Off topic: Sharing good/bad experiences with hard copies Thread poster: Fernando Tognis
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Fernando Tognis 
Argentina
Local time: 20:22
Member (2006)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Hello, colleagues!
I’d like to know how you deal with hard copies. On some occasions, clients, colleagues and agencies sent me PDF files which were actually scanned manuals (image format without text). Unfortunately, I found those assignments very inconvenient since I couldn't make an accurate estimate or work comfortably (with CAT tools and other resources). I have tried to solve this problem by using OCR (optical character recognition) software but the results weren't satisfactory at a... See more Hello, colleagues!
I’d like to know how you deal with hard copies. On some occasions, clients, colleagues and agencies sent me PDF files which were actually scanned manuals (image format without text). Unfortunately, I found those assignments very inconvenient since I couldn't make an accurate estimate or work comfortably (with CAT tools and other resources). I have tried to solve this problem by using OCR (optical character recognition) software but the results weren't satisfactory at all. I can't say OCR software doesn't work since the scanned images I was sent were low in quality (90 ppi) and I have heard that OCR programs work better with images of 300 ppi or more. Any suggestions? Any advice on OCR software? Any other method to make accurate estimates for hard copies?
Thanks in advance,
Fernando Tognis ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Educate your clients | Mar 9, 2007 |
Charge by target text words (or lines or whatever method you use) in those cases.
Give only rough estimates to your clients and tell them if they want a fixed price you need the actual source documents.
Charge for any formatting work incurred due to source documents that cannot be directly edited, suc... See more Charge by target text words (or lines or whatever method you use) in those cases.
Give only rough estimates to your clients and tell them if they want a fixed price you need the actual source documents.
Charge for any formatting work incurred due to source documents that cannot be directly edited, such as PDF.
They'll learn eventually and if they don't at least they'll pay.
Regards,
Benjamin ▲ Collapse
| | | | Katia Perry
Brazil
Local time: 20:22
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
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| megane_wang
Spain
Local time: 01:22
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Hello --
I charge them for the extra job, because my prices are set for materials in electronic and editable format.
Some of them learn, some just get used to pay that extra
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Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 19:22
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Before the popularity of the internet and e-mail, translators received ALL documents in hard copy (via fax or mail) and we never charged any extra for this, so I don't see what the problem is.
And we had to do all of this in Word Perfect in a non-windows based environment! F1 for this, F5 for that, etc.
[Edited at 2007-03-10 18:13]
| | | | Kristina Kolic
Croatia
Local time: 01:22
English to Croatian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Charge by targe word count but with no extra charges | Mar 10, 2007 |
This is what I would do in such case. I provide a rough estimate stating that final price depends on the target word count. But I would never charge any extra fee for "formatting" and the like for the reasons explained above by TampaTranslator.
Any OCR software is of course very useful to reduce the time required to translate documents submitted in a non-electronic form, but I would not charge a client for that. OCR has become one of our basic tools. I must say that I am quite surpr... See more This is what I would do in such case. I provide a rough estimate stating that final price depends on the target word count. But I would never charge any extra fee for "formatting" and the like for the reasons explained above by TampaTranslator.
Any OCR software is of course very useful to reduce the time required to translate documents submitted in a non-electronic form, but I would not charge a client for that. OCR has become one of our basic tools. I must say that I am quite surprised that you do not use any OCR when it us so easy to use (unlike many CAT tools). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Fernando Tognis
Argentina
Local time: 20:22
Member (2006)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Great advice! | Mar 12, 2007 |
Thanks for having replied! I find your advice really useful.
Here are some short replies:
Benjamin:
I charge by target word in these cases, but having no chance of making an accurate estimate before starting the translation is something I don't like. I agree with you on educating clients.
Perry:
I'll try Omniformat for sure!
PDF creators won't help since those programs just copy and paste scanned images from .DOC to .PDF and what I need in thes... See more Thanks for having replied! I find your advice really useful.
Here are some short replies:
Benjamin:
I charge by target word in these cases, but having no chance of making an accurate estimate before starting the translation is something I don't like. I agree with you on educating clients.
Perry:
I'll try Omniformat for sure!
PDF creators won't help since those programs just copy and paste scanned images from .DOC to .PDF and what I need in these cases is text format.
Megane:
I charge clients for the extra job in the case of very complicated tables or index.
Tampa Translator:
I really admire those pioneers who translated with a typing machine or rudimentary software. Nowadays, it would be impossible to meet tight deadlines if we didn't have these modern and fast tools.
Kristina:
I have tried OCR demo programs but the recognition wasn't good enough. The result was a bunch of illegible characters.
Thank you
Fernando Tognis ▲ Collapse
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