OpenType fonts versus TrueType fonts

Selecting fonts can be challenging for several reasons. When you’re designing an asset, you select a font that you think will be readable, attractive, and appropriate. In translation, it’s important to select a font that not only fulfills these criteria, but that also has character support for your target language. You can read more about this in our posts about free web fonts and international DTP more broadly, but another important piece of this puzzle came up during our QA check on a print piece a few years ago.

We had translated a flyer into German, French, and Spanish. We are accustomed to seeing certain characters not even appear in Adobe InDesign because the source font only supports the 26 Latin script letters of the English alphabet. When working with these flyers in InDesign, all the characters displayed as intended and even the exported PDFs looked just fine. When we printed hard copies of the flyers, however, we immediately noticed that none of the accented characters had printed. We always QA both a digital and a print copy of our translations, as the eye can be drawn to different things in different mediums. Seeing accented characters display perfectly normally on our computer screens only to disappear on a hard copy was new for us!

After a fruitless internet search, we began comparing all the elements in the source design package to previous versions of the flyer. As luck would have it, this client has been using a “base” version of this flyer to advertise a yearly event, so we had at least one previous version against which we could compare the current files. Once we got into the Fonts folders, we realized that prior versions came packaged with .otf font files, whereas the current iteration had come packaged with .ttf font files. We swapped out the .ttf files with .otf versions and voilà! The hard copies printed with all the accented characters in place.

OTF stands for OpenType font and TTF stands for TrueType font. According to Adobe, OpenType fonts use a single font file for both Windows and Mac, and “include an expanded character set and typographic layout features, providing broader linguistic support and more precise typographic control.” Since we’re not printers (and we are still not able to find straightforward answers about this online), we still can’t quite explain why the .ttf fonts display accented characters perfectly well on screen but not on hard copy printouts, while the .otf fonts do both.

The moral of the story is that if you’re designing with globalization in mind, be sure the fonts you’re choosing give you the functionality you’ll need across languages and mediums. And if you don’t feel comfortable choosing fonts with this type of flexibility, be sure you’re working with an LSP who is willing and able to advise you on font selection (like we did for a client doing multilingual typesetting for a comic book).

Burmese fonts

The history of Burmese fonts is an interesting study in the intersection of sociolinguistics and digital mechanics. Developments have been made in the six years since we published our blog post “Why are Burmese Fonts so Problematic?” but Burmese DTP can still feel like one of the more dauting challenges in multilingual typesetting.

As of October 2023, Adobe’s website still warns that “South Eastern Asian (SEA) languages or scripts are not currently supported on all Adobe products” and the only font in the Adobe Fonts library that lists support for the Burmese language is Myanmar Text. For years, we relied on using the Zawgyi One font in both Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. Doing so allowed cross-functionality between our translation teams and typesetters. Even so, there were often still hiccups along the way. Given the history of Burmese font development, our Burmese translation teams are well-versed in font rendering issues and are always ready with suggestions for how to resolve them.

In the summer of 2024, we ran into an issue we hadn’t before. When our typesetter first dropped the Burmese translations from Word into InDesign using the Zawgyi One font, various character elements did not display where they should. The black script below is the translation in Microsoft Word, and the green script is what the initial PDF exported from InDesign looked like.

The yellow highlights show where the circle in the lower half of the text is not aligned properly.

After pointing this out to our typesetter, they got to work to remedy these errors. When they returned a revised PDF, they told us that after struggling to get the circles to align properly in Zawgyi One, they tried changing the font to Noto Sans Myanmar. This font change automatically resolved the misalignments! You can see the correction in the image below.

And before you worry about whether the other subtle differences between the two examples above are errors introduced when the font was changed, consider the differences between Courier New and Edwardian (pictured at right). And why should English fonts have all the fun? 😉 The differences between the Burmese fonts pictured above are certainly more subtle than the differences between Courier New and Edwardian, but the difference between the stylistic flair of a certain font and a typographical error can also be subtle. That’s just another reason we always submit typeset files to the translation team for linguistic quality assurance (LQA)!

Justification and other visual treatments

Designers who attempt multilingual typesetting without any background or experience in translation may take choices such as justification for granted. But in the same way that business etiquette and communication styles differ across some languages and cultures, you can’t assume that best practices for English-language layouts are best practice for layouts in other languages. Justifying across the entire page is preferred on most Chinese-language layouts. Like with English hyphenation or subtitling rules, however, there may still be instances when it would be better to keep a certain group of characters together rather than splitting them across two lines. This is another opportunity for your LSP to marry translation and design into the most reader-friendly presentation.

Other stylistic elements such as italics, dropped capitals, and small capitals can also trip up typesetters who are used to working only with English text. According to a Japanese translator that we have worked with for years, italics aren’t normally used in Japanese. And for languages that do not have uppercase and lowercase alphabets (such as Arabic and Korean), all caps/small caps are not applicable. When these treatments are used for emphasis, we always consult with our translation teams about how to achieve the same emphasis in a more linguistically appropriate way. A drop “cap” can be faked by simply making the first letter of the word or the first character on the line larger, but we always ask our translation teams to weigh in on stylistic choices like these as well. A style that may be considered elegant or eye-catching in one language may look confusing or disjointed in another.

Overcoming challenges in multilingual typesetting

This post is certainly not an exhaustive list of all the complications that may arise when working with translations in design software. Developments that improve certain capabilities may also create new and unexpected challenges in multilingual typesetting. You needn’t give up or settle for awkward workarounds when you have a partner in translation that has the experience to handle many issues and the dedication to resolve ones they haven’t seen before. Whether you’re at your wit’s end or are interested in learning more about avoiding a wit’s end scenario moving forward, ask Language Solutions if we can help!

