After creating a fantastic brochure for new projects, brands look for translation services. They believe that alone translators can make it perfect for the local audience. However, they are wrong. It is because translators do not provide fancy formatting or any creative work. They just put together the words in the target language. Hence, the end result might not appease the customers. It is simply because they lack professional multilingual typesetting services.
Brands may look to build a team on their own. But, that’s a bad idea and has been challenging for most companies.
The best option is outsourcing services from any reputed typesetting company. It is because typesetting is more complicated than what brands think. Typesetting is beyond translation or localization. It requires professional companies and their experts to work on it. The complexities aren’t easy to handle as they deal with various formatting requirements.
In this blog, we will discuss why typesetting UK is tougher than expected. Also, in the end, we will briefly talk about how professional help is necessary.
Most Common Challenges Posed by Typesetting
Multilingual typesetting is not an easy task by any means. Professional workers are required to bring inappropriate results. To retain the original sense of the content, brands need to outsource efficient services.
Here are some of the critical challenges that can come if brands don’t take professional help –
The Basic Formatting Issues
Formatting can happen between different multi-languages. And that creates tons of errors if not done by professionals.
● Line breaks and Hyphenation: The usage of hyphens varies from one language to another. One simply cannot put a hyphen anywhere in between words. Setting the format according to the language rules is very important. For example, brands cannot put lots of ‘hyphens’ in Arabic content. It is because there are no hyphens in the language.
Even for line breaks, there are different rules in different languages. Not taking professional help can lead to format errors. For example, there is no spacing in between words in Thai. They even have rules regarding where the next line starts.
● Alignment Rules: Alignment rules are different in different target regions. In Chinese, alignment needs to be precise and set to ‘justified’. Then, in Arabic, alignment should never go to the left side.
● The direction of Text: Like English, not all sentences move from left to right in other languages. We can take examples from languages like Hebrew, Persian, Arabic. In these languages, sentences start from the right to finish on the left. This change of format can create issues in the target language.
● Numbering Rules: Even while using numbering in content, there are rules to acknowledge. In some countries, they use decimals. Whereas in other countries, they use commas.
● Punctuation Rules: Besides using hyphens, there are still different punctuation rules. In languages like French, German, Arabia, etc., punctuation rules are different. Abiding by them is important if the brand wants the content to have a good market reach.
● Capitalization Rules: Looking at multiethnic languages, we can find that languages have different capitalization rules. Languages like Arabic or Korean have no capital letters. Moreover, in some languages, there are different rules for the capitalization of words or headings.
Remembering these all at once can be problematic for most brands. From being confused to making unwanted errors, the possibilities are endless.
Font Formatting Issues
Earlier, brands didn’t use to consider the importance of fonts. The construction and presentation of fonts have a wide influence on the content.
Talking about Roman alphabets, they have varying conventions. The accentuation varies, and so do the characters and letters. The character sets to increase and decrease, according to the requirements.
However, like the Roman language and fonts, other languages do not follow these rules. Therefore, languages that have no connection to the Roman font will face problems while typesetting. And hence, there goes the need of hiring expert multilingual typesetting services.
Design Elements Formatting Issues
As said earlier, formatting the sentences just by translating them won’t make much sense. Perhaps, because translation brings in ripples to the ocean of typesetting services.
To accommodate the new language, there have to be provisions for various non-textual elements too. Any lapse or error in the whole process can result in distorting the entire theme.
Some of the reasons the challenges are –
- Translating Greek, German or Cyrillic languages often take 20% extra space than the original text.
- For Spanish content, the translations get extended easily up to 25%.
- Also, in most European languages, after translation from English, language extension can go from 130-300%.
- For translating into Asian languages, there must be enough between the characters. Proper spacing will ensure that the readability is just fine.
Regardless of brands and their websites, these rules are very important to remember. It is a tiresome job as well as a tough challenge for brands. Remembering all these points at the same time can be difficult.
Text Sizing and Spacing Issues
All that brands want is to see their content readable and understandable in the target language. For that, it is important to check what should be an ideal font size. Also, check out how much inherent spacing between them is required is important.
For example, languages like Hindi, Arabic, Thai usually need more spacing. Needless to say, they are totally different from Latin. Also, each and every line has more space than English.
To take care of all these things, brands need professional typesetting UK. Even the finest of grammar experts without experience will be unable to create readable content. Brands should ensure that their content is understandable by the foreign audience.
Software-related Issues
Software plays a vast role in typesetting services. In different languages, they have different ways of getting incorporated.
For western languages, basic translation software is capable of delivering results. However, that is not the case for non-Western languages. Even for right-to-left languages, translation challenges are there.
In these cases, special and customized plugins are necessary. Without them, typesetting such complex scripts and fonts of those languages is tough.
