How to Translate a PDF in Google Drive

Google Translate only works on web pages and Google Docs—not PDFs. Super PDF Editor translates PDF documents to 100+ languages in Drive, with formatting preserved.

Install Super PDF Editor free

The problem

Why you can't just use Google Translate for PDFs

Google Translate works well for websites and plain text, and Google Docs can be translated natively. But PDFs are different—Google has no built-in tool to translate a PDF stored in Drive while preserving its layout and formatting.

Super PDF Editor solves this. It translates the text content of your PDF to any of 100+ languages and saves the result as a new PDF file in Google Drive, with the original formatting intact. No conversion, no copy-pasting, no losing your layout.

Step-by-step

How to translate a PDF in Google Drive

  1. 1

    Install Super PDF Editor

    Install Super PDF Editor from the Google Workspace Marketplace. Free to install, works with any Google account.

  2. 2

    Open the PDF from Google Drive

    Right-click your PDF in Google Drive and open it with Super PDF Editor. The document loads in your browser.

  3. 3

    Click Translate and select your target language

    Select the Translate option from the toolbar. Choose your target language from the dropdown—100+ languages available including Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, and more.

  4. 4

    Save the translated PDF to Google Drive

    Save the translated PDF as a new file in your Google Drive folder. The original is preserved. Share the translated version directly from Drive.

Common translation use cases

Who translates PDFs in Google Drive

International business

Translate contracts, proposals, and reports for clients and partners in other countries. Keep original and translated versions in the same Drive folder.

Education

Translate course materials, handouts, and permission slips for students and families who speak other languages.

Research

Translate academic papers published in other languages. Read and cite research from international journals without leaving Google Drive.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does translation preserve the PDF formatting? ▼

Yes. Super PDF Editor translates the text while keeping the document layout, fonts, and structure intact. The translated PDF looks like the original—just in a different language. Note that translated text length may vary slightly from the original.

Which languages are supported? ▼

Super PDF Editor supports 100+ languages including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and many more.

Can I translate just a section instead of the whole document? ▼

Yes. Super PDF Editor lets you select specific text to translate, or translate the entire document at once. Use section translation when you only need part of a document in another language.

Does it use Google Translate? ▼

Yes. Super PDF Editor uses Google Cloud Translation to power the translation feature, the same underlying technology used by Google Translate. This ensures high-quality translations across a wide range of languages.

Translate PDFs in Google Drive

Install Super PDF Editor free. Translate PDFs to 100+ languages without leaving Google Drive.

Install free