You have the perfect brochure for your new project. It conveys the essential information about your product to the reader in a clean, professional manner. Yet it’s also attractive and engaging, catching the eye and drawing your clients in. It took you weeks to get this brochure just right, and you couldn’t be happier with the end result. In fact, this brochure is so successful with your domestic customers, you decide to have the text translated, so you can share it with your international customers.
At first glance, you might think the brochure simply needs a translation job, with no special formatting or creative work required. But take a second glance. You went to so much effort with the graphics, formatting and layout, didn’t you? As your trusted translation team will tell you, your brochure will need to be typeset as well as translated to keep the experience intact. And as they will also tell you, this is a task best left to the professionals.
Hang on. You already typeset the file when you first created it, right? Isn’t once enough? And why would you need someone else to do it for the foreign language, when you did it so well in the original?
Well, the answer is rather simple: it’s not in your language anymore. If you aren’t a native speaker of the language you’re typesetting, there are many elements you may not know to take into account. You could end up with a poorly typeset translation, even if it looks great to you.
We reached out to one of our expert typesetters to ask her what customers need to look out for when typesetting their own translated files, and why it’s beneficial for the customers to leave the typesetting to the experts. Here are her answers, with some of our own additions:
What exactly is typesetting?
“Typesetting is the process of converting and adapting localized/translated documents to match the original source’s formatting and layout, and to also maintain the target language’s typography and standards.”
Formatting and layout are the key words here. When you typeset a document, you’re placing written text into a layout for print or digital publication, including graphics, special formatting, and chosen fonts. Typesetting is generally handled using programs like Adobe InDesign. Remember that language is culture, and culture has standards—the language of your translation, and of your readers, could come with standards or norms in terms of font, text arrangement, color choice, et cetera. A professional typesetter in that language will know what those are. Do you?
What are some of the challenges when typesetting into a different language?
Fonts: “You must set the translated text in fonts that render properly, read legibly, and that possess all the characters and accent marks required in that language.”
Even in languages that share an alphabet with English, not all fonts are equipped with the necessary accents, ligatures, and other diacritical marks every language needs. And some languages need a lot of them!
Punctuation: “Different languages have different rules for punctuation.”
Do you know what proper German quotation marks look like? Do you know how much space comes before punctuation marks in French? Do you know where to place those upside-down question marks and exclamation points in Spanish? We do!
Text Direction: “Some languages are read from left-to-right (like English), while others are read from right-to-left, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi. To properly set a document in a right-to-left language, the entire layout needs to be reversed into a mirror-image of the original. This often requires special software or plugins.”
A word for the wise here—if you know you’ll be translating into a right-to-left language like the ones mentioned above, bear that in mind while planning the layout for your English document. An overly complicated layout will be that much more of an effort to mirror. No problem for an experienced typesetter, but it might add time and expense to the final project. Consult with your translation team as early as possible, and we can help you optimize the layout from step one.
Text Expansion: “In general, documents translated from English into other European languages can be expected to expand at least 130%. Other languages may take up less space in translation, and the layout of the text may need to be adjusted.”
Our advice above regarding text direction also applies here. Make your initial layout flexible enough to accommodate a higher volume of text in translation, and your typesetter (and you) can spend less time shifting the translated text around to match your original vision.
How important is teamwork with the translation team?
“If everyone does their part, a satisfactory final file can be delivered within the customer’s deadline.”
Absolutely, and there’s a crucial part of this teamwork that we haven’t mentioned yet—final review by the linguists. After your translation has been typeset, but before final sign-off, it goes back to the translation team for a read-through. Native-language translators get the final say-so on the typesetter’s work; there’s no one better equipped to notice when an accent has been dropped, or a colon isn’t properly spaced.
Why is it essential to be an expert in the language you’re typesetting?
“You must be sure the text is displaying correctly and that the text is well-formatted, otherwise the document will not look great or read well.”
Every language has a few unspoken, but widely understood rules and conventions that a native-language typesetter is able to implement. We’re talking about those instances of “that just doesn’t look right,” or “we would never write it that way.” Something as seemingly insignificant as where to break a line when you reach the edge of the page can have a cultural convention attached to it.
What are some of the risks that can arise from a client doing their own typesetting (for example, if the client is typesetting from English to Chinese, but the client does not speak/read Chinese)?
“If the client is not an expert in Chinese, or any other language for that matter, the text could not display properly. There are specific fonts and specific paragraph sets to use for Traditional Chinese and for Simplified Chinese. Choosing the incorrect one may result in an illegible paragraph.”
This one’s really simple—if you can’t read it, don’t typeset it!
What are some things you have to look for or be cautious about when typesetting?
“You have to make sure that all text is displayed correctly and fits properly within the layout of the file. You must also identify and correct any layout issues, such as italics, underlining, or soft line breaks.”
This is where that linguist review stage mentioned earlier is essential. The more expert eyes on the project, the better!
What should clients know when trying to decide if they want to complete their typesetting project themselves, or if they should leave it to the experts?
“Clients will save a lot of time and effort if they leave the typesetting to the experts, who are aware and trained in what to look out for when typesetting into a foreign language.”
Clients may think they are saving themselves time and money by carrying out their own typesetting, but the end product may well fall short once readers in the target market have the document in their hands. Obviously, that’s not the ideal time to find out your document has issues to be addressed. But if you’re typesetting a language you don’t know and can’t read, how can you possibly be sure of the quality of the final result?
If you find yourself venturing into the global market, be sure to take these important details into consideration when submitting a typeset document for a translation quote. Sometimes it’s best to leave it to the experts!