However, not always such plugins or custom software are available. For such cases, the proper human knowledge is what brands need. And to get that, they should hire professional typesetting companies.
Do Companies Really Need Multilingual Typesetting Services?
Even after translating content, sometimes it does not look professional. Brands should give special attention to this issue. And the only way to solve it lies in hiring typesetting companies.
So, here are some reasons that brands should consider getting typesetting UK –
Localizing Graphical Changes
When it comes to typesetting services, getting references for localization services is normal. It is because starting from textual content to its associated graphics, everything needs to change. In the target language, numerous things are different.
Take for an example down below –
● In most countries, showing a ‘thumbs up’ is a positive gesture.
Now, create a post for West Africa or the Middle East audience. Try doing the same to them through the gesture. Why does your company look so puzzled?
Well, probably because they only received hatred and legal complaints. Can’t blame them because you just showed them something equivalent to the middle finger in the US.
● So, brands think showing red colors in their dating apps will do good universally.
Let’s break this notion by doing the same in China. All that your brand will receive are feedback from confused users. Because in China, red denotes good luck and positivity.
Also, it would be wise if brands refrain from using black colour in their websites or marketing. Black is considered evil in the country. The lesser you use it, the better for your company.
So, the ones mentioned above were just some common examples. Things like these are plenty in numbers in different target regions and their languages.
Remembering all of them while typesetting can be pretty challenging for brands. The best way out is definitely to connect with experienced typesetting companies.
Standing Ahead in the Game of Fonts
We have heard from multiple brands that fonts do not matter that much. However, we still opine that they matter and they can decide your website’s fate. So, what are we talking about?
Does your company have all fonts loaded on your computer? No, because that is something absurd to start with.
Then, how will your company understand which font goes well in Japan?
Different countries have different font choices. No, we are not talking about anything like having a national font. But, there are fonts that match every country’s culture or traits.
Brands need to connect with professional typesetting companies because they have knowledge. They know what goes well in every target market. Your company can expect to nail the game of fonts pretty well.
How Much White Space is Breathable?
“Wait a second. What sort of a question is that?
Assuming that the question is not weird, let’s move into its significance.
In specific languages and target regions, the audience favors neatly aligned texts. Especially in China, they prefer pages with a distinct level of white space. That is why their texts are always in a ‘justified’ alignment. Well, this is a part of their culture,
Also, in the Japanese language, particular characters cannot start or end a sentence. Even if following that makes it a trickier problem to arrange texts, well, you can’t help it.
Therefore, it is vital to handover your company’s projects to a typesetting company. With their industrial expertise, they’ll make sure that the content fits right in, leaving zero error.
Don’t Get Messed Up in Tricky Sentences
Instead of giving intros, let’s get straight to the language this time.
We are talking about the Thai language and its habit of having zero space between words. Understanding where a word ends is impossible. Only with native experts, the process is more manageable.
Companies providing multilingual typesetting services have these native experts in their crew. Working with such companies will be beneficial for brands. After all, they can have access to multiple native speakers.
Where Machines Fail and Humans Win
As said above, most of the non-westernized languages have poor translation results in software. Hindi, Arabic, Bengali or any other Asian language get inaccurate results when translated via machines. While sometimes there are mistakes in grammar, sometimes the whole meaning changes.
To effectively translate the languages, plugins are required. Now, this is the next challenge that brands face. The lack of proper plugins further deteriorates the translation process.
However, every single problem has solutions in typesetting companies. Human intelligence and knowledge simply beat machine learning and AI capabilities. The companies, along with their native multilingual experts, provide accurate solutions.
Conclusion: Benefits of Typesetting Services in a Glance
Coming to the end of the blog, we have understood a lot about typesetting services. Outsourcing is the best solution when it comes to typesetting. Professional companies lend their services to bring the best results for your company.
Before sealing the gates, here are the top picks why brands need professional typesetting solutions –
- Get unbound knowledge and expertise in making your company’s content adequately arranged.
- Maintaining optimum grammar, writing styles, fonts, punctuations, and other things.
- Expert typesetters will check whether the content is perfect for the target audience.
- Ensuring that the layout will suit the target regions’ language and culture flawlessly.
- Localizing textual as well as graphical content.
- Improving the overall quality of the content while guaranteeing maximum readability.
Multilingual typesetting services are an important resource for business organizations. Finding a company that has the experience, native professionals, and industry knowledge is essential.
Typesetting companies provide a hassle-free and errorless solution to brands. They ensure that the final output is genuine and is of high quality. Confidentiality is also another trait of these companies. Working with them, your company will evidence a solid market expansion. They will also realize how the best services for typesetting UK can unlock new business potentials.
