Off topic: How do you react when the source is a badly scanned PDF? Thread poster: RominaZ
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RominaZ 
Argentina
English to Spanish
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How do you react when the source is a badly scanned PDF?
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LEXpert
United States
Local time: 19:26
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
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| Ever wonder... | Jul 5, 2013 |
if they purposely worsen the quality just to make sure that you won't be able to OCR it (but not so much that you can't read it), since so many clients seem to hate translations delivered from OCR-d documents?
Another frequent reaction of mine is a telepathic scream to the unknown end client to "PLEASE CLEAN THE ROLLERS IN YOUR FAX MACHINE!!!"
So far my pleas have gone unheard, or at least unheeded.
 ... See more if they purposely worsen the quality just to make sure that you won't be able to OCR it (but not so much that you can't read it), since so many clients seem to hate translations delivered from OCR-d documents?
Another frequent reaction of mine is a telepathic scream to the unknown end client to "PLEASE CLEAN THE ROLLERS IN YOUR FAX MACHINE!!!"
So far my pleas have gone unheard, or at least unheeded.
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Mina Ahmadi
United States
Local time: 20:26
Persian (Farsi) to English
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| Nothing special, | Jul 5, 2013 |
I just do translation, I do nothing special! ![]()
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Theo Bernards (X)
France
Local time: 02:26
English to Dutch
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| Instant rate increase... | Jul 5, 2013 |
...of approximately 1 to 3 cents extra per source word (which, much to my amusement, often results in a Word document magically appearing ☺) and if the client doesn't want to pay the extra rate, I politely decline the assignment.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 02:26
Spanish to English
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I rant, rave, spit, curse and froth (inwardly), then muster a facade of politeness as best I can and tell the perpetrator to "find another monkey"...
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 17:26
English to German
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In memoriam | An anecdote (sorry, a bit off topic) | Jul 5, 2013 |
Rudolf Vedo CT wrote:
scream to the unknown end client to "PLEASE CLEAN THE ROLLERS IN YOUR FAX MACHINE!!!"
A client once managed to call me on the phone to tell me that the toner on MY fax machine must be low and if could please put new cartridges in, because the requested fax that I sent had come out too pale and was illegible.
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since so many clients seem to hate translations delivered from OCR-d documents?
If a client can distinguish an OCRed document from a manually typed one, it only means the OCR user doesn't know how to use the software properly. Unfortunately, very few do. I'm already thinking of giving lectures on the proper use of OCR.
[Edited at 2013-07-05 22:02 GMT]
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| You need two things to do it properly, in my opinion | Jul 5, 2013 |
1. ABBYY Finereader
2. Adobe Acrobat Pro
For really poor-quality documents, it can take almost as much time to rebuild them as it does to translate them, so it is a given that the client should be charged accordingly. If they refuse to do so (as they often will, in my experience), then drop them as clients. It's that simple.
That is, unless you fancy working with for-profit companies in a volunteer capacity.
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 17:26
English to German
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In memoriam
Rudolf Vedo CT wrote: Another frequent reaction of mine is a telepathic scream to the unknown end client to "PLEASE CLEAN THE ROLLERS IN YOUR FAX MACHINE!!!" So far my pleas have gone unheard, or at least unheeded.
- Please make sure to take the document out of its binder before you put it on your cheap scanner / copier
- Please make sure to unfold those dog ears. Even if they are important to you.
- Please make sure to place the document on your scanner / copier aligned and in a proper angle. Despite the fact that you consider a 13 degree angle highly dynamic and hip.
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| I hate OCR-ed sources | Jul 22, 2013 |
And I also hate the idea of someone needing the exact layout of the source – from a non-editable PDF – while somehow not having a .doc version around (or at least a civilised PDF). Yeah, right. I'm not their cleaning man.
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Edward Vreeburg
Netherlands
Local time: 02:26
Member (2008)
English to Dutch
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| same as theo.... | Jul 22, 2013 |
... doesn't even have to be a bad scan either:
PDF= 0,05 extra per source word!
and then magic happens, ...they find the original editable word version...
Ed
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| charge a per hour rate for formatting | Jul 23, 2013 |
if the client wants the document delivered in the same format.
In this case, Word documents also often suddenly appear.
If not, I OCR the document but I don't mind because I'm being paid for it.
What is it by the way that some clients don't like about OCR? Does anyone know?
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| unreadable input | Jul 23, 2013 |
I received a text as a PDF; it was quite big and the agency had received it by fax; 50% of the text (English) was unreadable; of course it didn' work with any of my CAT tools. It was very urgent!
If I had Abby fine reader, maybe it would have worked directly.
If it were 2 pages, I should have tried to "guess" the English text.
Since this job was not a quote of mine, I suggested the outsourcer to have the text typed again by his American secretary and then t... See more I received a text as a PDF; it was quite big and the agency had received it by fax; 50% of the text (English) was unreadable; of course it didn' work with any of my CAT tools. It was very urgent!
If I had Abby fine reader, maybe it would have worked directly.
If it were 2 pages, I should have tried to "guess" the English text.
Since this job was not a quote of mine, I suggested the outsourcer to have the text typed again by his American secretary and then to send me the clean copy..
[Edited at 2013-07-23 20:42 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-07-23 20:45 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| unreadable input | Jul 23, 2013 |
I received a text as a PDF; it was quite big and the agency had received it by fax; 50% of the text (English) was unreadable; of course it didn' work with any of my CAT tools.
If I had Abby, maybe it would have worked directly.
If it were 2 pages, I should have tried to "guess" the English text.
Since this job was not a quote of mine, I suggested the outsourcer to have the text typed again by his American secretary and then to send me the clean copy..
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