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.

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 – If you are translating from English to Chinese there will be less space required for characters. If you are translating Chinese to English you will need more space.
• Dari typesetting service – Translating Dari to English can result in 15% more text.  If you translate English to Dari the amount of text will decrease 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 – If you translate English to German this will increase the text anywhere from 20-40%. German to English translation will decrease the amount of text by approximately 10 – 20%.
• Spanish typesetting service – If you are translating English to Spanish this will often result in a 20% increase in text.  While translating from Spanish to English the text will decrease 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 translating Arabic to English 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 will ensure that the look of your translated materials will be consistent with your original document, while also being compliant with the linguistic rules of the country you are targeting.