German desktop publishing and typesetting services

{"Bottom bar":{"textstyle":"static","textpositionstatic":"bottom","textautohide":true,"textpositionmarginstatic":0,"textpositiondynamic":"bottomleft","textpositionmarginleft":24,"textpositionmarginright":24,"textpositionmargintop":24,"textpositionmarginbottom":24,"texteffect":"slide","texteffecteasing":"easeOutCubic","texteffectduration":600,"texteffectslidedirection":"left","texteffectslidedistance":30,"texteffectdelay":500,"texteffectseparate":false,"texteffect1":"slide","texteffectslidedirection1":"right","texteffectslidedistance1":120,"texteffecteasing1":"easeOutCubic","texteffectduration1":600,"texteffectdelay1":1000,"texteffect2":"slide","texteffectslidedirection2":"right","texteffectslidedistance2":120,"texteffecteasing2":"easeOutCubic","texteffectduration2":600,"texteffectdelay2":1500,"textcss":"display:block; padding:12px; text-align:left;","textbgcss":"display:block; position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px; width:100%; height:100%; background-color:#333333; opacity:0.6; filter:alpha(opacity=60);","titlecss":"display:block; position:relative; font:bold 14px Georgia,serif,Arial; color:#fff;","descriptioncss":"display:block; position:relative; font:12px Georgia,serif,Arial; color:#fff; margin-top:8px;","buttoncss":"display:block; position:relative; margin-top:8px;","texteffectresponsive":true,"texteffectresponsivesize":640,"titlecssresponsive":"font-size:12px;","descriptioncssresponsive":"display:none !important;","buttoncssresponsive":"","addgooglefonts":false,"googlefonts":"","textleftrightpercentforstatic":40},"Bottom left":{"textstyle":"static","textpositionstatic":"bottom","textautohide":true,"textpositionmarginstatic":0,"textpositiondynamic":"bottomleft","textpositionmarginleft":24,"textpositionmarginright":24,"textpositionmargintop":24,"textpositionmarginbottom":24,"texteffect":"slide","texteffecteasing":"easeOutCubic","texteffectduration":600,"texteffectslidedirection":"left","texteffectslidedistance":30,"texteffectdelay":500,"texteffectseparate":false,"texteffect1":"slide","texteffectslidedirection1":"right","texteffectslidedistance1":120,"texteffecteasing1":"easeOutCubic","texteffectduration1":600,"texteffectdelay1":1000,"texteffect2":"slide","texteffectslidedirection2":"right","texteffectslidedistance2":120,"texteffecteasing2":"easeOutCubic","texteffectduration2":600,"texteffectdelay2":1500,"textcss":"display:block; padding:12px; text-align:left;","textbgcss":"display:none;","titlecss":"display:block; position:relative; font:bold 14px Georgia,serif,Arial; color:#fff;","descriptioncss":"display:block; position:relative; font:12px Georgia,serif,Arial; color:#fff; margin-top:8px;","buttoncss":"display:block; position:relative; margin-top:8px;","texteffectresponsive":true,"texteffectresponsivesize":640,"titlecssresponsive":"font-size:12px;","descriptioncssresponsive":"display:none !important;","buttoncssresponsive":"","addgooglefonts":false,"googlefonts":"","textleftrightpercentforstatic":40}}

Language information:

German text expansion — German uses compound words, one of the longest German words is:

Schweinefleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

Which means the “legislative law for the monitoring of pork-meat labelling.” When typesetting German, compound words need to be hyphenated in the correct place.

Clients:

We work for companies and organisations such as Disney, Vidal Sassoon, and Jaguar Land Rover, to list a few. Plus international aid agencies such as Amnesty International, Refugee Action, UNICEF and the Refugee Council as well as many translation agencies and publishing companies all over the world.

Our German DTP services include:

• German Document Translations
• German Proofreading
• German Desktop publishing/typesetting using all major publishing software
• Desktop publishing in over 120 languages
• DTP QA quality assurance checking of documents
• Localisation of graphics in documents
• Dedicated project manager
• Fast turnaround
• Print ready PDFs set to your specifications
• 100% work carried out In-house by our own DTP studio

---

In some designs the pages are simply filled with text, leaving no room for text expansion. Most languages (with some notable exceptions) run longer than English and some of them run much longer. This causes the localised versions to have to make some sort of compromise: either text becomes smaller or a condensed font is used, or some material is completely cut out for brevity. Neither scenario is ideal, so it is much better to consider this aspect of the task at the design stage.

Overuse of text formatting features like coloured text, bold text and italic text etc. can slow down the localisation process, as the formatting needs to be applied to the precise word or phrase in translation that is equivalent to the English. Sometimes, this does not work at all if the target language has a dramatically different word order.

Embedded, non-editable text in images require extra attention and can slow things down dramatically, especially when over the main part of the image. Where possible, the text should be made available for editing in InDesign. If not, we will require all of the PSD files to work with.

Avoid designing paragraphs or “word clouds” with mixed font sizes that look good in English but have no chance of being replicated in the target language: quite often they do not have the same impact when localised and can often be “lost in translation”. Furthermore, due to word order difference, key words in English at the beginning of a sentence might end up in the middle or at the end of the sentence when translated.

One of the most frequent issues we encounter is the incorrect and inconsistent usage of style sheets, in particular where one style has been used but in some instances, bold text, italics or even different fonts have been changed manually. This can cause the most significant delays of all and is the biggest source of small typos we encounter during internal QA.

Sending the artwork to be typeset BEFORE it is signed off by the client is never a good idea, and neither are new design changes after we have already started the work. We can do nothing in situations like these where significant changes are requested mid-project but start again and present new figures for the work, delaying work and incurring further costs for the client.