PDFMathTranslate gets a GUI, and it actually keeps the formulas

What it does

pdf2zh-desktop translates academic PDFs across 35 languages while preserving formulas, layout, and tables — the hard part that most PDF translators mangle. It wraps the PDFMathTranslate (EMNLP 2025) engine in a native Windows/macOS GUI with the Python 3.12 runtime bundled in, so nothing touches your system. Output comes in three flavors: pure translation, bilingual, or side-by-side original/translation.

The interesting bit

The Zotero integration is the standout: drag a paper in from Zotero, and the translated PDF is automatically written back as an attachment on the original entry — no duplicate library entries. There’s even a right-click “translate with pdf2zh” option inside Zotero with a silent background mode for batch jobs.

Key highlights

• 20+ translation services, from free Google/Bing to DeepSeek, GPT-4o, Gemini, and fully offline options (Ollama, Argos Translate)
• Chunked translation with memory management and resume-on-crash for 1000+ page documents
• Built-in RapidOCR for scanned, image-only PDFs, plus a separate table-translation pipeline
• Terminology libraries for five disciplines (CS, medicine, finance, law, electrical), importable as txt/csv/json
• Auto-strips model-added “(note: …)” translator commentary from OpenAI-compatible services

Caveats

• The app itself runs offline, but most translation services need an API key — only Google/Bing and the local-deployment options are truly free of configuration
• The README is Chinese-first; there’s an English version linked but the primary docs and QQ support group skew Chinese-speaking
• macOS Gatekeeper will likely flag the unsigned app on first launch (the README acknowledges this)

Verdict

Anyone who reads papers in a second language and lives in Zotero should try this — it’s the most polished packaging of PDFMathTranslate available. If you’re happy with the CLI/web version and don’t need Zotero write-back, the original project still does the core job.