Desktop Publishing Services
Taking care of the form along with the content
When we talk about translation quality, we focus mostly on a good translation of the text. And rightly so, but…
There are many cases where the form is just as important. Imagine a presentation for a client with slides so crammed with (beautifully translated) text that they are hard to read. Or a brochure with so much white space that it looks incomplete. Or a technical drawing with overlapping labels.
Sometimes a good translation needs some grooming to effectively convey your message. Your best choice is to entrust the layout of your translations to your language service provider. Why? Let’s see.
What is DTP all about?
DTP, or Desktop Publishing, is pretty self-explanatory. It involves using desktop software to get documents ready for publication. However, the term and its meaning have evolved. Nowadays, DTP does not necessarily need a desktop computer — a laptop or even a tablet may do. Publishing has changed since the days when it only included printed publications. Today, information is published (in other words, made public) in a digital format more often than it is printed on paper.
Desktop Publishing is still about layouts for printed brochures, product catalogs, and user manuals, but it is also about presentations, infographics, and e-zines.
Why is Desktop Publishing important for translations?
There are at least two good reasons why desktop publishing skills are important in the field of translation.
On the one hand, many of your documents are space sensitive. Think about technical diagrams, marketing presentations, or brochures. You want them to be laid out neatly, regardless of whether they are in English, Russian or Chinese.
On the other hand, the same text in different languages will not have the same length.
Let’s take just one example – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most translated document ever (530 translations and counting!).
We compared the versions in the six official UN languages. The result? The French, Spanish and Russian texts are all about 12% longer than the English version, while the Chinese and Arabic translations are both significantly shorter.
Such differences in length could kill the overall visual appeal of your materials.
Comparison of UDHR versions by length
Source: GEF
How can you benefit from GEF Desktop Publishing Services?
SIMPLIFY Project Handling
When desktop publishing is included in the scope of your translation project, you will not even need to think about it. Our managers will choose the best way to handle your project and form your GEF team accordingly.
Save Your TIME
Your DTP specialists might have difficulty trying to adapt the layout to the translation when all that is needed is a small change in the wording. That is why direct collaboration with the translators saves time in Desktop Publishing.
CASE STUDY:
Translation and DTP for a major EPC project
GEF was engaged by a major EPC contractor to provide comprehensive language support for their latest project. This job included a hefty package of engineering drawings with a dense layout.
In just six weeks our team translated 800,000 words of highly-specialized technical documents and formatted them to ensure the required level of clarity and readability. Close cooperation between the translators and desktop publishers was the key to rapid delivery and the exemplary quality of the project.
This job involved:
translators
DTP experts
proofreaders
What Our Clients Say
Are you planning a translation project that could benefit from our desktop publishing expertise? Or maybe you have a translated document whose layout needs improving? Just drop us a line today and we’ll be happy to help you!
Tell us about your project today!
And our managers will contact you promptly to offer a solution that best suits your needs.
