Readability, Consistency and Quality of Content in Translated Documents

Multilingual desktop publishing plays an integral part in translating/localizing documents. It is essential that when content is translated, the fonts, design and layout used in the original are maintained and that none of the fonts and styles is lost during translation. An accurate reproduction of the original page layout, styles, font and graphic design in the target translated language can be achieved by taking care of the following:

• Translation
  • Adapting content with target audience in mind; using language specialists to help translate the meaning of a text elegantly using its proper tone and context while retaining the original spacing, pause, syntax, and nuances.
  • Preparing graphics by choosing colours specific for different markets, using images of people representing target audiences of the original and translated languages, leaving additional space to accommodate text expansions in translated content and providing editable source files (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) for translations.
• Typesetting
  • Planning ahead and choosing the right font, text boxes, and line spacing for setting accurate text-to-white-space ratio upfront that would allow for text expansions or shrinkage in the translated content.
  • Using standard fonts that support characters across different languages and scripts for a same look and feel across translated documents.
  • Choosing an effective document design that enhances the readability and consistency of the document
  • Ensuring that all challenges of formatting documents in foreign languages, scripts and fonts is handled well during typesetting;
• Readability, consistency, and quality
  • Using a language-specific reviewer or desktop publishing verification service to ensure right-to-left languages are translated accurately.
  • Ensuring that all forms and hyperlinks in the target language document are fully functional.

Check out Newgen’s Multilingual DTP Services page at https://www.newgen.co/language-services

Newgen has been driving content publishing across traditional and emerging media since 1996. We’ve created some of the most remarkable, immersive and high-quality projects for leading global publishers, spanning industries and genres.

This article is written by Girish Sundaram, Vice President, Sales.