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We’ve written about computer assisted translation (CAT) tools before, generally in the context of how we use them to help our clients. Some of the principal benefits of a good CAT tool are efficiency, consistency, and quality assurance. Using a CAT tool is not the same as machine translation or AI, though many CAT tools integrate these functions for translators who want to use them.

If you’re considering integrating translation technology solutions into your workflows, read on to learn more about what you should expect. We don’t want to frame these expectations as “pros and cons,” because everyone’s priorities and budgets are different. How you react to the following considerations may help you determine whether investing in translation technology solutions internally is the right choice for you.

Doing your research

There are dozens of CAT tools out there. Consider your starting point and how much time you’ll need to devote to researching and testing all the options available to you. Are you starting completely from scratch, or do you have some baseline knowledge of translation technology solutions? Do you know what an XLIFF is? What about segmentation rules? You may need to spend some time up-front getting to know how CAT tools and other translation technology solutions work before you feel prepared to decide which one(s) will best serve you and your company.

If you feel prepared to compare apples to apples, you’ll then need to come up with a list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and deal-breakers. What file types will you need to translate? Trados Studio, the CAT tool we use, can handle at least 27 file types, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, HTML, JSON, and SRT. Do you want cloud capabilities, or local functionality only? Do your translators work in a certain CAT tool? Many programs are cross-compatible but not all of them are. If your go-to translation team(s) work with certain programs, we certainly recommend taking that into account.

A learning curve

It takes time to learn any new system or program. And becoming as efficient and effective as possible at using a new system takes additional time and effort. Many companies have either a full-time employee or even a team whose sole responsibility is to manage localization. If you don’t have that, is a member of your current staff prepared and able to take on learning a new system? Do they have the time and support to manage translation technology solutions in addition to their current workload? If not, does it make sense to hire someone new?

Investment

That brings us to the next expectation, which is that many translation technology solutions cost money. Do you want to pay a one-time licensing fee, or for a subscription? Are cloud capabilities and other functionalities built into the software, or treated as add-ons at an additional charge? Are there free tools out there that fulfill all your must-haves?

If you work with or are considering working with an LSP, you should also consider that investment. If your LSP uses robust translation technology solutions, is it worth it for you to do the same? If the answer is yes, are the tools you’re looking at compatible with the tool(s) your LSP uses? It’ll be important to do a cost-benefit analysis internally as well as in the context of your relationship with an LSP.

Ownership and version control

For businesses outside the language services industry, acquiring translation technology solutions can be a double-edged sword. It puts you in full control of your assets and you have access to your translation memories and glossaries at any time, for any purpose. This can be beneficial in time-crunch situations when copy has been translated before. For example, one of our clients sent us updates to their New Hire handbook that needed to be applied to the Spanish version of the handbook in time for several new employees’ first day at work. When we prepared the updates in our CAT tool, we discovered that we had already translated all the “new” copy previously, as part of other assets (an employee newsletter, an open enrollment reminder postcard, etc.). We still had the translator check to make sure the translations were appropriate in the context of the handbook, but that was a much faster job than translating the updates “from scratch.” If our client had been able to search their own translation memory, that would have saved time and probably a lot of stress on their end!

On the other hand, owning your own translation technology solutions also gives you something else to keep track of. If you’re concerned about version control and don’t have the bandwidth to maintain an additional resource, a trusted LSP will manage these assets for you. We update each of our client’s translation memories after each translation project is finalized and do regular maintenance to ensure that outdated or superfluous translation units are modified, removed, or flagged.

What’s next?

If you’ve gotten to this point and are thinking “we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing more in-house,” then investing in translation technology solutions could be the right next step for you. If your reaction was more along the lines of “I don’t have the time, energy, or budget for all that,” then don’t worry – a good LSP will manage translation technology so you don’t have to. Our stance is that no matter how involved, or uninvolved, our clients want to be with translation technology solutions, the tangible assets like translation memories and termbases that we maintain truly belong to them. We’re big on client mentorship here at Language Solutions. If that sounds like something you’re after, please get in touch – we’re here to listen!

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Setting the stage

The project was creation of six foreign language subtitle files (SRT) for a short video of a company’s CEO delivering a message in English. When we received the request, however, the video itself was still in the cutting room being edited and finalized. The only file we had access to was a script in a TXT file. The end client wasn’t able to say when the final video would be ready and wanted to release the subtitled video as soon as possible once it was. This meant the translated SRTs would need to be ready quickly once the video was complete.

Translation process management as problem-solving

Given our client’s needs and goals here, we went ahead and prepared the TXT file for translation in our CAT tool, Trados Studio. We applied our Translation Memory for each language, checked in with our regular translation and editor teams for this client, and got the translation process started.

The text was translated, edited, and finalized.

Then the video itself was finally ready. We used the video file to create an English-language SRT. When doing so, we discovered that the actual transcript of the video didn’t quite match the original script we’d been given. So, we created a markup document in Word showing the differences between the original script and the true transcript. We sent this document to the lead translators and asked them to edit the translation file in accordance with the discrepancies.

Once the translations had been updated and the English-language SRT was ready, we created six copies of the SRT file and replaced the English with the translations. We did our own QA in-house to make any timing updates in the SRT that we felt were necessary based on the length of the subtitles. To ensure that nothing got corrupted, cut off, or left out, we created a private YouTube video, uploaded the subtitle files, and shared the video with the translators. That way they could watch the video with the subtitles on and point out any issues or make adjustments, if necessary.

