Guide
Does the Google Translate widget translate PDFs?
Government sites that use a translate widget often say, in their own disclaimers, that PDFs are not covered. Here is what that means and what you can do.
Last reviewed October 20, 2026. General information for public agencies, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the sources below and ask your lawyer or civil rights office what applies to you.
What agencies say about their translate widgets
A free translate widget is the most common way a city or county offers its website in other languages. Several of those agencies are open about its limits, in their own notices:
- McLean County, Illinois says its widget does not translate image-based buttons or the contents of PDFs.
- The City of Duarte, California says its feature translates website text only. Graphics, downloadable documents such as PDFs, and external links are not translated.
- Napa County, California calls its translations a rough guide and says the county cannot guarantee their accuracy.
- The Government of Saskatchewan notes that graphs, photos and other file formats, including PDFs, may not translate.
We did not test these widgets ourselves. We are reporting what those sites say about their own tools.
Why PDFs are the gap
A translate widget works on the text of a web page. But the documents residents need most are often PDFs: meeting agendas and minutes, permit applications, notices, budgets and forms. If the widget skips them, a resident who does not read English well can open your home page in Spanish and then hit an English-only agenda. The federal interagency guide on language access for websites lists translated content with English-only navigation as a warning sign, and it cautions against relying on automatic translation in place of a qualified human translator.
Four ways to cover your documents
| Approach | Good for | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free embedded translate widget | Page text, at no cost. Simple to add. | Agencies that use one often say it does not cover PDFs or images, and that accuracy is not guaranteed. |
| Accessibility suite that includes translation | Agencies that also want tools such as text size and text-to-speech. Oakland County, Michigan uses one with live translation into more than 60 languages. | Check whether it translates the contents of PDFs. Ask the vendor for a test on one of your own agendas. |
| Professional translation of key documents | Vital documents and anything high-stakes. A qualified translator is the right choice here. | Slower and costs more per document, so it does not scale to every PDF on a site. |
| Open the PDF as readable text and translate it | Everything else: agendas, notices and forms a resident wants to read now, in their own language. | It is automatic translation, so it is not a certified translation and will not be perfect. |
Many agencies combine these: a widget or reader for everyday content, and a person for the documents that matter most.
Whichever you choose
- Say plainly that translation is automatic and the English page is the official one. See our disclaimer template.
- Give people a way to reach a person, with a phone number or email on the page.
- Decide which documents are vital and have a qualified person translate those.
- Make the language button easy to find on every page, including on a phone.
How idioma.chat handles linked PDFs
When a visitor clicks a PDF link on your site, the idioma.chat widget can open it in the Document Reader: readable text that the visitor can read, listen to, or translate into their language. Opening a PDF costs $0.07 per page, once per document, and translating it costs $0.05 per page for each language, once. We keep the result, so repeat views are free. You can see how it works on our sample agenda. It is automatic translation: we do not certify translations or decide whether you comply with the law.
See pricing and the PDF page for details.
Sources
- McLean County, Illinois: About Google Translator
- City of Duarte, California: translation feature notice
- Napa County: Google Translate information
- Oakland County, Michigan: UserWay accessibility widget announcement
- Government of Saskatchewan: Google Translate disclaimer
- Interagency LEP website language access guide (PDF)