How do I translate a German image to English?

Three reasons people photograph German documents

Living in Germany

A letter from the Finanzamt, the Ausländerbehörde, a landlord or a health insurer arrives on paper, and you want to know what it asks before the deadline in it passes.

Moving to the US or UK

A Zeugnis, a Geburtsurkunde or an Arbeitszeugnis has to go to a school, an employer or an immigration office in English.

Family history

A grandparent's birth record, a wartime letter or a page from a parish register turns up in a box, and the family wants to read it.

All three start the same way, with a phone photo, and end with an English Word file you can read, edit and pass on.

What happens to German names, numbers and forms

• Umlauts and ß stay in names and places. Jürgen Weiß from Lübeck stays Jürgen Weiß from Lübeck.
• Long compound nouns are translated as a phrase. Kindergeldbescheid becomes a child benefit notice.
• Form fields such as Name, Vorname and Geburtsdatum become a Word table with the English label next to each value.
• Dates written out, such as 8. März 1952, become 8 March 1952. Dates in figures keep their day-first order.
• Grades keep their German value. A 1,7 stays 1,7, on a scale where 1 is the best.

Office stamps and handwritten signatures stay in their place on the page, so the English file follows the layout of the original.

Translating German family documents for genealogy

Many 20th century records are printed forms, with names, dates and places filled in by hand. LoreAI reads the print and the handwritten entries together and translates the page into English.

Letters and church books written in Kurrent or Sütterlin are a separate task. Specialist tools are trained on those scripts, and Transkribus and LoreAI compared explains which one to use. Once the old script is transcribed into modern German, upload the transcript and LoreAI translates it.

For handwritten letters in modern German, see the handwriting translator.

How to translate a German photo with LoreAI

1. Take the photo from straight above. Lay the page flat and keep the whole sheet in frame, including the stamp and the date line.
2. Type your email at the top of this page. The 6-digit code we send opens LoreAI. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages and 3 MB.
3. Upload the photo and keep English as the target. German is detected on its own. JPG, PNG and PDF all work.
4. Download the Word file. Edit it in Word, Google Docs or Pages, or send it to the person who needs it.

Picture translators compared for German

Google recommends clear images with commonly used fonts for the best results[1], which suits a typed letter. A form with a dozen fields is where a Word table helps.

German records for USCIS

USCIS asks for a full English translation of any foreign document, certified by the translator as complete and accurate, with a statement that the translator is competent in both languages[3]. LoreAI is not a certified translation service. A German speaker reviews the Word file and signs that certification. For civil records, see the German birth certificate translation guide, and for files that arrive as PDF, translating a German PDF to English.

Questions people ask