Here’s a summary of those steps:

1. Prepare the TXT file in a CAT tool in six languages.
2. Translate, edit, and finalize the content in each language.
3. Edit the translations again based on the final video transcript.
4. Use the video file to create an English-language SRT file.
5. Make six copies of the SRT file and replace the English text with the translations.
6. QA the subtitles on the video.
7. Make adjustments as necessary.

Translation process management for cost efficiency

If this client had built translation into their content creation timeline, or had some flexibility on when the subtitled video could be released, here’s how translation process management would have gone:

1. Use the video file to create an English-language SRT file.
2. Prepare the SRT file in a CAT tool in six languages.
3. Translate, edit, and finalize the content in each language.
4. QA the subtitles on the video.
5. Make adjustments as necessary.

You’ll notice that step 5 from the actual workflow isn’t included here. That’s because SRT files are compatible with Trados Studio. Once the translations are done, we can export a translated SRT. There’s no need to cut and paste, which saves time and money. We also would have avoided the additional round of edits that were necessary because the video transcript didn’t quite stick to the original script.

It’s likely that these 5 steps would have taken about as much (or less) time as the 7 steps we completed. Our client’s schedule and deadlines, however, required us to have a significant portion of the translation work done within the time it took to create the final video (and then the SRT file). In the most cost-efficient scenario, translation would not have begun until the video was ready. In the actual scenario, most of the content had been translated, edited, and finalized by the time the video was ready. We also considered having the translators make the additional edits as they were replacing the English text in the SRT file with the translations. By having them edit the translations in a separate file while the SRT was being made, we once again leveraged simultaneous processes to shave some time off the final delivery. The additional process means additional investment, but turnaround time was more important to this client than cost savings.

Transparency in translation process management

While our client in this scenario relies on us to create subtitle files, some of our clients send us SRT files they have ready for translation. We can work with that, too! Sending final source files for translation saves time and cost. If you don’t have access to the correct file format, there’s a lot a well-rounded LSP can do to help.

For example, creating an SRT is not something everyone realizes that an LSP can do. The same is true of typesetting (or DTP). Prospective clients often send us Word files or PDFs for a quote, assuming that the translation must be done separately from the layout they’ve created in InDesign. We can process InDesign files directly in our CAT tool, which cuts typesetting time by a third. Other design files (such as those created in Illustrator) aren’t compatible with CAT tools, but we can still work with the source files to create translated versions. This can be especially crucial for languages that use special characters, don’t use the Latin alphabet, and/or are read right to left (RTL). In these cases, the design file may have to be set up a certain way and proper fonts must be used for the translated design to display correctly. Some of our clients prefer to handle DTP in-house. In these cases, we always recommend that they send the translated layout back to us so that our translator can perform a visual proof. And if truly all you have access to is a PDF, we can recreate the layout in Word or in a design file, depending on the complexity of the layout and your needs. This increases your cost, but it gets the job done!

Websites are another great example of how translation process management may look different for different clients. We can work directly with web-based files. This cuts down on time, cost, and the potential for error introduced by copying and pasting. With that being said, some of our clients prefer to send us their web copy in a Word file. That just means our translation process management pivots to include additional QA so we can ensure that their final translated site contains all the information it’s supposed to, in the right place, and looking as it should.

Many of our clients with regular translation needs factor time for translation into their publishing schedules. Clients who are newer to translation, on the other hand, don’t tend to have adequate time built in to their content development timelines. If need be, we can begin translation on a draft file. The resulting workflow results in decreased cost efficiency, but we will always strategize how we can incorporate the edits in the most cost-effective way according to our client’s priorities.

What your LSP can do for you

Whether translation process management gives you a huge headache or excites you, we’re here for you! With over 25 years of experience in the localization industry, we can advise you on how translation process management affects your timeframes, bottom lines, and possible outcomes for your stakeholders. We’re also prepared to handle as much or as little of the logistics as you want or need. And while we do have limits (we can’t create an SRT without a video file, for example), there’s a whole lot we can do that you might not have expected. To learn more, you can explore our blog, check out our services pages, or reach out to us.

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What exactly is back translation?

It’s called that because you are translating copy back into the original source language.  Here is an example:

1. Our client sends us a slide deck about a new drug. They need it translated into Spanish for a US-based patient population.
2. One of our English > Spanish healthcare translation teams translates the slide deck into US Spanish.
3. One of our Spanish > English healthcare translation teams translates the new Spanish version of the deck into English. They do not see the original English piece.
4. We compare and reconcile the original English copy against the “back translation” from Spanish into English.  This may incur revisions in translation or in back translation.

That comparison is what we ultimately deliver to our clients. If they do not speak or understand the target language, back translation is a way for them to determine that the translation captures the meaning of the source copy.

Pitfalls of back translation

As mentioned earlier, the nature of language is such that it’s highly unlikely that a back translation will match the source document word for word. It may happen for some select phrases but generally it’s possible for the back translation to say the same thing as the source copy in a different way. We’ve seen hundreds of examples of this. When working on an update to a patient brochure about the HIV treatment BIKTARVY, the line “Why is staying on treatment important?” was back translated as “Why is it important to continue with the treatment?” At first glance, those look like two entirely different sentences. When you break them down piece by piece, they communicate the same idea.

We believe that back translation doesn’t always guarantee or improve translation quality because it emphasizes literal equivalences. When you’ve worked with languages for as long as we have, you know that a literal translation isn’t necessarily a better one. Clients who aren’t as experienced or immersed in global communications can get hung up on the back translation and are determined for it to be nearly identical to the source English. Sometimes this is simply not possible. For example, it is not correct in Spanish to use the word “take” when describing an injectable medication. In other cases, an edit can be made that does not introduce an error but results in the translation sounding less natural.

