ReglyphReglyph vs Gemini, Side by Side: It Translates the Words, Not the Page
Reglyph is our product, so we can't claim to be neutral. Both tools got the same files, and every result is shown as it came out.
- Gemini reads both scans and digital papers and translates them well. It laid out the financial table completely in the chat, and set the papers' equations cleanly.
- But even when asked to keep the layout, it answers with text in the chat, not a PDF. Photos, the engraving, colored panels and figures are gone: the 1871 engraving became a line of text, and on the colored-panel page two items ended up in the wrong section.
- To understand a document, or to turn a table into text, Gemini is enough. To get a translated PDF you can use, Reglyph did better on all six pages.
| Page | Languages | Better result | What decided it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colored panels on white (scan) | EN → ES | Reglyph | Gemini gave text only and moved two items into the wrong section |
| Text over a photo (scan) | EN → ZH | Reglyph | Gemini translated all the text, but the photo is gone and the statistics became a list |
| 1871 book page (scan) | FR → EN | Reglyph | Gemini replaced the engraving with a line of text and left citation tags in |
| Financial table (scan) | EN → JA | Reglyph | Gemini laid out the table fully, but the bar chart became a list of text |
| Dense two-column paper (digital) | EN → FR | Reglyph | Gemini set the equations well, but the figure became a text description |
| Paper with a parameter table (digital) | EN → KO | Reglyph | Gemini kept the table but lost the figure, and one formula didn't render |
| Score | Reglyph 6 · Gemini 0 |
Colored panels: it reads the scan, but the order slips
We asked in English: "Translate this PDF into Spanish and keep the original layout." Gemini read the scanned page and returned Spanish with headings and bullet points, in the chat:
The vegetable photo along the top, the round photos down the left and the green title bars are all gone. The bigger problem is order. In the original, the "Prioritize Protein Foods at Every Meal" section has two columns, and Gemini moved the two items in its right column (about meat and daily protein targets) under the next heading, "Consume Dairy". Someone reading only the translation would think they're about dairy. Here is the same page through Reglyph, with layout and content where they were:
Text over a photo: every word is there, the photo isn't
Gemini's translation of this page is complete: the title, the mission line, the three statistics, four paragraphs of body text and the photo caption are all there, and the sentence that breaks off at the bottom of the left column correctly continues from the right. But what you get is still text in the chat:
The aerial photo of the coast is gone, and the three large statistics have become three bullet points; nothing of the page printed over the photo is left. Here is the same page through Reglyph, with the Chinese on the restored photo and the three numbers still set large:
An 1871 book: the engraving becomes a line of text
On this page Gemini works hard to mimic the original: the running head and page number share a line, the text breaks where the book's lines break, and even a word hyphenated across two lines ("hy- / pothesis") is carried over.
But the engraving of the ship is gone, replaced by the line "[Illustration of a steam frigate under sail on the ocean]". The caption sits in a black code box, and citation tags like "[cite: 1]" are left at the ends of sentences. Reglyph prints the English straight onto the original old paper, with the engraving where it was:
A financial table: its best page
This is the page Gemini handled best. The whole net-cost table comes out as a table in the chat, every number correct, with the headers, the three footnotes and the body text translated:
The rough edges: every cell is followed by a "PDF" citation tag, and the rightmost column, the percentage change, only shows if you scroll sideways. The bar chart is gone, turned into a list of lines like "$5.12: 部族、アメリカインディアン…". If all you want is the table from a scan as text you can copy, Gemini does that well. For a Japanese page that matches the original, Reglyph returns the whole page with the table and chart in place:
Digital papers: the equations come out well, the figures don't come out at all
Gemini translated both papers, and some of it is genuinely good. The chirp-mass equation in the physics paper comes out as properly set math in the chat, far better than Google Translate's scattered fragments:
But what you get is still text. The page's two columns become two headings, "COLONNE DE GAUCHE" and "COLONNE DE DROITE" (left column, right column). The gravitational-wave figure is gone, replaced by a paragraph describing its axes and legend. Reglyph returns the whole page, with the figure where it was:
The machine-learning paper went the same way. Gemini rebuilt the parameter table as a table in the chat and kept the configuration names as written, which is better than Google Translate did. But the "Parameter / Value" header stayed in English, the attention diagram is gone, and one formula in the body didn't render, leaving raw code like "$h_{i}$" in the text.
Which one should you use?
- To understand a page, or to ask follow-up questions about it: Gemini is enough, and it sets equations clearly.
- To turn a table in a scan into text you can copy: Gemini does that well too.
- To get back a translated PDF with the layout, figures and tables intact: Reglyph. 5 pages a day are free: try it here.
Gemini alongside seven other tools on the same pages: our side-by-side PDF translator rankings.
More side-by-side tests: Reglyph vs Google Translate, Reglyph vs DeepL and Reglyph vs Reflo.
Translate your scanned document now
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Translate 5 pages free, every dayFrequently asked
Can Gemini translate a PDF and keep the layout?
Not in our test. Asked to keep the original layout, it replied with text in the chat: headings, lists, tables and equations were there, but the photos, the engraving, colored panels and figures were gone, and no PDF was produced.
Can Gemini translate a scanned PDF?
Yes. It read and translated all four scans we tested, and laid out the financial table completely. But the photos and the engraving were gone, and on the two-column page it moved two items from the right column under the next section's heading.
Which is better for translating PDFs, Reglyph or Gemini?
To understand the content, Gemini is enough. To get a translated PDF you can use as a document, Reglyph; it did better on all six pages we tested.
You make Reglyph. Is this comparison fair?
We can't be neutral, so we kept it checkable: the same files for both tools, Gemini's replies shown as screenshots, and the things it does well, like equations, included. The source pages are public, so you can run the test yourself.