tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post2619435942890597910..comments2024-03-06T02:46:19.929+00:00Comments on Translation Tribulations: Using OCR to support translation processesKevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-35485638867825569292011-09-07T22:11:57.519+01:002011-09-07T22:11:57.519+01:00@Sebastijan: Not having been party to your exchang...@Sebastijan: Not having been party to your exchanges with clients, I don't know how you have presented your proposal. I seldom find any resistance to PDF surcharges. But I don't talk about CAT tools and the like to any great extent. I simply say something like "it'll cost X in this format; if you can provide me with the original I can offer you a rate of X - Y%". I don't care what they understand or don't understand about PDF. I am doing the work; if I say that PDF involves significantly more time and effort even without formatting, then they can believe me and accept the proposal and its options or go away and don't bother me.Kevin Lossnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-67196103808935221232011-09-07T15:56:00.513+01:002011-09-07T15:56:00.513+01:00Dear all,
I tried this theory a couple of times (...Dear all,<br /><br />I tried this theory a couple of times (heavy surcharge) but I usually got a response "no need to layout the final document, just plain text".<br /><br />And if you charge your clients full wordcount, the do not care that you want this text to be processed in a CAT tool. Hey, most of them even do not know about the existence of CAT tools and the fact that a PDF is not the same as Word :).<br /><br />Kind regards,<br />SebastijanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-77307522919301049642011-08-30T23:19:45.605+01:002011-08-30T23:19:45.605+01:00@Vaclav: I doubt there is anyone left in this prof...@Vaclav: I doubt there is anyone left in this profession who has not encountered the problem you describe. In my case, "education" starts with a heavy surcharge and polite hints about how costs might have been saved had the original files been available. In many cases, these "unavailable" files then materialize magically.Kevin Lossnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-19197987367931636382011-08-30T20:36:28.595+01:002011-08-30T20:36:28.595+01:00Kevin, I represent a rather small LSP and we have ...Kevin, I represent a rather small LSP and we have an external service provider to convert our pdf files and other non-editable texts into Word files. And actually, this person is working more than full time, the demand is very high. What drives me crazy is that often the customer is capable of providing the source, such as an InDesign file, that we could easily process using CAT tools but they will not pick up the phone to call their colleagues or whoever has access to the source file and will claim that the files are not within their reach instead. There is a considerable need to educate customers in this area, which would make life easier both for them and us - translators. VaclavVaclav Balacekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17916409335092866014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-10749234713423173092011-08-30T06:42:49.679+01:002011-08-30T06:42:49.679+01:00Yes, I did, Mykhailo - two years ago. The review i...Yes, I did, Mykhailo - two years ago. The review is <a href="http://www.translationtribulations.com/2009/09/infix-pdf-editor-useful-for-some-jobs.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. The program is far too limited for most purposes and will only work with electronically generated PDFs in any case. It is useful for prepress touchups or perhaps small posters but not much else. I haven't tried the version that extracts content as XML for potential use with CAT tools, but I suspect it will not be without its issues for many layouts with sentences breaking across pages, target language expansion, etc. And of course it will be utterly useless for the many bitmap PDFs in circulation. You need OCR software for that. Moreover, could you really imagine trying to translate a 200 page PDF manual with that tool? If the XML export feature doesn't work well (or you have the cheaper version that doesn't offer it), it would be a nightmare of overwriting. I do, however, find it useful for editing and extracting some diagrams.Kevin Lossnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-77553108863030611982011-08-30T05:33:41.879+01:002011-08-30T05:33:41.879+01:00Kevin, did you try Infix PDF Editor?
I sometimes ...Kevin, did you try Infix PDF Editor?<br /><br />I sometimes find it useful when I need to translate an editable PDF (created in some DTP software), for which there's no source files available and where the target file must look as close to the original as can be. <br /><br />This SW helps to keep the original formatting that cannot be otherwise recreated by means of WORD (tables, forms, captions, inclined text).<br /><br />It allows to edit PDFs, it also allows to export XML and import the translated one. However, one needs to fiddle with the translated file to make it look well.<br /><br />Website: http://www.iceni.com/infix.htmMykhailo Voloshkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17969878128467008625noreply@blogger.com