Not just WORDS can get lost in TRANSLATION: Why do you need DTP?

Why do you need DTP?

In this competitive and globalized world, seeking other markets for your products and services becomes an opportunity and a need. The importance of translating and culturally adapting your online communication, user guides, website, and digital marketing to specific locations and markets is crucial to find success and growth.

What it is not completely apparent is that without finding a professional Desktop Publishing (DTP) service, your attempt to smoothly translate your document could be jeopardized.

What exactly is DTP?

DTP or typesetting is basically the practice of giving the finished product its professional look. It is the adaptation of digital files to keep your designs consistent between languages. It allows the translation to be perfectly formatted in order to ensure that the new document is of the same high quality as the original.

After completing the translation, multilingual DTP specialists feed the translations into the design file, adjust font sizes or tweak the layout to accommodate text length, make sure all characters display correctly and that the document looks as good as the original.

Languages are unique 

Let’s don’t forget that languages have different rules when it comes to publishing – there’s not a one‑size‑fits‑all approach to multilingual typesetting. In Japanese, certain characters cannot be at the end or the start of a line. Arabic, for instance, is written from right to left and their linguistic system does not include hyphens. Many languages tend to expand when you translate them. So while you might have 500 words of English text in your source file, that same paragraph in Spanish could end up being over 600 words.

Translating something like an advertising poster, a set of blueprints or a multilingual website design requires a more technical approach to translation. With DTP your files are all translated in the original format you created them in, meaning you are ready to publish as soon as you get them back from your translators,

The importance of cultural relevance.

Another important point to make is that cultural relevance and appropriateness of images can have a huge impact on the success of your product. That’s why, as part of our typesetting process, changes could be suggested in order not to offend your potential customers.

Let’s imagine you have spent months working on new marketing material, brochures, and promotional posters. You love how it looks, but now you need to translate it to different languages. In this case, you need to find a multilingual translation agency that has an in-house professional DTP team. You need skilled desktop publishers and graphic designers to know how to place that text back in the file without ruining the layout.

Choose professional translation services 

DTP is a MUST if you are looking to translate your solutions and go global. There is no need to take the risk and throw away any of the great work that has been done.

Work with professional translation agencies that offer DTP services. This will give you peace of mind and save you endless hours of formatting work.