What is a CAT tool in translation, and how do you get a scan into one?

What a CAT tool does

CAT stands for computer-assisted translation. The translator still translates. The software handles everything around the words. Trados describes the workflow this way: you upload the source document, the tool splits it into segments such as phrases, sentences or paragraphs, and each segment with its translation is stored in a database called a translation memory[1].

Trados names four core components that most CAT tools share[1]:

Translation memory

Every confirmed segment pair. When a sentence repeats, in this file or in next year's version, the tool offers the earlier translation as a match

Termbase

An approved glossary. The tool shows the client's term for a word as you reach it, so the same part is never named two ways

Machine translation

A draft for each segment from an MT engine, which you edit instead of typing from scratch

Quality assurance

Checks for missing numbers, inconsistent terms, double spaces and untranslated segments before delivery

The point is consistency and speed. A translator with a large memory works faster on repeat clients, because a sentence translated once never has to be translated again.

Which CAT tools do translators use?

The names that come up in almost every job ad are Trados Studio, memoQ and Phrase, plus Smartcat for work that clients run through its platform. They differ in price, licence model and how agencies share projects, but they all work the same way at the core: import a file, translate segment by segment, export the file in its original format.

• Trados Studio is a desktop CAT tool from RWS, built around translation memory and termbases[1].
• memoQ is a desktop CAT tool. It imports a PDF by converting it to Word first[2].
• Smartcat is a cloud platform with a CAT editor, free translation memory on every plan and a marketplace of linguists[3]. See Smartcat and LoreAI compared.

If you are looking for a free CAT tool, start with a trial of one of these, because the format your clients send decides which tool you end up needing.

Why a scanned PDF breaks the CAT workflow

A CAT tool translates text, and a scan has none. A scanned PDF stores each page as a picture. memoQ's documentation says it does not extract text from scanned PDF files, and that you should run them through an OCR program first[2]. Even a normal PDF is imported by converting it to Word, and memoQ notes that text inside images is not recognized[2].

Smartcat reads scans with OCR, counted against a paid balance of OCR pages[4]. Other tools need the OCR done before import.

Generic OCR output brings its own trouble. Every printed line ends with a hard break, so one sentence arrives as three segments. Text sits in floating text boxes the tool may skip. Tables come back as tabs and spaces. You spend the first hour of the job repairing the source file instead of translating it.

How to get a scan into your CAT tool with LoreAI

1. Count the scan first. The PDF word counter reads scanned pages with OCR, so you can quote the job before you accept it.
2. Upload the scan and choose OCR Only. You get the document back as an editable Word file in its own language, with headings, lists and tables in the order of the original.
3. Pick CAT-ready under Word file. On paid plans, CAT-ready joins OCR line breaks into whole paragraphs, puts one paragraph in each table cell, keeps bold and italic only and leaves out text boxes. Images become short bracketed notes.
4. Import the .docx into Trados, memoQ, Phrase or Smartcat. The tool sees an ordinary Word document, splits it into clean sentences and applies your translation memory and termbase.

On the free plan, the CAT-ready option is shown but locked, and the Standard Word file imports too. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages. Basic is $12.99 a month for 200 pages.

Do you need a CAT tool at all?

For a one-off personal document, no. If you only want to read a scanned letter or hand a draft to a translator, LoreAI translates the scan into one of 105 languages and returns the Word file directly. The scanned PDF to Word guide covers that route.

A CAT tool pays off when you translate for a living, when clients send related documents again and again, or when an agency sends its own memory and termbase with the job. Then the scan conversion is a step before the real work, and the quote comes from the rates and units your market uses.

Questions people ask