Zotero PDF2ZH Guide

A skill for using the Zotero PDF2ZH plugin to translate academic PDF documents between Chinese and English while preserving the original layout, figures, and mathematical notation. Based on zotero-pdf2zh (3K stars), this skill enables researchers to bridge the language barrier in academic literature.

Overview

Academic research is inherently global, yet language barriers remain a significant obstacle. Chinese-speaking researchers need to read English-language papers, and English-speaking researchers increasingly need access to Chinese-language publications, particularly in fields where China produces significant research output (materials science, AI, engineering, traditional medicine). PDF2ZH addresses this by providing high-quality translation directly within the Zotero reference management workflow, producing bilingual documents that preserve the original formatting.

The plugin supports bidirectional translation between Chinese and English, leveraging modern neural machine translation while maintaining the structural integrity of academic documents including equations, tables, figures, and references.

Installation and Setup

Prerequisites

• Zotero 6 or Zotero 7 installed and configured
• An active internet connection for translation API access
• Sufficient storage for translated PDF copies (approximately 2x per document)

Installation Steps

• Download the latest .xpi file from the project's releases page