Multilingual Typesetting
Whether you have a well-established presence in global markets or you are starting to target new international markets, we can help you with a range of multilingual typesetting services.
Our typesetting is performed in-house by specialist expert typesetters, this enables us provide a fast and reliable service to our clients. We will ensure professional presentation of translated media for publication in any language.
At DS5 Translations, we lead the way in providing comprehensive multilingual typesetting, these include:
- Formatting and layout of localized materials matching the original design and complying with target-language specifications.
- Final files can be supplied in either PDFs for print or web use or a press-ready package (with text converted to outlines)
- Each publication is checked by the translator for quality assurance
We can provide typesetting in any language including European languages and Asian languages. We also provide services of all left to right languages such as Arabic typesetting and Hebrew typesetting.
What is Multilingual Typesetting?
Sometimes when translating publications from one language to another a layout adjustment is necessary to create a document ready to be printed or published. These are commonly known as Desktop Publishing or DTP and require experts who are aware of all the relevant rules to be followed for each language.
The amount of characters of a translated material tends to vary when translating to a foreign language, the difference can be up to 30% or more.
Each language also has specific rules that need to be applied when translating text . Languages such as Arabic text reads right to left and in fact the whole layout must reflect this directionality. Numerals within Arabic text read from left to right, even the text around them reads from right to left and text also needs to be justified. Our Arabic typesetting service will ensure your layout is correct for the Arabic language.
An experienced typesetter who is familiar with all of these nuances would therefore need to do the typesetting and editing of the font.
Translation of documents from one language to another also has a great impact on the layout of documents.
For example:
- Documents translated from English to languages such as French, Spanish, Italian have a larger word count, and require more space or smaller font size.
- German and Russian words can be dozens of characters long, requiring re-sizing of graphics and menu items.
- Middle Eastern languages, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi reads right to left and in fact the whole layout must reflect this directionality.
- Most European languages require modification of the numbers
The amount of text/characters can either increase or decrease when translating from one language to another.
Some examples of this are:
- Chinese typesetting service – English to Chinese translation results in less space required for characters. While a Chinese to English translation will result in more space being required for the English text.
- Dari typesetting service – Dari to English translation can result in a 15% increase in text. While English to Dari translation will decrease the amount of text by approximately 15%.
- Greek typesetting service – English to Greek translation will result in a 5-10% increase in text. Greek to English translation will decrease the amount of text by approximately 5-10%.
- German typesetting service – English to German translation will increase anywhere from 20-40%. German to English translation will decrease the amount of text by approximately 10 – 20%.
- Spanish typesetting service – English to Spanish translation often results in a 20% increase in text. While a Spanish to English translation will decrease the text by approximately 15%.
- Japanese typesetting service – English to Japanese translation will decrease the text anywhere from 30-60%. Japanese to English translations will also decrease the amount of text by anywhere from 30-60%.
- Arabic typesetting service – English to Arabic translation could increase the text by 20%. While Arabic to English translation will decrease the amount of text by 25%. When typesetting an English to Arabic translation Arabic text reads right to left and in fact the whole layout must reflect this directionality. This means the typesetting of Arabic requires and experienced Arabic typesetters.
- French typesetting service – English to French translation usually will result in a 20% increase in text. French to English translation will decrease the text by approximately 20%.
Our multilingual typesetting service can help you ensure that the look of your translated materials are consistent with the original document, while being compliant with the linguistic rules of the target country.
What type of content requires multilingual typesetting?
Some of the most common content publications requiring multilingual typesetting include documents such as:
- Corporate Brochures
- Company Presentations
- Product Data Sheets
- Product Manuals
- User guides
- Catalogues & leaflets
- Packaging labels
- Multi-language documentation
- Help files
- E-Learning Content
- Business cards
- Newsletters
