Guide
How to photograph your document so the translation is right first time
A photo that cannot be read is the most avoidable cause of delay. Here is the photo we need, why the back and the margins matter, and what happens to a line nobody can read.
Published 4 September 2026 · Official Translation
One photo per page, the whole page, and both sides of a card
A phone camera is enough. Lay the document flat on a plain surface, hold the phone square above it rather than at an angle, and take one photo per page with all four corners inside the frame. For a licence or an ID card that means two photos, the front and the back; a driver licence translation covers both sides of the card, so both need to be readable.
Daylight from a window or ordinary room light is fine. Turn the flash off, because it bounces off laminate and wipes out whatever sits under the glare, and keep your hand and the phone’s shadow off the page.
That is the whole list. You do not need a scanner, a light box or a scanning app. If the issuing office gave you a PDF, or you already hold a clean scan, send that instead; there is no need to photograph a screen or a printout.
The order page takes images and PDFs up to 10MB, one per page. If the longest edge of a photo is under 1000 pixels we flag it before you pay, so you can retake it on the spot rather than hear about it later. A quick test before you send: zoom in on the photo on your phone. If you can read the smallest print, the translator can too.
Include the back, the stamps and anything in the margins
The part of a document that decides something is often not the part in the middle. A renewal stamp on the back of a licence, a handwritten date beside an entry in a register, a note in the margin of a birth certificate, an office stamp across a signature: these are small, they are easy to crop out, and they are often the very detail the reader is looking for. Photograph them as part of the page rather than trimming the frame to the printed box, so the translator can show where each one sits.
For a licence, the back is not optional. It carries the vehicle categories and the conditions, and a translation without it is half a document. We explain what lives there in why we translate both sides of your licence. The same goes for any card or booklet: if there is print, ink or a stamp on the reverse, we need a photo of it.
Why colour, and why the same photo serves a visa file
Take the photo in colour, not in a black-and-white document mode. Stamps, seals, security print and handwritten ink are easier to tell apart in colour, and the translator has to tell them apart to describe them. There is a second reason. The Department of Home Affairs partner visa checklist asks applicants to “Scan or photograph all documents (English and non-English) in colour”, and adds: “The scans and photos must be clear enough to read. If a document is more than one page, save it all as one file.”
So if you are assembling a visa file, the photo you take for us is the one the checklist asks for. For a document that runs to several pages, keep the page photos together: they go into our order page one per page, and into the visa file combined as a single file. The same checklist says of its online application, “You do not need to have any documents certified”, so there is no certifying step before the photo. Our partner visa page quotes the rest of what it says about translations.
What happens to a line nobody can read
Nothing is guessed. Where a character, a digit or a whole line cannot be made out, the convention set out in AUSIT’s recommended best practices for official documents is to mark it in square brackets as [illegible] and move on. The rest of the translation is still accurate.
But think about where that bracket lands. In a licence number, it means the number on the translation no longer matches the number on the card. In an expiry date, it means the reader cannot tell whether the licence is current. One unreadable digit in either place is exactly what sends a translation back for a re-issue, and the cause was the photo, not the translator.
That is why the order page flags a photo that is too small before you pay, and why our terms are plain about what happens if a photo still cannot be read after you order: the delivery clock pauses while we ask you for a clearer one, and a fresh window starts when it arrives. Nothing is lost, but nothing moves either. A clear photo is the one part of the delivery time that is entirely in your hands, whichever speed you choose at checkout. There is more on timing in how long a translation takes.
Where the photos go
Nowhere, until you decide. The photos you add while building an order stay on your device and are not kept between visits; leave the page and they are gone. Retake them as often as you like. They are sent only when you place the order, and they come to us. We use them only to prepare your translation, and translators do not receive your contact details. There is more, including who receives them and when they are deleted, under how your documents are handled.
The whole process from photo to delivery: how it works. What we translate: certified translation services. Ready to send yours? Order online and photograph each page, front and back, when it asks. What the back of a licence carries: why we translate both sides.
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