Long before computers became a common household item, the publishing process was a rather tedious one. The use of large printing presses was required to simply copy and duplicate documents, and by chance, you needed graphics to go along with your advertising it would cost you another few days. As this meant that the text and graphic would be printed separately, then the graphic design would be taped in place, copied, and then the final document will be printed. Sounds like a handful right? Luckily, thanks to the digital age, computers with a graphic interface have turned multilingual desktop publishing projects (DTP) from being a tedious task into a convenient one.
What is DTP?
You might not realize but you might have done a bit of desktop publishing yourself. Every time you use your computer to create a document with any sort of graphic design you become a desktop publisher in a small way, i.e. printing that cute ‘lemonade for sale’ sign for your child’s lemonade stand. However, there is a difference between printing out a local lemonade stand label and having a global audience.
Here we have compiled a list of five challenges often associated with DTP translation and why choosing to acquire the aid of a professional DTP service provider can hold long-term beneficial attributes.
The Challenge Factor
- Fonts – Most programs today have font choices that are specifically designed to support English; however, this may not be the most suitable option when addressing your new audience. Some languages, such as Turkish, have special characters, letters or even the language format may not be supported altogether. A professional multilingual DTP service can help you choose the appropriate fonts for your custom needs.
- Text Length – this is something you cannot avoid with DTP translation. The text length tends to shrink or expand as they translate between languages. This can be an infuriating factor, especially when dealing with visual documents where there is limited space to include the appropriate text.
- Layout – our previous two challenges can directly affect our number three. When your text expands, the layout for your DTP project is no longer valid resulting in design complications. This can cause consistency issues for your brand marketing material.
- Localizing graphics – if your brand theme is designed around a strong visual factor then it is vital to have them localized for your regional audience. This can at times be as simple as changing colors or icons to match the mind-set of your local audience. However, if not done properly the whole concept of your brand can be ‘lost in translation’.
- The ‘Untranslatable’ – oftentimes in these situations, translators come across terms that are simply ‘untranslatable’ i.e. the Arabic word “tayammum” refers to the Islamic act of dry ablution, where one can use purified sand or dust when clean water is absent has no direct translation in English.
A professional multilingual DTP service provider can quickly untangle the complex documents by using services like typesetting and layouts, graphics production including content tagging, data conversion, XML publishing, and infographics to help you quickly, efficiently, and attractively portray your content. More so, they can offer to do this for you in the language of your target audience, which only further adds value to your product.
Why Contentech?
Located in the heart of the Middle East and Africa, Contentech offers an array of DTP services that will help your documents stand out in print and the virtual world. Along with the standard Microsoft Office programs, such as Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Viso, we use all the technically advanced programs to create a professional-grade product. More so, all of our professional graphic designers acquire advanced skill-sets of using special tools like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and CorelDraw.
To make certain that our desktop publishing services ran smoothly we offer additional benefits such as:
- Native In-House Translators: By hiring all native translators, we ensure that all your material is translated with cultural sensitivity in mind assuring that maximum outreach for your target audience. Whether it is Arabic or Turkish translation service, we have the perfect solution every time.
- ISO-17100: Being certified we assure our clients that we deliver their project with the greatest finesse.
- Experience: As they say, practice makes perfect. Having been in business since 1994 gives us decades of experience that our competitors can simply not compare with. We assist clients with many different languages, including Arabic, Swahili and Turkish translation services.
- Flexibility: No matter the size and timeline of your project, our team at EuroLingo will cater to all your specific requirements.
To see how we can further assist, contact our sales experts today and see how we at Contentech can give you the confidence to excel above industry standards.