Don’t Get Lost in Translation
Creating multi-lingual packaging and printed materials can be a eye-opening experience. ¡Para sure! Read our “must-do??? and “never do??? checklist!
DON’Ts
- ✓ Don’t use the internet to do the conversions— context is very important in translations and the word-for-word translators do not properly account for this
- ✓ Don’t use a translator that relies on language translation software (even though they claim 90% accuracy, 90% is not so good)
- ✓ Don’t cut corners and have someone in the office translate for you
- ✓ Don’t ignore language variations. For example, Brazilian Portuguese is different than European Portuguese
DOs
- ✓ Do hire a professional language translator
- ✓ Do understand the cost and time of translations. Most translators charge by the word
- ✓ Do be careful when cutting and pasting from a word processor file to a page layout file. Unicode or hi-bit ASCII characters used in some languages occasionally get scrambled
- ✓ Do have an independent proofreader check your translator’s work. We learned this the hard way…
Quality translations let your customers know you are committed to creating products specifically for them!
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