If you are new to working with language services, particularly written translation, your language services provider (LSP) may ask you if you need “DTP” services. If you don’t know the answer to this question, don’t feel bad! Simply put, “DTP” is an “industry insider” term that means Desktop Publishing (DTP). In the language industry, DTP is also often referred to as “multilingual desktop publishing.” It has also been called formatting, layout, and/or typesetting. So, as you may have guessed, in this week’s blog, we will be answering the common question of what is DTP and why is it important for your translation projects?
What is “Desktop Publishing”?
Now that you are clear on the acronym “DTP,” what does “desktop publishing” actually mean? Basically, if you create your content in a graphic design program (e.g., Adobe InDesign, Quark Xpress, Microsoft Publisher, etc.), you will likely need DTP. If you’re not sure, the key elements to look for in your source document include images/graphics (including graphics with text), colors, and other such design elements.
In other words, if your content is a brochure, flyer, manual, or almost anything that is meant for public distribution and consumption, you probably created it in a graphic design program. Therefore, you will likely need DTP services along with the translation. However, some DTP projects are more complicated than others. For example, a human resources manual for your employees may have very minimal formatting, mostly only plain text. On the other hand, a tri-fold brochure with many graphic elements is more complex.
If you have designed a brochure, flyer, or other piece of content in English, you will want to mirror the same layout in a translated version. If you do not, your target audience may feel that they are being treated unequally. Many businesses and organizations have their own marketing departments and graphic designers. While it is certainly possible that they could simply import the translated content back into their original design file, that is not always the best choice.
Why Do I need DTP Services for My Translation Project?
If a graphic designer attempts to import Spanish content back into the original English-language design file – and they have no experience working with multilingual content – they may unintentionally miss accents or other important diacritics. This process is even more complicated when the languages do not use the Latin alphabet.
Languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Amharic, Russian, Greek, etc. use completely different writing systems. For an untrained graphic designer, it would be nearly impossible to know where to divide a sentence or even what constitutes a “word” when trying to re-import the translated text back into the original design file.
Moreover, languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and others are read from right to left. This is the opposite of languages like English, Spanish, or French that are ready from left to right. Sometimes, Chinese is also read from right to left and from top to bottom. A graphic designer who is not trained in working with these types of languages likely does not have the necessary plug-ins or add-ons in their version of the graphic design software.
Not to mention, if one tries to simply “copy and paste” the translated text back into the graphic design file, the translation will likely be displayed backwards. It would also be difficult for the graphic designer – or any other non-native speaker of the language – to even tell something is wrong until it is too late. The resulting content would be unreadable to the target audience. This kind of glaring mistake would also be a huge embarrassment for the business or organization who publishes it.
Some Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your DTP Services
As we can see from the above brief discussion, it is important to utilize professional multilingual desktop publishing (DTP) services. This will help to ensure that no embarrassing errors are made when creating multilingual versions of the graphic design work that you have likely put so much time into creating.
If you create a lot of content that involves graphic design and frequently require translation services, it is also a good idea to involve your language services partner in the creative process. They can help you to point out problems in the design that may cause issues in the multilingual versions. For example, some graphic elements, colors, or photographs may not be appropriate for certain target audiences.
Moreover, many languages contract or expand when translated from English. When translating from English into Spanish, the amount of text may increase from 15 to 25% (or more), which means you would need to account for the additional space needed in the Spanish version. Therefore, involving your language services partner in the early stages of the design process can help to mitigate these issues.
It is also important to know that a PDF itself is not a graphic design file. If your marketing department sends you a PDF file to have translated, you will need to obtain the original graphic design file format that the PDF was created from. You would also need to provide all of the images and fonts. Without those, your language services partner will not be able to do the DTP work. That is, unless your marketing department plans to handle the DTP themselves, of course.
Finally, don’t forget to let your language services partner know what type of deliverable you need. For example, do you just need the translated version(s) in the graphic design format (e.g., Adobe InDesign file), or do you also need a PDF version? What resolution do you need for the PDF version? Do you need crop marks and bleeds?
Section 508 Compliance & WCAG Guidelines
Besides formatting your graphics files with translated content, DTP can also involve Section 508 Compliance. Section 508 is a federal regulation that prescribes standards for content that is published in digital format so that people with certain disabilities can access the content online with the aid of screen readers and other types of software. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have been developed to create a single, shared standard for web content accessibility worldwide.
While Section 508 largely applies only to federal government websites, most states (and many foreign countries) have similar requirements. The idea is to make information, regardless of language, available to everyone. While some of the requirements for Section 508 Compliance are visual and affect layout, many are done “behind the scenes” of the file, so to speak Because of the complexity of Section 508 and WCAG compliance, testing, and verification, it is usually best to leave this part of the DTP process to the professionals.
At Translation Source, we are passionate about ensuring that our clients (and future clients) are as informed as possible when it comes to the language industry and the services we offer. By helping to answer what is DTP and why it is important for your translation projects, we hope to help you make more informed decisions about your multilingual content and how we can better help you.
We offer a broad range of multilingual DTP services, in more than 100 languages, and using all of the most popular graphic design programs. Also, we can even assist you with Section 508 and WCAG Compliance, provide cultural and target audience consulting services, and much more.
If you would like to learn more about how Translation Source’s multilingual desktop publishing (DTP) services, please email us at info@translation-source.com or call us toll-free at (800) 413-7838 to speak with one of our expert localization project managers.