When to use back translation

The one instance when back translation is almost always required is for projects that require regulatory approval in healthcare translations. Content that must be approved by a regulatory body presents a unique challenge because if the regulatory body doesn’t understand the language that the material is translated into, they can’t approve the translation. In this instance, back translation is necessary so that the approving entity can sign off on the translation. When this is the case, ensuring that the back translation process is managed effectively and efficiently will be key to staying on time, on budget, and on brand.

And speaking of on brand, another instance of when to use back translation is for creative copy such as taglines or slogans. Back translating creative copy is a double-edged sword. As with regulatory approval, brand managers who don’t understand the target language need a way to determine what the translated tagline is saying to the target audience. The nature of creative copy, however, means that a back translation is unlikely to capture the nuance and cultural value of the translation. Consider idioms. If you were to translate the phrase “spill the beans” literally into French, it would suggest an image of a cleanup on aisle 4 rather than a surprise being spoiled. A French speaker would be more likely to say “vendre la mèche,” which translates to English as “to sell the fuse.” A qualified translator would know better than to translate “vendre la mèche” literally and would use an equivalent idiom in the target language. If your creative copy goes beyond a simple idiom with an equivalent in the target language, transcreation may be the answer.

Transcreation and back translation

Transcreation is the process by which a message gets adapted for a foreign or local market in another language without losing its original intent. It is a more intensive process than translation and may not be warranted for all creative copy. For example, one of our clients sent a newsletter to their employees about a new health insurance premium discount program. To enroll in the program, employees had to complete two steps. To make the newsletter eye-catching, they designed it with an image of a dancing duo and used the headline “Do the LiveWell two-step.” The two-step might not resonate with a global audience, but since this was a one-off newsletter and the headline had more to do with the enrollment process than the program itself, we advised our client that we didn’t think transcreation was warranted. We wanted to maintain the dancing theme if possible, so we asked the translation team if they could still write a catchy headline that alluded to dancing and the fact that enrollment involved only two steps (or at the very least, that enrollment was simple). And that’s exactly what they did! If your copy is a slogan meant to capture your brand’s identity, transcreation will probably serve you better.

Back translation is still a useful complement to transcreation, since ultimately a branding or marketing team will need to know what the transcreated slogan says. Whereas traditional back translation is done by a translator totally independent from the original source > target translation, asking the transcreator to provide a back translation allows them to explain the meaning and intent behind their choices. It can’t hurt to have an independent translator provide a back translation for the transcreated copy, but given the goal of a tagline or slogan, we recommend utilizing focus groups. A back translator’s perspective can certainly be valuable, but an asset as significant as a global tagline or slogan should have buy-in from more than one or two individuals.

Trust in your translation team

The idea of using back translation as a universal quality control can be tempting. It can provide a sense of control over translated materials when you don’t understand the target language. After learning more about the realities of the process, perhaps you’ll be more selective about when to use back translation. There are certainly circumstances in which back translation is necessary or advantageous. When those circumstances are not present, there are many other quality assurance measures that can be baked into a translation provider’s processes. If you don’t trust that your translation team is getting your message right, maybe it’s time to make a switch.

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Confirm that translation is what you need.

Translation is creating an equivalent written document in a language other than the one in which it was originally written. If that doesn’t sound like what you’re after, some other services you may be looking for are:

• Interpretation: facilitating oral communication between two (or more) parties who do not speak the same language. This is frequently required at medical appointments or legal proceedings.
• Transcreation: rewriting creative copy (such as a tagline or jingle) in the target language. This is required when your source copy will not translate directly (or effectively) into your target language.
• Linguistic screening: determining the appropriateness of a brand or company name for a foreign market. This is required to determine if your product or company name will be problematic (or position you positively) in another market or region.

Confirm what language(s) you need.

Deciding on language(s) for translation may require more research than you think. Please consider the following:

• Many languages (such as French, Portuguese, and Spanish) have several variants that are used in different regions around the world.
• If you think you need a document translated into Mandarin Chinese, think again! Mandarin is an oral dialect of Chinese. There are two writing systems for Chinese: Simplified and Traditional.
• There are also two writing systems for Punjabi: Shahmukhi (used in Pakistan) and Gurmukhi (used in India).

Determine your source file(s).

Some popular source file types are Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and Adobe InDesign and Illustrator documents.

• A PDF is not a source file! If all you have is a PDF, you can typically determine the source file type by right clicking in the PDF and selecting “Document Properties.” Next to “Application” you should see in which program your file was created. When in doubt, your language service provider (LSP) may be able to help.
• If your source file is a video:
  • Determine whether you need subtitles, voiceover, or both.
    • If you need subtitles:
      • Determine whether you want open or closed captions. Open captions are burned on to the video and the deliverable will be a video file with permanent subtitles. Closed captions can be toggled on and off and the deliverable will be a subtitle file such as an SRT.
    • If you need a voiceover:
      • • Determine whether you prefer a male or a female voice.
        • Determine whether your video will be used for paid advertising.
    • Determine whether there is any on-screen text that needs to be translated.
    • If your video has background music, determine whether you can share the audio file with your LSP or whether they will have to purchase a copy.
• If your source file is a web page:
  • Determine how you will export the content for translation. For WordPress sites, we recommend WPML.

Do you have some materials already translated?

If not, welcome to the wonderful world of translation! We’re glad you’re here. 😊

If yes, your LSP may need some time to mine for important terminology. Or they may create a Translation Memory to help leverage your previously translated content.

Will you need the translated piece to be typeset?

If your source file is in a design program like Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, ask your LSP about international DTP.

Will you be incorporating client linguistic review (CLR)?

