Teams that “prepare” a Word file for a Word document translator often make it more expensive. They print to PDF, flatten the text into an image, and upload the scan. The words did not change. The bill did. A digital page on DocTranslator costs 1 credit. A scanned page costs 5, because the file has to be read as an image first.
That multiplier is the thesis. The job is to take a live DOCX and return a live DOCX. Turning the same letter into a photograph first adds a format tax. It does not prepare the file.
Why Flattening Looks Helpful And Costs More
Prep desks flatten files for tidy reasons. A tracked-changes DOCX looks messy. A partner asked for PDF. A scanner is already on the table because yesterday’s packet was a paper original. None of those reasons change the credit rule. If the text is still selectable in Word, keep it selectable. The moment the letters become pixels, the page leaves the digital price.
The test protocol on the prep desk is a select-text check. Open the file. Highlight a sentence. If the highlight sticks to letters, the file is digital. If the highlight paints a box over a picture of letters, the file is a scan. Upload the first one. Do not manufacture the second one from the first.
Print To PDF Is The Usual Trap
Print-to-PDF from Word can stay digital if the printer keeps live text. It can also rasterize the page. The check is the same: try to select a word in the PDF. If the word cannot be selected, the page will be billed as a scan. That single conversion can turn a 12-page letter into a 60-credit job before anyone has chosen a target language.
How Credits Attach To The File You Upload
DocTranslator spends credits only when a file is translated. Digital pages in DOCX, PPTX, or similar files cost 1 credit each. Scanned pages and image files cost 5. Unused monthly credits reset at the billing cycle. They do not roll over.
There is also a floor on the Standard tier: under 30MB and under 30 pages, the file still costs at least 20 credits. A 14-page digital DOCX therefore costs 20 credits, not 14. That floor is a separate rule from the 1-versus-5 split. Flattening does not dodge the floor. It stacks on top of it. A 14-page digital file at the floor is 20 credits. The same 14 pages as a scan would be 70 credits, because 14 × 5 sits above the 20-credit minimum.
- A 14-page live DOCX is a digital page at 1 credit, then the Standard floor: 20 credits.
- The same 14 pages flattened to a scan-PDF are scanned pages at 5 credits each: 70 credits.
- A true paper scan that was never a DOCX is also 5 credits a page. That bill is honest.
The middle case is the avoidable one. A photographed contract was never a digital page. Pay the scan rate and keep the original image. Flattening a live Word file invents a scan where none existed. Leave the live DOCX in the folder and upload that file instead.
Count Pages The Way The File Counts Them
PDF and PPTX pages are the visible pages in the viewer. DOCX page count is estimated from text volume. That is why a “short” letter with a giant appendix can still trip the Standard floor. Check the file before upload. Do not guess from the print preview on a different machine.
Keep Live Text When The Source Is Already Word
A tool that can translate Word documents wants a Word file. Upload the DOCX, choose the language, download the same format. Comments and tables stay on the sentences they belonged to. That path is the cheap path only while the letters stay letters.
On the prep desk, a flattened “clean copy” next to the original DOCX looked fine until the credit line appeared. The scan could not be highlighted. The desk had wasted an hour on a format that the translator then had to read as an image. That rework was cosmetic. The source file was already sitting in the folder. In our desk pipeline the rule is now written on the intake card: if Word still opens the letters as letters, do not manufacture a picture of those letters.
Essential, Professional, and Premium plans also gate file size. Essential is built for Standard files under 30MB and under 30 pages. A flattened scan-PDF of a long letter can jump a file into a higher size band even when the live DOCX would have stayed Standard. The credit multiplier and the plan gate then hit the same job at once. Keep the live file and both problems stay smaller.
Accept A Real Scan Only When Paper Was The Source
Paper originals are a different case. A stamped letter that never lived as a DOCX should be uploaded as a scan, paid at 5 credits a page, and stored beside the output. Do not retype it into Word just to chase the 1-credit rate. Retyping invents a new original. The stamp will not be on that file. The honest scan is cheaper than a fake digital copy that cannot be defended.
Check The Highlight Before Anyone Presses Translate
The acceptance check is one highlight. If a sentence can be selected, upload the digital file. If it cannot, decide whether the scan is real paper or a flattened DOCX. Real paper stays a scan. A flattened DOCX goes back to the live file. Documents are encrypted in transit and at rest, and automatically deleted within 72 hours of processing. That handling does not change the credit rule. It also does not make a manufactured scan cheaper.
DocTranslator is priced for the file you actually send. Keep Word as Word. Pay the scan rate only when the page started as an image. The 1-versus-5 split measures the difference between translating letters and reading a picture of letters.
Leave The Live File In The Folder
Prep is not the same as flattening. If the partner wants a PDF for email, export a text PDF after translation, not before. If tracked changes look noisy, accept the file as-is or lock a clean copy that still has selectable text. The folder should hold the live DOCX until the download comes back. A scan invented on the way to the translator would never clear a credit review, because the cheaper original was already there.
The same rule applies when someone asks for a “clean PDF for the archive.” An archive copy can be made from the translated DOCX. It should not be made from a rasterized upload. If a later editor needs to search a name, live text answers. A picture of a page does not. That is why the 5-credit rate exists, and why a desk should not volunteer to pay it on a file that started in Word. Leave the live file in the folder until the download is back.