The PDF Translation Glitch
Google Chrome has a built-in translation feature that is incredibly useful when browsing foreign language websites. However, this feature can become highly problematic when viewing PDF documents directly within the browser. Sometimes, Chrome incorrectly detects the language of a PDF—especially if the document contains technical jargon, unique fonts, or a mix of languages—and attempts to automatically translate it. This often results in a completely garbled document where the text overlaps, formatting is destroyed, or the content is rendered entirely unreadable. If you rely on Chrome as your primary PDF viewer, this automatic translation can severely disrupt your workflow.
How to Disable Automatic Translation in Chrome
To prevent Chrome from ruining your PDFs, you can adjust the browser’s language settings to stop it from automatically offering to translate pages.
1. Open Google Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner to open the menu.
2. Select Settings.
3. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Languages.
4. Under the “Google Translate” section, look for the toggle switch labelled Use Google Translate.
5. Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
This will completely disable the automatic translation popup for all web pages and PDFs. If you still want the ability to translate standard web pages but just want to stop the automatic behavior, leave that toggle on, but scroll down to the “Automatically translate these languages” section and ensure no languages are listed there.
How to Use a Dedicated PDF Viewer
If you need to keep Chrome’s translation features enabled for regular browsing but are tired of it messing up your documents, the best solution is to stop using Chrome as your default PDF reader.
You can force Chrome to download PDFs to your computer rather than opening them in the browser window. Once downloaded, they will open in your operating system’s native viewer (like Adobe Acrobat or Apple Preview), which will not attempt to translate them.
1. Go to Chrome Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings.
2. Scroll down and click on Additional content settings, then click PDF documents.
3. Select the option that says Download PDFs instead of “Open PDFs in Chrome.”