Will you be asking a colleague or client to review and possibly edit the translations after they have been completed? If yes, this is considered CLR and affects your translation quote.

Will you need back translation?

Are you submitting the original and the translated piece to a regulatory committee for approval to go to market? If yes, you probably need to submit a back translation into the original source language.

Have questions about any (or all) of the items on this translation quote checklist? We encourage you to peruse the rest of our Advocating Global blog posts or contact us with specific questions about your project. We value client mentorship and love when we can help our clients grow their global competency!

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Provide translation-ready source files

Providing a translation-ready source file involves three main aspects:

1. File type and layout
2. Final copy
3. Fonts

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: a PDF is NOT a source file. Some examples of translation-friendly file types are Word documents, INDD (or better yet, IDML) design files, Excel worksheets, SRT subtitle files, and HTML files. Once you’ve gotten your hands on the true source file, you can go a step further to reduce translation costs by ensuring that the layout is translation ready. For a Word file, this means ensuring that there are no hard returns mid-sentence (or anywhere else that they shouldn’t be). And we’ve written a few guides for translation-friendly design layouts and how to best prepare InDesign files for translation. If you are cost-conscious and willing to do some front-end work to reduce translation costs, let your language service provider (LSP) know and they can counsel you on the best way to do so for whatever project you’re working on together.

Sending final copy will always help keep your translation costs lower than sending draft copy that will ultimately need to be edited. Even a single round of edits once translation has already begun will generally incur an additional minimum charge for new/updated copy, not to mention the additional time it takes to review, prepare, and get the new copy into the translator’s hands. Depending on your process (for example, if typesetting is involved), sending edits while translation is already in progress can also disrupt the additional processes which results in additional costs. If you practice excellent version control (see more on that later), you can minimize the additional investment that edits to the source copy incur.

Finally, research the fonts you are using in your source files to ensure that they have language support for your target language. In order to reduce translation costs, you’ll want your source document to be in a font that supports your target language(s). If that’s not possible, be intentional about providing your LSP with the fonts they’ll need for each language. An experienced LSP will certainly be capable of finding or suggesting fonts for you to use, but if you want to avoid any risk of going overbudget, you’ll want to do this yourself ahead of time.

Provide a glossary of key terms

Providing a glossary of important terms in the source and target language has a two-fold benefit. It will save your LSP time and potential rework, which can help reduce translation costs. It will also give you ownership over the terminology being used in your translated materials. We are well-versed in terminology mining and management and it’s something we often do for our clients. If your aim is to lower that bottom line, however, doing this prep work can help. Provide your LSP with key terms in the source material as well as the translated term that has been used in your previously translated materials. If you’re new to translation, you may want to avail yourself of the many publicly available glossaries online for industries ranging from healthcare to law. Our translators are experts in their field, but in some cases, there will be multiple translations for the same term or idea and it’s important to remain consistent where key terms are concerned. If you have a reference point that you prefer to use (such as CMS or WHO), go ahead and prepare that glossary ahead of time so it’s available to the translation team before work begins.

Practice excellent version control

Version control comes into play in two main instances. The first we mentioned above: sending edits to your LSP after translation has begun on a project. Maintaining a copy document and tracking changes in Word is typically a translation-friendly way to send edits. That way they are clear and there is no guesswork on the part of the translation team. If you must make the edits directly in the design file, we recommend running a PDF comparison between versions. Adobe has this as a built-in function, or you can use an online service such as Draftable. Send that PDF compare report to your LSP so they can see exactly where changes were made. Sloppy version control puts the onus on your LSP to find where changes were made which takes time and drives up cost.

Good version control is also important when you’re updating an asset that has previously been translated. The reasons why are generally the same as the example above, but you can read more in our post about content reuse. Content reuse can reduce translation costs over time because if your LSP uses Translation Memory (or TM, which they certainly should be), you get a discount on copy that has been translated before.

Group as much content as possible

We see this all the time – clients who aren’t familiar with the translation industry assume that a “small” translation such as a social media post or a clothing tag will be charged per word. This is hardly ever the case, as translators charge a minimum fee for content of approximately 250 words or less. The good news is that if you can group a bunch of small pieces together, you can benefit from that minimum charge and the more content you send, the more cost-efficient you get. For example, if you have a social media content calendar, you may be able to translate your next 6 months’ worth of posts for the same investment as translating a single post. Repetitive content is also typically charged at a discounted per-word rate, so if you have 50 clothing tags that are all slight variations on the same copy, you can reduce translation costs by having them translated all at the same time.

How not to reduce translation costs

If you’re not familiar with the translation industry, you may have done some research or otherwise come up with an idea of what you think translation should cost. And chances are you can find an agency who will be within that budget. Ultimately, however, investing in the following, which low-cost agencies aren’t including in their quotes, can help you reduce translation costs in the long run.

Project management can mean the difference between smooth sailing and a massive headache. Dedicated project management ensures that certain standards are maintained throughout all aspects of the project and that your budget and timeframe are respected. Translation agencies who don’t charge you for project management are often limited to doing the bare minimum, as their rates don’t factor in the time it takes to troubleshoot issues that come up, incorporate edits faithfully, or do a multistep QA process.

While a multistep QA process initially represents an increased investment, ultimately you may find that it helps reduce translation costs that arise due to mistakes. We run QA on the translation itself in our computer assisted translation (CAT) tool software, as well as doing a proof of the final translated layout against the source document. This ensures no inconsistencies in the translation or typographical errors are made, as well as maintaining visual elements such as font styles and formatting.

