I need my assignment PDF of Gujarati sentences translated into English, but the 8-page scan won’t let me select any text on my laptop. How do people handle that before a Friday deadline?
Since it’s a scan, run OCR first. On my phone I’d use Google Lens page by page, set Gujarati to English, then paste the results into Google Docs and proofread names and punctuation. For 8 pages, work one page at a time and keep the original beside you, because OCR can misread Gujarati characters. I learned the hard way not to trust the translation without checking it.
Sounds like it’s just a scanned image with no text layer. I run those through an OCR app first so the text becomes selectable, then copy it into a translator.
@podcast_dude good call on the page by page check, Gujarati OCR trips on matras all the time. I do the same but paste into a plain text editor first to kill stray line breaks, not sure if it’s the same on Mac. Keep the scan open beside you while proofreading.
That’s a scan, so there’s no text to select, the whole thing is basically a photo. Easiest thing I’d try: upload it to Google Drive, right click, open with Google Docs. It does OCR on the image and usually handles non-English scripts okay, though Gujarati can be hit or miss. Did that work for you, or is the scan quality bad?
Since it’s a scan, the text is probably just a picture. I’d run it through PDFcap with OCR turned on, which reads the Gujarati characters and makes a selectable text layer, then copy the result into a translator and check it against the page image. For an assignment, keep the original scan too in case your instructor wants it.
That scan is image-only, so you need OCR before translating it. The quickest route is to upload it to Google Drive, right-click it, choose “Open with Google Docs,” then copy the extracted Gujarati text into Google Translate. Check the result against the scan, since Gujarati OCR can misread characters, especially in poor scans. I learned this the hard way, so keep the original PDF and proofread the English before submitting.
If it’s scanned (no selectable text) you need OCR with Gujarati language support, not merging. Try:
- Open in Acrobat, Tools > Scan & OCR, pick Gujarati if it’s listed as a language option.
- If Acrobat doesn’t have Gujarati OCR, try Google Docs, upload the PDF and open with Google Docs, it OCRs decently for Indic scripts.
- Keep your original scan backed up before converting anything.
Your scan is just a photo of each page, so there is no real text to select. You need OCR, which adds a text layer over the images. Upload the PDF to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs, then copy the recognised Gujarati into a translator. Script OCR can be patchy, so read the output carefully before Friday.
The simplest trick is uploading it to Google Drive, right-clicking, and opening it with Google Docs. That automatically pulls text out of scans. I learned this the hard way with a new hire’s photographed paperwork! From there, you can just copy the Gujarati text straight into a translator before Friday.
Since it is a scan, you need an OCR tool to recognize the text first. I run about 50 paper receipts a week through PDF24 to make them selectable for copying.
What operating system is your laptop running?
@SilentHunter I start by checking the scan quality on my laptop because Google Docs OCR messes up Gujarati on anything fuzzy. Last month a client sent me a photographed invoice and I had to retype half of it before Friday. Keep the original PDF handy in case you need to show the scan as well.
@phantom_midnight Windows 10, and honestly the Drive to Docs route handled my son’s scanned school forms fine. One thing I’d add: bump the scan to 300 dpi before running OCR if you can, fuzzy Gujarati came out as gibberish for me. What OS are you on, maybe that changes the answer.
- Run the scan through Google Drive’s “Open with Google Docs” OCR, which usually recognizes Gujarati. 2. Copy the extracted text into Google Translate, page by page. Check names and sentence endings manually, since scan OCR often makes mistakes.