How to translate a PDF on your Mac

Not by itself. macOS translates text you select, in many apps, and text in a picture through Live Text. It has no button that turns a whole PDF, Word file or photo of a letter into a translated copy with the same layout. For that you need another app: Microsoft Word for Word files, Google Translate's website, or a Mac app like Koi.

We make Koi, so read the Koi part with that in mind. Every Apple, Microsoft and Google detail below comes from their own help pages, checked October 21, 2026.

Apple's guide to translating text on a Mac says it works “in different apps on Mac, including some third-party apps”. In a PDF that has real text (you can select words in it):

1. Open the PDF in Preview and select the text you want.
2. Control-click the selection and choose Translate.
3. Pick the language it's in and the language you want from the pop-up menus.
4. Click Copy Translation to paste it somewhere else. In an app where you can edit the text, Replace with Translation swaps it in place.

Apple's guide doesn't name Preview, so if Translate is missing from the menu, copy the text into Notes or TextEdit and translate it there. To translate with no connection, open System Settings > General > Language & Region, click Translation Languages and download the ones you need. Apple says offline translations may be less accurate than ones done on its servers.

A scan or a photo has no text to select, only a picture of it. Live Text reads it. Apple's Preview guide describes it for photos and images:

1. Open the photo or image in Preview.
2. Hover over the text, then drag to select it.
3. Control-click the selection, choose Translate, then choose a language.

Apple says Live Text and translation aren't available in every language or region; its feature availability page has the lists. Either way, you get the translation of what you selected, a paragraph at a time, not a translated copy of the letter.

Microsoft Word for Mac translates a whole document: Review, Translate, Translate Document, pick the language, then Translate. A translated copy opens in a separate window and your original stays as it was. It needs Microsoft 365 or a recent Office for Mac, an internet connection, and Office's connected experiences turned on.

Google Translate's website translates .docx, .pdf, .pptx and .xlsx files: click Documents, pick the languages, Browse your computer, Translate, then Download translation. Files can be up to 10 MB, and a PDF up to 300 pages. Google says text in images and scanned pages appears in the result but isn't translated, so a scanned letter comes back untouched.

Both send the whole file to Microsoft or Google. For more apps that do this, see our list of DeepL alternatives.

Koi's way is to ask out loud. You call Koi, the assistant in the app, and say what you want done to the file in front of you. A translated copy of the same kind is saved beside the original.

1. Select the file in Finder, or open it so it's the window in front. Koi can also find it by words from its name.
2. Tap Fn + ⌘ once and say "translate this into English", or the language you want.
3. Koi saves the copy beside the file, named like “Letter (English).pdf”, and opens it. If that folder can't be written to, the copy goes to Downloads.
4. Want to know what it says first? Say "explain this file" instead: Koi tells you what it is and what to do, then answers your questions about it.

For Koi to see which file is selected in Finder, “Let Koi read my apps for me” has to be on in Settings, under Koi. It starts on. More on calling Koi on the assistant page.

• A Word file, a PowerPoint deck or an RTF keeps its own formatting: the same headings, lists and styles, in the new language.
• A PDF or a picture comes back as the same kind of file, with each block of words covered and written over in the new language. Close to the original, not a pixel-perfect copy.
• Text and Markdown files are translated line by line.
• Any other kind of file, or when you ask for one, comes back as a page in Koi's documents, and Koi says why.

If you need the layout exact, say for a form you'll submit, Word's Translate Document or Google Translate may hold it better for a Word file or a PDF with real text. Koi is strongest where those two struggle: scans and photos of letters.

The file itself never does. Pictures and scanned PDFs are read on the Mac first. Then only the words go to Koi's AI, a page at a time, with your clock and time zone, and come back as the translated copy. Nothing is kept anywhere but that copy, on your Mac. Koi's AI is cloud models, so a translation needs a connection, and it counts toward your plan's Koi usage.

Want the Mac to do everything offline? Koi's Shift wheel converts and compresses files with nothing sent, but it doesn't translate. Apple's Translate with downloaded languages is the offline option, for selected text.

• A sentence or a paragraph: macOS Translate. Select, Control-click, done.
• A Word file and you already pay for Microsoft 365: Word's Translate Document.
• A text PDF under 10 MB and you don't mind uploading it: Google Translate's website.
• A scan or a photo of a letter, a Word file or slides, where you want a copy in its own layout and only the words leaving your Mac: Koi.

Koi needs a paid plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. See pricing. To turn a PDF into study material instead, see making flashcards from a PDF, and to keep a translated file small for email, compressing a PDF.