File to Translate? There's an APP (Appropriate Production Person) for That
BLOG POST BY: Keri, DTP specialist
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It's hard to explain to people what I do for a living. Possible explanations:
I do desktop publishing.
I'm a graphic designer.
I'm a layout artist.
I'm a formatter.
But I don't feel like any of these answers are satisfactory. 1) No average Joe knows what desktop publishing is. 2) I manipulate graphics all the time, but I'm not a designer (I primarily only work with projects other people have designed). 3) I told one girl I was a layout artist (which really is my title), and she said, "Oh, so you, like, lay out while you paint or something?" And 4) the term "formatter" just sounds super bland.
Here's the long explanation for what I really do-and I'm happy to explain it to you because it's awesome. I work in the Production department at CTS LanguageLink. No, I don't speak any other languages, but hey-in an assembly line, the guy who tightens the bolts is just as important as the guy who actually puts on the tire, right? Essentially, I prep files for translation and format the files once they're translated. At this point in a face-to-face explanation, I typically pick up the nearest piece of English literature and point out the obvious, "See how this is in English? Let's say you wanted it translated into Russian but you still want it to look exactly like the English. Somebody has to do that. And that's what I do. I take translated text and format it to look like the original."
Still sounds boring to you? Well, the whole process is just a means to an end really-the end being that I get to be part of global communication on a daily basis. GLOBAL COMMUNICATION. How many people get to go to work and have that far reaching of an affect?
Though it may sound a bit tedious, let me tell you about the process anyway.
So it starts out like this: we get a project from a client who wants a file translated into some language. (Did I mention that in my 3 years here I've learned of more languages than I ever knew existed? The possibilities for translation are seemingly endless!) The project manager brings it to Production where we prep it for translation. Sometimes the prep stage goes quickly; sometimes it's rather drawn out or complicated. For instance, if I'm prepping an InDesign file, I have to make sure that the file-no matter if it's a 1-page file or a 100-page file-is clean of all extra spaces, extra tabs, and soft returns and that all the text is properly style-sheeted (if I may use that as a verb). Once the file is scrubbed to exacting standards, I run the file through a program that converts it to a file type that the translator can use. At that point, my work on that particular job is done until the translator sends back the fully translated file.
Then comes my favorite stage of the project-formatting. If I'm going to get to be creative at all, it's in this stage, because it's often a feat of brilliance to be able to fit all the translated text back into the amount of space that the English fit in to. Why is that an issue? Well, because many languages expand as much as 30% from the original English. If the client wants the pagination to match the original document entirely but didn't leave enough white space, I go from formatter to creative problem solver to (sometimes) magician. Can I shrink the font size? Reduce leading? Reduce the margins? Increase column width? Reduce gutter width between columns? Shrink graphics? Delete graphics? And after all that, sometimes the translated text still won't fit, so I have the project manager ask the linguist if there's any way to be any less chatty.
Then after a bit of tweaking here and polishing there, we end up with a finished product the whole team can be proud of-and most importantly, that our client can be proud of.
If you want to get a message out to the world, here are some tips for effective global communication from the Production side of things that I've learned along the way:
1. Keep the design simple. Leave enough white space to accommodate at least a 30% text expansion.
2. Use simple fonts that can handle all the characters of your possible target languages. Or, be prepared to see that we replaced a fancy font for one that does support all the characters (diacritical marks, etc) of your target language.
3. Pick graphics that are culturally appropriate for your target audience.
4. Keep your text free of clichés, puns, proverbs, and expressions that only make sense in English. For instance, "The early bird gets the worm" is a proverb we use in English to mean "whoever gets there first has the best chance of success." However, it's more than likely that your Somalian audience has no such proverb in their culture-so to literally translate that phrase would make no sense at all.
5. Create style sheets with no overrides in your documents whenever possible.
6. Keep all text live in all files (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.). If you must outline text for any reason, be sure to keep a copy of the live text version. Outlined text would have to be rekeyed for translation.
7. As an addendum to #5, do save all your native files. Sometimes we receive a PDF but no native file, so we end up having to rebuild the client's template from scratch.
8. Unlock any password protected files before submitting them for translation.
9. If you decide to do the layout on your own, try to arrange for a proofreader proficient in the language to check on punctuation, line breaks, and to verify the text has been placed properly.
10. Consider cross-platform conversion issues. Use OpenType fonts as much as possible. Most PC fonts do not match Mac fonts. For some languages, it will be easier to find a typesetter who is using a PC to do their work. Also, nearly all of the translators will be using PC fonts, and the fonts they use may not be available in certain combinations of applications and platforms.
There you have it. My job in a large nutshell. I love this industry. And I love the fact that anybody can get involved. There are plenty of things to say, plenty of ways to say it, and plenty of languages to say it in. Don't be shy.
~Keri
Questions? Email me at blog@ctslanguagelink.com
Read more CTS LanguageLink DTP Best Practices here.