Translation And DTP Services For The Engineering sector

Day by day, businesses in the engineering sector produce a sheer incredible amount of new documents. As most engineering brands operate globally, it is clear that they require document translation services to localise their texts. While the meaning of quality translation in the localisation process is generally well known, the role of desktop publishing (DTP) is often underestimated. In this article, we will introduce and discuss several key aspects of translation and DTP services for businesses in industries such as construction, manufacturing, telecommunication and IT, and point out why desktop publishing can be indispensable to them.

Technical writing and translation

The text/document categories which are created in the engineering sector are very diverse and include usage manuals and maintenance instructions, product specifications and descriptions, training material, proposals, labels, product brochures, calls for tenders, etc. They are usually composed by professional technical writers because their content is extremely complex. That is why also linguists who translate them into other languages must have a thorough understanding of engineering. In fact, many linguists who specialise in this field have degrees in engineering or pursue double-careers as engineers and linguists.

DTP services for engineering documents

Once translations are complete, DTP experts will not only make the documents visually appealing, but also handle layout problems – and there are many cases in which desktop publishing is absolutely essential, including the following:

– Text boxes and captions in sketches have clear space limitations. This can be a real problem when original texts are short and the translations are longer so that they simply do not fit in. DTP artists can solve this problem using page layout software.

– While small font sizes often work well for languages that are written in Latin script, Chinese or Japanese characters require larger minimum font sizes so that they are legible.

– In multilingual instruction booklets with translations in several different languages, there can be problems when selected fonts do not support every language (particularly those with special characters/diacritics, such as French, Spanish, German or Turkish)

As you see, for many translations, DTP is absolutely essential (please click here to see further examples). Only when text content in all languages is error-free, well readable and anesthetically appealing, technical writing really conveys a professional corporate image.

Complex localisation needs and solutions

Many of the document/text categories mentioned earlier are not purely technical, but also require expertise in other fields: A product brochure or flyer, for example, would be a job for a translator who specialises in marketing (find out more about DTP and marketing collateral translation here). However, not only specialisations on text types such as engineering, marketing, etc., are required to achieve high-quality results. Good language service providers also offer convincing solutions for subtitling, terminology management, multimedia localisation (such as instructional videos that explain how to assemble, use and repair products), etc.

One-stop localisation services

As outlined above, it is clear that a whole plethora of services is required to localise engineering related documents. However, dividing the workload between different service providers, for example one for document translation services, one for DTP, one for multimedia, etc. is strongly discouraged, as it will it make the localisation process extremely hard to manage and can also lead to inconsistencies and errors. Instead, you should select a professional localisation agency that can manage all services under one single roof. A quality agency will take measures to ensure consistent translations of all documents, handle DTP even with complex layouts, provide solutions for multimedia content, etc. As you place all your needs in one hand, the localisation process will run smoothly and you can save time, efforts and costs.

Singapore-based elionetwork is a one-stop agency with a comprehensive service portfolio for all your localisation needs, including document translation, DTP, multimedia, technical writing, etc. We have been in the industry for two decades, always putting quality and customer satisfaction first. Contact us now to see how we can help you succeed internationally with our turnkey-solutions!