Are you a creative director trying to get your company’s content translated? After receiving the go-ahead, you’ve had your materials translated to the target language, edited, and proofread. So, everything should be ready for release or publication in your new target market, right? I wouldn’t be so sure. Formatting translated content is imperative.
After content goes through the standard TEP (translation, editing, proofreading) protocol, there comes an important, easily-overlooked step: desktop publishing.
Without this important part of the translation process, your translated content may very well end up looking like gibberish to your new target audience, and you’d have no way of knowing since you can’t read the translated material yourself. This could potentially instill a less-than-favorable opinion about your company in the new market. In some situations, due to the phenomenon called “expansion,” some of your translated content may end up completely missing from the page!
Desktop publishing specialists are professionals who take care of this work for you. They take your translated material and format it to look as much like the original document as possible (if and when appropriate). Desktop publishing specialists are responsible for making translated documents cosmetically shipshape, legible, and comprehendible in the target language(s) and/or culture(s). Basically, they make a translated document look like it was written in the target language to begin with.
A good desktop publishing specialist should possess outstanding technical skills. In fact, the field of desktop publishing has much in common with graphic design. Thus, desktop publishing specialists will often use the same programs as graphic designers do to perform their jobs, namely Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. These programs are fairly complex, and cannot be learned overnight.
A good desktop publishing specialist should also possess excellent linguistic skills. They should ideally be proficient in at least two languages. Familiarity with non-Latin character sets (such as Arabic, Russian, and most Asian languages) is a plus (if those are the languages in which you want your translated content to be). Working knowledge of the language in which they are working will help to ensure that your content doesn’t have any errors or omissions and is formatted in a way that makes sense.
Finally, a good desktop publishing specialist needs an eye for detail. This is imperative. As previously mentioned, you’d like your translated content to look like it was originally written in its new language, wouldn’t you? It is usually quite obvious when a document is formatted without excruciating attention to detail. The result is a sloppy, unprofessional-looking translation, which is bad for everyone.
Now that you know what makes a good desktop publishing specialist, why settle for “good” when you could have “great”? As an Adobe Certified Professional in Print & digital media publication using Adobe InDesign, I go the extra mile to deliver high-quality multilingual desktop publishing services. I am quick, responsive, and reliable. I have outstanding technical skills, excellent linguistic skills, and a keen eye for detail. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started today and let me help you with formatting your translated content!