Additionally, not all translation providers offer services such as multilingual DTP (or typesetting). As with multistep QA, this represents an initial investment that may ultimately reduce translation costs over time. We’ve had clients send us samples of design file layouts delivered by low rate per word vendors that were clearly not touched by a professional typesetter (or if they were, they certainly didn’t undergo a visual proof afterwards). The translation was broken up willy-nilly all over the page and formatting was not applied properly. Working with an LSP who has experience in multilingual typesetting can save you time and rework that result when the layout wasn’t done properly in the first place.

There are plenty of agencies out there who charge a bargain basement per-word rate. And if cost is the main (or only) factor you’re considering when buying translation, you’ll get what you pay for. If you’re looking to reduce translation costs, you may be tempted by a low per-word rate. We’d encourage you to consider the points presented above as ways to avoid spending more without compromising quality.

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For what markets and in what languages should we translate?

For senior leadership and for procurement, you’ll want to build a business case for translation for budget support.

There are many dimensions to take into account:

• Globalization effort: What approaches do we find acceptable; do we localize (write for one market), regionalize (write for multiple markets) or internationalize (write for all markets)? Knowing these options ahead of time can enable a smoother decision-making process.
• Relevant company data: Doing a risk assessment of your (client’s) global offices can help to make a decision. Employee data, Retention Rates, Employee Engagement, Reports of Non-compliance… what data is relevant to the organization in relation to the campaign goals?
• Relevant language and cultural data: Consider cultural dimensions and language demographics to determine a short-list (see case study below). Together with relevant company data, this data can help define where there is a higher risk of misunderstanding of concepts. Together with industry specific research, you can drive the message specifically for one region or market.
• Demographics: Is your market homogeneous? Can we consider Latin America as one market, or should we differentiate?
• Market forces: Does the organization need to capture market share in a particular region? Should we focus on that region first?

What outcomes should we measure?

Client-based outcomes

An example of existing company outcomes-based metrics can help to build a business case for translation:

• Employee engagement data – What relevant information is tracked to ensure employee engagement and where are the trends per country/region/division?
  • One of our clients showed click-through rates as a way to measure effectiveness of their global campaign, without considering the metrics that they focused on for their English campaign that may be more relevant. We considered click-through rates as a starting point, but if issues arise, we need more specific metrics as to why a campaign may not be working well, such as brand performance.
  • Another client looked at incentive participation rate at a global level to see what impact translation and localization efforts have on the overall outcomes. We monitored this participation rate of Spanish speaking participants and what progress was made by first translating the incentive program. Consider financial metrics tied to the participation rate in order to create a break-even analysis (for instance: in order to justify the translation costs, participation rates should be x% higher).
• Employee safety data – How are concepts understood? What type of safety metrics are clearly out of the norm?
• Enrollment numbers – When translating open enrollment materials, this is an easy metric to get data on and see if enrollment numbers went up.

For larger clients and longer campaigns, it may be best to consider a Balanced Scorecard approach with a selection metrics and desired outcomes in order to track the effectiveness of the campaign. Making the process transparent helps in justifying the budget for translation early on.

Translation Metrics to build a business case for translation

We can report on translation process efficiencies and metrics that are specific in our industry.
Examples are:

• Trend analysis of translation leverage – provides insight into consistency of writing and reuse;
• Cost analysis per process – provides insight into process inefficiencies and progress
• Translation accuracy – When client SMEs review the translation, we have metrics in place that can be used to grade and measure the revisions and progress made.

Case Study: Employee Motivation and Cultural Dimensions

For an incentive reward program, we looked at employee behavior and motivation as a model of variables that are considered in the English program and used research and hypothesis to come up with a cultural framework by Hofstede:

• Payout Structure (associated with Masculinity)
• Rule Structure (associated with Individualism and Power Distance)
• Internal Communications (associated with Uncertainty Avoidance)
• Business Objective (associated with Long Term Orientation)

Hostede’s Cultural Dimensions – Absolute Differences from US per dimension.

Here is an example of how we plot this against the different cultural dimensions as defined by Hostede.

Cultural distance is a good starting point to get a baseline hierarchy of cultural disparities. Combined with an analysis of performance, this data can be further broken down to specific cultural areas:

While this provides starting point, careful consideration needs to be made towards specific issues in every market. One example was a US company that had a vision to become 10 billion dollar company by 2020. One of their values they wanted to communicate to their employees was innovation. While this value may resonate in the US as a means to reach a certain revenue level, from a German’s perspective, innovation is “doing more with less”, where the goal is focused on the bottom line. The idea of growing a company’s size by means of innovation did not make sense.
The overall hypothesis should be that it can be expected that cultural adaptation may be achieved more easily in markets that are on the left side of this graphic than the markets that appear on the right hand side. A lot of the idiosyncrasies can be dealt with at the translation stage, but early assessment may be desired in “high-risk” cultures.

Based on the language and cultural dimensions analysis (Hofstede and Trompenaar), we mapped out our data across a decision matrix (size of the bubble indicate employee population). Need help in determining your global strategy?  Want to elevate the communication department to a more strategic position? Let us help!

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Address your audience

A strong knowledge of the intended audience is foundational to producing an optimal translation. Both translation customers and vendors can contribute to this knowledge. Do you know where most of your Spanish-speaking employees are from? Or whether your Vietnamese patients are primarily older or younger than 50? These insights help determine which language variant will be best understood or accepted in translation. We make sure that our translation teams have a profound understanding of not only the target language but also the associated culture. This means they know not only words and grammar, but also attitudes and associations that may come into play when engaging with a certain material. If your current LSP isn’t asking you to specify your translation requests for Chinese (Simplified or Traditional?), French (Canadian or European?), or Portuguese (Brazilian or European?) (among other questions), you may want to look into changing translation vendors.

