Translation and Typesetting Foreign Languages: Some useful tips

When translating and typesetting an English document into foreign languages there are many things that have to be taken into consideration.

Adelphi Translations are experts in the translation and typesetting of foreign languages, we have our own in-house typesetting studio and never out source our work. We have both Mac and PC platforms and have typeset over 120 different languages.

Below is an example of the original English next to the French and Chinese versions. The French font was reduced in size and condensed, but even then expanded onto nine lines, one more than the English. The Chinese font was increased in size to fill the space available.

Click on images to enlarge

Chinese, English and French text comparison

A better result could have been achieved if the original English document had been designed with translation in mind and text expansion or contraction had been taken into account at the origination stage. French can expand over 50% while Chinese can be 50% shorter than the original English.

Another Example of Text Expansion

Original English Text

Warm air heating is automatically powered by the vehicles fuel system for ease of
continuous use. It only uses 1.2 litres per hour, and the safety cut off prevents draining
all the vehicles fuel. Operated at the touch of a button.

German Translation

Warmluftheizung wird automatisch durch das Kraftstoffsystem des Fahrzeugs für
Dauereinsatz betrieben. Benötigt nur 1,2 Liter pro Stunde, und die Sicherheitsabschaltung verhindert, dass der gesamte Kraftstoff verbraucht wird. Wird per Knopfdruck betrieben.

English and German text comparison (click to enlarge)

French Translation

Le chauffage est automatiquement alimenté par le système à essence du véhicule pour
une plus grande facilité d’utilisation en continu. Consomme uniquement 1,2 litre par
heure et le système de coupure de sécurité évite que toute l’essence du véhicule ne soit consommée. Activé à la simple pression d’un bouton.

Chinese Translation

有便于连续使用, 车内的燃料系统会自动为空气加热装置供电。它每小时只消耗1.2公升的燃料，安全切断装置可以防止车内的燃料被完全消耗。操作形式为单按键式。

It can be noted even from the small sample above, that German has fewer words, due to the use of compound words in that language, but 25 more characters and will take up more space. French has both more words and more characters than German. In the Chinese sample, the number of words is not relevant as Chinese has no spaces between words, but the number of characters is much smaller at 75, compared to the English 230.

English and Chinese text comparison

Other useful advice is:

1. Avoid putting text into images
2. Do not fill the page with text
3. Stylistic fonts such as scripts often cannot be reproduced in many languages
4. Do not over-complicate the design of the text e.g. using bold or italics or different colours throughout the body text as a design element
5. If the document is to be reproduce in a right to left language e.g. Arabic, take this into account when making graphics which need to be flipped

The Quality of the Original English text

Technical text usually presents fewer problems, as the translator should be well versed in the subject matter. However, marketing materials and standard text can sometimes be very difficult to translate. It is a sad but true fact that original English text is often badly written and unclear, which makes translation very difficult. Marketing speak in particular is characterised by the heavy use of buzzwords, neologisms, and terms appropriated from specialised technical fields which are eventually rendered almost meaningless through heavy repeated use in inappropriate contexts.

Some examples are:
“We need to analyze how our product is branded.”

“Forward-looking companies invest in interactive organisational projections.”

“High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.”

Other impressive-sounding words and phrases, would be difficult to translate:

ballpark figure
be proactive not reactive
bring it to the table
mission critical
move the goalposts
think outside the box
blue-sky thinking
pushing the envelope
there is no ‘I’ in team
knowledge base
core competencies
win-win situation
client focus
deliverables
incentivise
take it to the next level

Translating and typesetting right to left languages such as Urdu, Arabic, Farsi Sorani etc. brings other problems. When typesetting right to left languages the existing English (left to right) document has first to be adapted to run right to left. This means completely flipping the document, so that the cover is now, in effect, at the back and all the pages and content read right to left. Many professional applications, such as QuarkXpress, do not support Arabic or Urdu typesetting or, indeed, any right to left language. We routinely convert documents made in QuarkXpress to InDesign ME (Middle East Version) which handles these languages perfectly.

To see a more information on right to left languages please read our article on Arabic typesetting: Arabic Typesetting Problems.

Producing Websites in Foreign Languages – things to consider
Foreign Language Subtitles
Multilingual Packaging Case Studies
Working with Arabic & other right-to-left languages
Working with Chinese & other Far Eastern languages
Translation & Advertising Agencies working together