Is there any software available that can scan a typed page in a foreign language and translate it to English.

Which foreign language?

 

Do want to convert an actual piece of paper as the source or an image?

 

I would start by looking for some OCR software to convert the source language into a text file. 

 

You could then use Google Translate; although its accuracy is not always the best.

Maybe something like this site would help?

 

Free Online OCR - convert PDF to Word, Images to text, JPEG to Word

27 minutes ago, JaiMaai said:

Which foreign language?

 

Do want to convert an actual piece of paper as the source or an image?

 

I would start by looking for some OCR software to convert the source language into a text file. 

 

You could then use Google Translate; although its accuracy is not always the best.

Received a letter from my French Pension Company and do not fully understand it. I cannot key it all onto Google Translate as it is too long.

34 minutes ago, JaiMaai said:

Maybe something like this site would help?

 

Free Online OCR - convert PDF to Word, Images to text, JPEG to Word

It isn't free

If you have a android smartphone, try installing Google LENS and either point LENS at a page for Live OCR/Translate, or take a picture of the text and press the LENS reticle icon in google photos to later OCR/Translate to convert text. There's also the option of using LENS to copy the original or translated text to send to a PC logged into the same google account to manipulate the text further.

 

40 minutes ago, lelapin said:

It isn't free

No non of them free translators are free. In fact they are a right royal pain.

53 minutes ago, lelapin said:

It isn't free

Hmm,

 

It worked for me on trhe small test sample I did.  It was only a single paragraph so maybe breaking it into smaller chunks might work,

 

The converted text is shown in the box and can be copied and pasted,

Google Translate app can use your phone's camera as the input, so if you can snap a reasonable quality image then it should work.

16 minutes ago, JaiMaai said:

It worked for me on trhe small test sample I did. 

I captured your French text as image and fed it to Google translator on Android phone.

Result:

(my French is meager, so can not evaluate)

Quote

Entangled in the debate on police violence and accused of adopting "freedom-killing laws", the executive seeks appeasement on the controversial article 24 of the proposed law "global security".  Thursday evening, after having once again received the unions of press editors and journalists, Prime Minister Jean Castex indicated in a press release "his intention to set up an independent commission, in charge of proposing to the national representation a new writing of  Article 24 in order to respect the objective pursued while dispelling any doubts about respect for the freedom to inform ”.  This body will be chaired by Jean-Marie Burguburu, president of the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights (CNCDH) - which was received Tuesday at the Elysee - and will be "composed of judges and qualified personalities".  Its conclusions are expected for "the end of December to usefully feed" the examination of the bill in the Senate, scheduled for January.

 

This is the OCR result of the French text:

Quote

Empêtré dans le débat sur les violences policières et accusé d'adopter des «lois liberticides», l'exécutif cherche l'apaisement sur le controversé article 24 de la proposition de loi «sécurité globale». Jeudi soir, après avoir une nouvelle fois reçu les syndicats des éditeurs de presse et de journalistes, le premier ministre Jean Castex a indiqué dans un communiqué «son intention d'instaurer une commission indépendante, chargée de proposer à la représentation nationale une nouvelle écriture de l'article 24 afin de respecter l'objectif poursuivi tout en dissipant tout doute sur le respect de la liberté d'informer». Cette instance sera présidée par Jean-Marie Burguburu, président de la Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'Homme (CNCDH) - qui avait été reçu mardi à l'Élysée - et sera «composée de magistrats et de personnalités qualifiées». Ses conclusions sont attendues pour «la fin du mois de décembre pour nourrir utilement» l'examen de la proposition de loi au Sénat, prévu en janvier.

 

On 11/27/2020 at 1:22 PM, RichCor said:

If you have a android smartphone, try installing Google LENS and either point LENS at a page for Live OCR/Translate, or take a picture of the text and press the LENS reticle icon in google photos to later OCR/Translate to convert text. There's also the option of using LENS to copy the original or translated text to send to a PC logged into the same google account to manipulate the text further.

 

I've tried this and it works, the text from the Google Lens phone camera app is automatically copied to the PC clipboard whilst logged into the same Google account. This seems kind of cute but...

 

using this method involves pointing a camera phone at the PDF on the PC screen to be translated when all I need is the PDF that is already in the computer translated. Is there a way to do it without using the phone I wonder?

5 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

pointing a camera phone at the PDF on the PC screen to be translated when all I need is the PDF that is already in the computer translated. Is there a way to do it without using the phone I wonder?

PDF is a container file format, meaning it can hold text, images, multimedia and even javascript elements and present them as a digital page to be rendered as the author intends.

 

Google Translate has the option of directly opening/translating text documents (of less than 10MB in size). So the file or pdf contains actual Thai text, and the text can be copied as a coherent block, then that can be extracted either directly or via copy/paste.   

 

Yet another option would be to copy the file containing Thai text into google Drive and opening the file in Google Docs (it converts) and use TOOLS/TRANSLATE to create a converted document.  

 

The translation is, typically, horrible.

 

I have had better luck with Google Lens, but even then it may, when doing it camera "live", render 3 or 4 different translations as it detects, OCRs, translates/interprets the visual image.