Talk about terms

Another element of good quality translation is using proper and consistent terminology. This is also best achieved when clients and vendors work together. Working with translators who are experts in the subject matter they are translating about is one way to ensure that they will use correct and accepted terminology. In certain fields, however, there may be several accepted terms that are used. For example, we translate HR communications for various companies, each of which has a different preferred term for “employees.” Some companies prefer to say “colleagues,” while others use “partners” or “associates.” If you are changing translation vendors or are working with a dedicated LSP for the first time (rather than having a bilingual employee translate your documents), it’s critical to provide your (new) LSP with the translated terms that are already in use. One reference point for this is a 401(k) “match” or “matching contribution.” If you’ve already provided translations about this, it would be preferable to continue using the same translation for “match” so that there’s no doubt about which disbursements to which you are referring. The same goes for translations of terms such as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and vesting.

Keep it consistent

A similar case is translating materials that reference or supplement employee resources such as handbooks or online systems. Just like how “log in” and “sign in” mean the same thing in the context of a digital portal, there can be several ways to translate phrases like “sign up,” “sign in,” and “learn more.” So, when your new document copy includes these types of references, make sure you have screenshots, portal access, or some other way for your LSP to ensure that they’re using translations that are already available. It might not seem like too much to ask for end users to make the leap between instructions that say to click on “Next” when the button actually says “Continue,” but it can be frustrating to look for something that isn’t actually there. A lack of continuity can also make a user wonder if they are in the right place. If the elements being referenced have never been translated, it’s important to know that as well. In that situation, we always include the source term alongside a translation, usually in parentheses afterwards. That way users know exactly what they’re looking for (a button, a document saved in a shared drive, an email attachment, etc.) and know what to expect once they find it. And if the translations for these elements are publicly accessible (i.e., on your corporate website), you should feel confident that your LSP is finding and using those as part of their standard procedure.

Mark the meaning

If you regularly use organization-specific acronyms or shorthand, part of changing translation vendors should involve sharing the longform versions of these. Acronyms like “R&D” and “DBA” are generally understood and shouldn’t require further explanation when their context is sufficient to confirm their meaning. If your company, however, refers to your customer service representatives as CSRs, you will need to make sure your translation team is aware of that to avoid misunderstandings. Similarly, if you use shorthand (like using “IDiv” for International Division) or name an internal process, document, or system using an everyday word that hasn’t been copyrighted (calling your training protocol “Pathway,” for instance), those would also need to be communicated to the translator. Once you’ve communicated these definitions or clarifications once, you should be all set. Our standard procedures include using terminology management technology that keeps track of these entries as well as working with regular translation teams whenever possible. This ensures the team’s familiarity with the client’s objectives, preferences, and style.

If you’ve been considering changing translation vendors but have put it off because you were dreading a big hassle or weren’t sure it would be worth it, we hope this overview has helped you feel confident and prepared to make a beneficial switch. If you think we may be the collaborative partner you’re looking for, give us a call or send us a message and we’d be happy to see if we’re a good fit!

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Implement proven processes and systems

A Spanish translation of a Sonoma County voter information guide published this summer included two incorrect dates and an incorrect location. Multilingual, the publication that brought this incident to our attention, speculates that these errors occurred because Sonoma County reused a document previously written for a special election held in the spring. This certainly seems plausible, and if it’s true, goes to show that content reuse in translation can go wrong when the process isn’t properly managed. There are many ways to implement version control, and we recommend investing in a functional content management system or source authoring tool that systematically tracks updates for you. We have a workflow that’s effective for us. Make sure you implement a system that has demonstrated success and works for you.

Contemporaneous versions

Content reuse in translation can also be practical when the task at hand is creating several concurrent versions of the same document. We see content reuse at Open Enrollment time every year, when companies are sharing their health plan offerings with employees across various regions. Much of the content in their benefits guide applies to all employees. Since not all health plans operate in all US states and territories, they have to edit certain information for each region. And just like the author of the benefits guide uses a “base” copy in the source language and then makes whatever changes are necessary for each region, we do the same in translation. This does require a bit more project management, but the time and cost savings on other processes (such as typesetting and QA) easily cancel out any additional project management involved. If the document is something small like a one-pager or a mailer and the edits across each version reach a certain level, we may ultimately choose not to use a “base” version for translation. Fortunately, we have other tools at our disposal, such as translation memory (TM) and termbases, to ensure that we’re still maintaining consistent translations of repetitive content across all the versions. And we discount our per word rate for repetitive content, so the cost efficiency is still there as well.

Context is key

One potential danger of only translating the changes between multiples versions of the same asset rather than translating each version in its entirety is translating without context. You would never copywrite without context, so you should also never translate without context. As part of our project management around content reuse in translation, we always make sure to provide the context of the changes to the source document. This means that we never send just a single word or phrase for translation. A single sentence would be the smallest amount of copy we would ever ask a translator to work with (unless of course the source asset only includes single words or phrases, such as signage). When we’re working with lengthy documents such as benefit guides, we include all the text surrounding the change in the translation file, send a PDF with all the updates called out, and/or provide background as to why the change was made (if that’s not immediately evident).

The layout on top may be more pleasing to the English-speaking eye because the lines are more even in length. A translator assured us that a Czech reader would prefer the lower layout because of grammar rules in the Czech language.

QA goes a long way

Once updates have been translated and the base document has been edited accordingly, we implement our multi-step QA process. This ensures that the layout and formatting look as they should, no typos were introduced, and the updated copy is arranged correctly. For example, many languages have rules and preferences for words that cannot be separated from each other (split across 2 lines, for instance). So, when I sent our typeset layout of a poster encouraging employees to complete a survey in Czech to the translator for linguistic quality assurance (LQA), she informed me that in Czech, there is a preference to keep prepositions on the same line as the following word. All the right words were included in the layout, but we needed to arrange them differently to localize the poster appropriately for Czech-speaking employees.

