Format in all languages

Foreign language typesetting and desktop publishing for medical translations

We integrate multilingual desktop publishing seamlessly into the translation workflow.

Efficient, customer-focused and optimally geared towards your time-critical projects –
we process your documents in all common languages and formats.  

Your advantages when using foreign language typesetting by mpü:

Combination of professional DTP with language skill

Translation and DTP supported by your permanent project manager

Native-speaker proofreading for final layout check (typesetting and line break check)

If required feedback loop with country subsidiaries

Documents that are ready to print in your desired format and layout

We prepare your documents in all common target languages – including in RTL languages (right-to-left languages such as Hebrew and Arabic) and in other languages with complex character sets (such as Chinese and Japanese). 

Our experienced DTP team is very familiar with the specific linguistic and cultural conventions and rules for adjusting the layout.

Our DTP services include:

All common languages

Most DTP formats

Format conversion

Intercultural expertise

Different language-specific typesets and character sets

Word, syllable and sentence separation

Amendment/adaptation of text lengths

Localisation of graphics

Corporate design guidelines

Quality assurance: dual control by DTP and language experts during the final layout check or typesetting and line break check

With our experience and expertise, we ensure that your translations are perfectly integrated into the original format and comply with all of the language-specific requirements in terms of layout.

We offer DTP as an individual service and would be happy to typeset your existing translations.

Can your layout expert work with languages from right to left too? We can!

Before the translation

Optimal preparation of the source texts for the translation process:

Open, editable formats

Optimisation of your texts and artworks for our CAT tools, extraction of the texts from editable graphics files

Closed, non-editable formats

This includes PDFs, scanned documents and non-editable graphics files with text. These formats need to be converted into editable file formats first.

Alignment

Creation of reference translation memories in CAT tools from existing documents in target languages to ensure consistency in new translations

An efficient translation process is based on good file preparation. 

Before the start of the translation, we prepare your source files for processing in our CAT systems as well as possible. Translation in a CAT tool enables the target text to be created in the same format as the source text, minimising the post-processing work that is needed.

However, there are many technical nuances that need to be taken into account in advance depending on the respective file format.

In the case of editable formats such as Word, PP, InDesign etc., optimisation includes the following processing steps:

Cleaning up of the source texts:

  • Deletion of double spaces, incorrect breaks and word divisions,
  • Creation of tabs and manual line breaks using tables,
  • Review of the incorrect links and cross-references,
  • General adjustments to the format (excessive tags, inconsistent fonts and font sizes, indentations, text alignment, etc.)
  • Review and preparation of the integrated objects and linked graphics, if required extraction of the text
  • Review of the missing and incomplete content
  • Ensuring that the fonts used support all necessary target languages, if necessary selection of new, replacement fonts

If the original is only available in a non-editable format such as PDF, scan or hard copy, the source text cannot be directly processed with the standard CAT tools.

In these cases, the document either needs to be converted to an editable format or partially or fully recreated in the desired format.

When translating from non-editable formats, it is important to take into account that

  • the new typeset will take longer and cost more.
  • calculating the price and the time needed before processing is only possible to a limited extent.

Importing existing translations into CAT tools – translation memory

To enable the transfer and use of existing translations in other new documents, the source text and the translation can be imported into a bilingual database of translation units (translation memory).

This then means that existing translations are used in a consistent way in other documents.

After the translation

The target texts are exported back into the original format after they are processed by the CAT tool.

To ensure that the target texts fit perfectly in the desired layout taking into account the conventions of the target language, however, an additional adjustment of the layout after translation is almost always necessary (see language expansion).

**Language expansion

The varying sentence lengths in different languages require different amounts of space.

To keep the layout identical for all languages, the expansion of the planned target languages should be taken into account when creating the source text.

If each page is filled to a maximum of 70%, the space requirements for all languages can be met.

The typical adjustments depending on target language include:

  • Corrections due to language expansion: the length of the translations generally deviates from the original, leading to texts shifting and in some cases not entirely fitting in the text fields.**
  • Updating of references, tables of contents and footnotes
  • Review and if required updating of the order typical for the target language for glossaries and lists
  • Font adaptation, replacement of special characters
  • Adaptation and localisation of graphics, updates to the linked files
  • RTL mirroring in Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, etc.
  • Layout check or typesetting and line break check by a native speaker and/or final release by the customer and the country subsidiaries
  • Incorporation of the corrections into the final version
  • Creation of documents that are ready to print in the desired layout

We work with all common formats:

Adobe DC/CC:

  • PDF
  • InDesign (incl. RTL support)
  • Illustrator (incl. RTL support)
  • Photoshop (incl. RTL support)
  • FrameMaker (incl. RTL support)

MS Office:

  • Word
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Publisher
  • Visio

Other graphics programs:

  • Freehand
  • CorelDraw
  • QuickSilver

Others

  • XML
  • HTML
  • PHP

Please don’t hesitate to ask us about other formats.

Get in touch, we would be happy to advise you on the best solution for your individual project.