanned PDF?

For a scanned PDF, use OCR to recognize the text first. Then translate the recognized content with an AI translation tool. This workflow helps ensure that image-based text can be searched, edited, and translated.

What is the best alternative to Foxit for PDF translation?

PDFelement is an alternative if you want PDF translation combined with OCR, AI summarization, document understanding, rewriting, proofreading, and PDF editing. Its AI PDF Translator supports more than 50 languages.

Can I summarize a translated PDF?

Yes. After translating a PDF, you can use an AI PDF summarizer to extract key points, generate an abstract, or identify important information. PDFelement also supports AI-powered PDF summarization and document analysis.

Final Takeaway

Foxit provides convenient AI-powered options for translating selected text and entire PDF documents. It can also handle scanned PDFs through OCR, making it suitable for many everyday translation tasks.

However, PDF translation is often only one step in a larger document workflow. If you need to OCR a scanned PDF, translate it, summarize the content, understand multiple documents, rewrite or proofread text, and edit the final PDF, a more integrated AI PDF solution can save time and reduce tool switching.

PDFelement V13 brings these workflows closer together, turning PDF translation from a single-purpose task into a broader AI-powered document workflow.

For occasional translation, an online AI PDF translator may be enough. For recurring professional PDF work, an all-in-one solution such as PDFelement can provide greater flexibility from document recognition through final editing.

Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!

Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!

Try for Free right now!

Try for Free right now!