How to translate a document from English to Arabic and keep it editable

Is your PDF typed or scanned?

Try to select a word in the PDF. If you can, it has a text layer, and most document translators can read it. Google Translate's document tab takes PDF files up to 10 MB and 300 pages[2]. If you cannot select anything, the PDF is a scan, a picture of the page. Google states that text in images and scanned PDF pages appears in its output but is not translated[2].

LoreAI reads both. It runs OCR on a scan first, then translates, so a signed contract, a stamped diploma or a photographed reference letter comes back in Arabic like a typed file.

How to translate an English PDF to Arabic with LoreAI

1. Type your email at the top of this page. The 6-digit code we send opens LoreAI with Arabic already chosen. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages and 3 MB.
2. Upload the PDF. A PDF with text, a scanned PDF and a phone photo in JPG or PNG all work.
3. Keep Arabic as the target. LoreAI detects English on its own.
4. Download the .docx file. Headings, numbered clauses, lists and tables come back in the order of the PDF.

Which documents people send into Arabic

• Job offers and employment contracts for work in the Gulf, where the employer or a ministry reads Arabic.
• Diplomas, transcripts and reference letters for a university or a licensing body in Egypt, Jordan or Morocco.
• Medical reports and discharge letters for a relative's doctor back home.
• Leases, bank letters and school reports a family wants to share with Arabic-speaking relatives.

LoreAI writes Modern Standard Arabic, the written form used for letters and official documents across the Arab world, so the file reads the same to a reader in Riyadh or in Rabat.

Right to left in Word, including tables

The Arabic letters run right to left on their own. Which side each paragraph starts on is a Word setting. Microsoft places the Right-to-left paragraph button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab, and it only appears once a right-to-left language is enabled in Office[1].

1. Add Arabic as an editing language in Office. The Right-to-left button then shows on the Home tab[1].
2. Select all with Ctrl+A and click Right-to-left. Every paragraph now starts on the right[1].
3. Set table direction. In Table Properties, choose right to left so the first column sits on the right, as an Arabic reader expects.

Names, numbers and dates in the Arabic file

Digits

Kept as printed in the English original, so a salary of 8,500 or a contract number matches the source

US dates

06/11/2026 stays as written. Add the month in words, because an Arab reader takes it as 6 November

Personal names

Decide with the reader whether to show the Latin spelling from the passport next to the Arabic form, and use it the same way throughout

Company and place names

Translated or transliterated as an Arabic writer would, with the English kept wherever you add it in brackets

When an Arab ministry or embassy wants an official translation

Ministries, courts and embassies each set their own rules, and many ask for a translation from a licensed translator in their country. Ask the receiving office before you order one. LoreAI is not a certified or sworn translation service. Its Word file lets the reader understand the document now and gives a licensed translator a draft to start from.

For a single photo rather than a PDF, see translate an image to Arabic. To copy Arabic text out of a scan without translating it, use Arabic OCR.

Questions people ask