Tips for less costly successful document translation

Author: Latelier Translations

The most important factor in document or information translation is communication. There is no doubt that needs for translation services and better communication needs have increased with increase in global integration.

But there are several digital tools that you can rely on to deal with high demand in your organization.Here are tips that will make document translation less costly and eliminate delays in the service:

1.Supply editable formats: Professional French translation turns out to be faster if you have given the professional translation company an editable document to work with from the word go. Word is better than PDF, for instance, if you have an organized format that will not spoil when sent in word. With PDF, the company will need to reproduce the whole document in an editable format before translating. This takes time.

Using digital based optical character recognition (OCR) systems to read and reproduce content might be quicker but will cause layout issues and increase workload. A Professional translation company can also take longer if the original file is hard copy but they still can do the work by first producing a digital version using analogue OCR systems. However, the team will still take time correcting the severe formatting issues that result from these systems, and correcting incorrect words that arise from the software picking up false positives or registered the wrong characters.Handwritten documents take longest because they cannot be worked into an editable version with OCR, so the option is usually typing everything from scratch before translation or with translation on the fly, which turns as the most cost-effective option.

  1. Forward editable originals together with designed documents that need to be translated: Brochures, flyers, reports, packaging, posters, forms and catalogues contain complex formatting and a lot of imagery and significant creative elements. This happens when the document has been produced with specialist desktop publishing (DTP) software, for instance. For these documents, it is advisable to forward the original editable to the professional translation company if you intend to have the same functionality and feel of the original retained in the translated file.
  2. Dealing with text inside images: Images might require captions translated even when the text is embedded inside the images.The company engages an art worker to reverse engineer the images for this to be possible. The worker usually has good photo editing techniques such that they can remove the text and replace it with edited version.
  3. State how the translated document will be used: Are you going to use it for print, screen, or web? The team can help by advising you on what needs to be done in that case, for instance which right font to use.This avoids any chances of doing repetition.
  4. Talk to the staff about cost of doing professional French translation: You might get some discounts and coupons depending on the amount of work, and if you are entering into a lengthy contract with the company.