For information about my background in the language industry and to download my CV
CLICK HEREDesktop publishing (DTP) is an important part of the translation workflow, although it is often overlooked. Careful analysis of the structure of files destined for translation and the implementation of certain modifications result in quicker translation turnaround times, reduced costs, and greater consistency in language use.
When creating and working with content in multiple languages, a number of factors must be taken into consideration.
English is a fairly concise language, fitting a lot of information into a small space. Some languages use more and longer words to communicate the same message, and the resulting text expansion can be significant. Content creators should keep this in mind when designing publications, but a lack of familiarity with other languages often means that text expansion is not accounted for.
As a result, when a document comes back from translation, the translated text no longer fits. This can be especially problematic with tightly packed layouts involving narrow columns, as languages such as German, Russian and Malayalam use very long words which require careful manual hyphenation.
Applications like Adobe InDesign are extremely powerful and offer a vast range of features and tools to assist in the creation of carefully structured and visually appealing layouts. However, all these resources take a lot of learning, and many designers only ever scratch the surface of the application’s capabilities. As a result, simple workarounds and shortcuts are often adopted to achieve the desired layout, without use of the appropriate tools.
Some of the most common examples of these strategies are:
Use of these strategies is excusable when a publication will only ever exist in one language, but for content destined for translation, they can become a major problem. When incorrectly formatted content is imported into translation software, the translator may find themselves struggling to make sense of broken text strings, excessive numbers of formatting tags, and sometimes even the confusing re-ordering of broken text strings. These problems are further compounded by reduced translation memory re-use and termbase matching, which ultimately means higher costs and lower consistency.
My extensive experience of both translation and DTP helps me to foresee potential problems within the translation workflow and to identify the necessary steps to ensure that the process is as smooth, efficient and accurate as possible. Some complications are of course unavoidable, but with the correct knowledge, the majority of challenges can be overcome.
I have worked with a wide range of languages, including those with complex character sets, such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and other Asian languages.
I support both the Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office product ranges and can work with other formats such as Adobe FrameMaker if required. I can also support both the Windows and MacOS operating environments to ensure font compatibility.
All publications are different and some languages require more work than others. I therefore assess each project individually, quoting on an hourly basis.
Desktop Publishing (per hour)