Reglyph is our product, so we can't claim to be neutral. Both tools got the same files, and every result is shown as it came out.
| Page | Languages | Better result | What decided it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guide page with colored panels (scan) | EN → ES | Reglyph | Google Translate refused it |
| Dense two-column paper (digital) | EN → FR | Reglyph | Google broke the chirp-mass equation into fragments; we lost the indents |
| Paper with a parameter table (digital) | EN → KO | Reglyph | Google flattened the parameter table into a paragraph |
Google Translate doesn't run OCR, and a scan has no text layer, so there's nothing for it to translate. We uploaded a scanned page from the US Dietary Guidelines; a message popped up in the corner and that was the end of it. Other scans get the same response. This guide explains why.
Here is the same page through Reglyph. The Spanish sits where the English was, and the green title bars, photos and dark blue tab are all still there:
Google Translate does translate digital papers, and the columns and figures stay where they were. That makes these two pages a real side-by-side comparison. The differences are in the parts of a paper that aren't plain sentences.
Google's French text is cleanly set and keeps the paragraph indents, which ours doesn't. The problem is the math. The chirp-mass equation in the left column comes apart into loose pieces ("M ¼ (m1m2)3=5 …"), and in the running text equals signs turn into "¼" and the solar-mass symbol disappears, so "M ≃ 30 M☉" reads "M 30 M". On a physics paper that's the part you can least afford to lose. Ours keeps the equation whole.
Look at Table 1 on the right. Google Translate turned the two-column parameter table into one paragraph of text ("크기 4096, 레이어 수 32, 헤드 크기 128, …") and translated the configuration names along the way, so n_layers is no longer something you can search for in the code. The figure captions stayed in English, and the body text switches between two font sizes from one paragraph to the next. Ours keeps the table as a table.
How Google Translate compares with seven other tools on the same pages: eight PDF translators, tested side by side.
More side-by-side tests: Reglyph vs ChatGPT, Reglyph vs Gemini, Reglyph vs DeepL, Reglyph vs Reflo and Reglyph vs Smallpdf.
Upload a scanned PDF — even one made with your phone's scanner app. Reglyph OCRs it, translates it, and rebuilds the page so tables, stamps, and figures stay exactly where they were.
Translate 5 pages free, every dayPartly. In our test on two research papers it kept the columns, figures and paragraph indents, but it broke a displayed equation into fragments, replaced equals signs with "¼", and flattened a parameter table into a single paragraph.
For scans, only Reglyph works; Google Translate refuses them. Both handle digital PDFs. Google Translate is free and fine for text-only pages; on pages with equations or tables, Reglyph did better in our test.
We can't be neutral, so we kept it checkable: the same files for both tools, Google Translate's screen and output shown as they came out, and our own lost paragraph indents left in. The source pages are public, so you can run the test yourself.
Vision models genuinely read scans now. The question isn't whether ChatGPT can translate your PDF — it's whether a chat reply is actually what you need back.
Read guideCamera-translate apps are great for reading a page on the spot, but they don't give you a file — here's how to get an actual translated PDF from your phone.
Read guideRandom symbols, blank pages, or 'PDF tools are temporarily offline' — the cause is almost always the same one thing, and it's fixable.
Read guideSimple, scan-friendly pricing. Pages are pages — no multiplier for scanned files.
Translate a few pages. No commitment.
$0.30 a page, from 10 pages — you pay for exactly 10 pages.
For individuals with scans to translate every month.
For high-volume users with scans to translate every week.