Korean to English image translator for certificates and scans

What our Korean certificate test showed

On November 3, 2026, we ran a fictional 기본증명서(상세), a detailed basic certificate with invented data, through the normal upload as a PDF on the Precision tier. The specimen has three tables, for the person, the registration events and the parents, plus a domicile line, an issue number and a mayor's seal.

Numbers

The resident registration number 930821-2000000 and the issue number 0482-3317 came back digit for digit.

Dates

Every date was exact and written out in English, so 1993년 08월 21일 became 21 August 1993.

Tables

All three tables arrived complete as Word tables, with each row and column in its place.

Terms

등록기준지 became Registered Domicile, 본 became Clan Origin, 개명 became Change of Name and 서울가정법원 became Seoul Family Court.

Names

Romanized in English letters, family name first, such as Park Jeong-ho (朴正浩) for the father, with the hanja from the source kept in parentheses.

The English version is an ordinary Word file, as with any scanned PDF translation, so you can change a spelling or a term before you send it on.

Does OCR read Hangul mixed with hanja?

Yes. Korean certificates print most text in Hangul and add hanja, the Chinese characters, in parentheses after a name or for the clan seat, as in 박정호(朴正浩) or 密陽. LoreAI reads both scripts on the same page and detects Korean on its own. In the test, the hanja clan seat 密陽 came through as Miryang.

Modern Korean certificates are printed in horizontal lines, which is the layout we tested. Handwritten notes on a form read less reliably than print.

How Korean names are written in English

South Korea's official system is the Revised Romanization of Korean, published by the National Institute of Korean Language. It writes the family name first, then a space and the given name, and allows a hyphen between the syllables of a given name, so Min Yongha and Min Yong-ha are both correct[1]. Sound changes between the syllables of a given name are not written[1].

Many people already have an English spelling in their passport, and family names often follow long-standing spellings such as Park, Lee or Kim. Because the result is a Word file, you can set every name to the spelling the person uses.

Which Korean certificates you are likely translating

Korean civil records come from the family relations register as separate certificates. The Korean consulate in Chicago lists the 기본증명서 (Basic Certificate) as the equivalent of a birth certificate, along with the 가족관계증명서 (Family Relationship Certificate) and the 혼인관계증명서 (Marriage Certificate)[2]. For records before 2008, the consulate names the 제적등본 as the equivalent of all three[2].

These register documents can be issued only in Korean, under Supreme Court regulations the consulate cites[2]. So a receiver abroad gets the Korean certificate together with a translation. Translate each certificate as its own file, because each one is a separate document with its own issue number.

How to translate a Korean photo or PDF with LoreAI

1. Get a clean copy. A PDF printed from the issuing office or a flat scan reads best. If you photograph the page, shoot it straight on in even light.
2. Upload the file. Sign in and upload the JPG, PNG or PDF. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages.
3. Choose English. Leave the source on Auto-detect. Korean is recognized from the Hangul on the page.
4. Download the Word file. The certificate's tables come back as Word tables, and seals and headers are translated with the body text.
5. Review and adjust. Read the English against the Korean, set names to the spelling the person uses, and save.

Free Korean image translators and what they return

Google Translate has an Images tab in the browser. After it translates a picture, you can copy the translated text or download the translated image[3]. Google notes that accuracy depends on how clear the text is[3]. That works well for a sign or a screenshot you only want to read.

A certificate is different, because the reader needs the rows, labels and numbers in a file they can check and sign. LoreAI returns a Word document rather than a picture with text painted over it.

Korean certificates for USCIS

USCIS wants a full English translation of every document in Korean, which the translator certifies as complete and accurate, together with a statement that the translator is competent in both languages[4].

LoreAI is not a certified translation service and does not sign anything. A translator who reads Korean checks the Word file against the certificate and adds the signed statement. The certificate of translation template has wording you can use, and USCIS translation requirements covers the rest of the rule.

Questions people ask