QA also verifies that all the information included in the updated source document is included (correctly) in the updated translation. If someone in the Sonoma County administration had asked a translator to proof the updated Spanish voter guide against the updated English guide, they would have caught the discrepancy between the dates and location.

Strategize for success

Reusing previously written content, using tools to ensure consistency, and version control are some of the objectives in our client SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. We translate updates to documents frequently, and the time and cost efficiency that we can achieve depends heavily on how well these objectives have been accomplished. When source authoring is haphazard, the risk of something being overlooked or an inconsistency being introduced increases. This means additional time spent to avoid those outcomes. Content reuse in translation that is systematic and organized not only decreases your costs and timeframes for each update, it also keeps your messaging consistent, which helps keep your brand trustworthy. Accidents happen, but with the right processes in place from start to finish, we can avoid errors like the ones Sonoma County made.

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Expansive text

Our primarily requested languages for translation are Spanish and Canadian French, which are both Romance languages. Most Romance languages (languages derived from Latin) expand from English by about 20 – 25%. So, a one-page flyer in English where the text takes up the entire page is unlikely to remain one page in Spanish or French. Decreasing font size is the obvious way to get more words to fit in the same amount of space, but we try to avoid doing that in international DTP. Decreasing leading (the vertical distance between lines of text) and/or tracking (the distance between letters) can create additional space in a more subtle way than decreasing the font size, and with less impact on readability. The same goes for other layout options like text box margins and column width. Of course, going overboard with any of these strategies can also impact readability or simply make your translated layout less attractive. This is why we work with expert typesetters with experience in international DTP and always have the translator do a visual proof of the translated layout. We refer to this step as linguistic quality assurance (LQA). LQA involves checking for things like typos, while also bringing a critical eye to the design in the target language.

The German lexicon famously includes many words with 15 or more letters. Splitting English words across lines with a hyphen can impact readability and is almost never appropriate for a marketing piece with minimal copy because it dampens visual impact. Because long words are so prevalent in German, hyphenating is sometimes preferable to alternatives that might require drastically reducing font size or leaving huge gaps between words or at the end of a line.

If you’re designing a layout for a piece that you know will be translated, we recommend doing some research or asking your LSP about whether the translation is likely to expand. Depending on the answer, you may want to build the source file with some extra breathing room. And if your target language tends to contract compared to English (this is almost always the case with Chinese), you will also want to be sure that your final translated layout does not leave big open spaces that make the layout look empty and unfinished.

Font support

When preparing an asset that will eventually be translated, we also recommend doing some font research. Is there a font that will support all the languages you’ll need? Be sure you’re aware of all characters that might be needed. Many people are familiar with accented characters like é in French, ö in German, and ñ in Spanish. But these are just the tip of the iceberg. Languages like Polish, Turkish, and Vietnamese use the Latin alphabet as their base but have several additional letters and diacritic marks that aren’t supported in many fonts.

Then of course there are languages that use scripts other than Latin. Some fonts (like Noto Sans) have versions for the Latin alphabet as well as writing systems such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek, and Ukrainian. Other fonts are script specific. One such font that recently came to our attention is Adobe Gurmukhi, which is used to write the Punjabi language in India.

Selecting the proper fonts may be all you need to do to ensure that your translated layout looks just the way it should. For fonts like Adobe Gurmukhi, however, the correct font is only the first step. Languages with scripts that Adobe considers complex, such as Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai, all require the use of Adobe’s World Ready Composer. This is found in the Paragraph Style Options menu under “Justification > Composer.”

But wait, there’s more! Font discrepancies across systems can cause rendering issues. If you’ve ever opened a Word document and it had a bunch of boxes in it where letters or characters should be, you’ve experienced this issue. When we’re working with languages that use non-Latin scripts, we typically have our translation teams send us a PDF of the translations (along with a live text file) because a PDF will show a static snapshot of how the characters should appear. Typesetting in Burmese is a fascinating case study that we cover in our post about the challenges of international DTP.

The Hindi translation for “October 5-19, 2022” as rendered in Microsoft Word

On the other hand, sometimes what appear to be font discrepancies are not. On a recent English > Hindi translation job, when I saw differences between the PDF exported by our typesetter from Adobe InDesign and the PDF that our Hindi translation team had sent us, I thought for sure the culprit was international DTP gone wrong. I marked up a few instances in the exported PDF to bring to the translator’s attention during LQA. So, imagine my surprise when the translator didn’t indicate that those instances were incorrect! When I asked them about it, they replied that “MS Word keeps the conjuncts separate while Adobe products combine them.”

The Hindi translation for “October 5-19, 2022” as rendered in InDesign

Having never studied Hindi, I wasn’t familiar with this concept. I did some research and learned that certain letter combinations in Hindi are typically written in a distinct form. So as explained by the translator, the same letters are present in either presentation, they are just written differently. This is one reason we always have our translators do LQA on a typeset asset. We want a native speaker to make sure the translated layout is legible and correct, that the formatting matches the source document whenever possible, and that appropriate alternatives have been used where the translation cannot exactly match the source. Certain choices that are made for the English-language artwork may not be correct or suitable in the target market. Italics, for example, are rarely used in East Asian languages and we typically substitute underlining for italicizing in these cases.

International DTP can sometimes begin before a single word has been translated. If you are typesetting a design that will ultimately be in languages other than English and you’re looking for an LSP that accounts for style as well as substance, contact us to see if we could be a good fit for you!

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