Design

We have many years of specialist experience in designing material for use with foreign languages.

Where you require a translation to be presented in a designed format, such as a poster, flyer or leaflet, our designers can work with you to produce professional artwork designs into which your text can be placed.

Many designers are not aware of the specific language and cultural issues that need to be addressed when designing a document for readers of languages other than English. Our multilingual designers and typesetters are skilled in this area and we can provide an expert service.

If you already have a design to be used with a non-English language version of a text, our designer can either typeset text into the existing template or adjust the template to accommodate the non-English text.

If you would like further information or would like to commission some design work please contact us.

An example: the following texts say the same thing in English, French and German:

“You can shop in another country where goods are cheaper without restrictions or additional taxes, as long as what you buy is for your own use. The single currency, the euro, allows you to compare prices directly in all the countries that use it. Travel between euro countries is easier because the costs and inconvenience of changing money have disappeared.” (60 words, 6 lines)

“Vous pouvez aussi faire vos achats – sans restrictions ni taxes supplémentaires – dans un État membre où les tarifs pratiqués sont plus avantageux, à la condition que ces achats soient destinés à votre usage personnel. L’euro vous permet de comparer directement les prix dans les pays où il est en circulation. De surcroît, la disparition des frais et des inconvénients liés au change a rendu plus commodes les déplacements entre ces pays.” (71 words, 7 lines)

“Sie können in anderen Mitgliedstaaten, in denen die Preise günstiger sind, ohne Beschränkungen und ohne zusätzliche Abgaben einkaufen, solange Sie die Waren für den Eigenbedarf erwerben. Der Euro, die einheitliche Währung, ermöglicht einen direkten Preisvergleich in allen Ländern, die ihn verwenden. Reisen zwischen den Euro-Ländern sind einfacher, weil die mit dem Geldumtausch verbundenen Kosten und Unannehmlichkeiten weggefallen sind.” (58 words, 8 lines)

Notice how much more space the other languages require compared to English. And notice also that although German has the fewest words it actually takes up the most room because the words tend to be longer. An extra line may not seem like much, but in a tight design where the English text just fits in, this could mean that another language cannot fit without reducing the text size which may not be appropriate for a variety of reasons. An extra line in every 4 lines means that the other languages need 20% more space. In a 32 page leaflet, that’s up to 8 extra pages.

If you would like further information on design issues please contact us.