Arabic print translation and what is involved
Do produce a translation for print, it must be organised in such a way as to enable easy implementation into the document. This speeds up the process, cuts costs and reduces the chances of errors in the typesetting process. There are two main ways of organising this.
In theory, all the Arabic text should then be in the correct place, correctly formatted using all the paragraph styles, showing bolding of text and any font colours used. In practice, it still needs quite a bit of work, the font sizes might need adjusting throughout the document, any English left in the document might need realigning and if the company name or product names remain in English then these might need to be reverted to their original fonts.
Below is a screenshot of what an IDML file looks like in the checking process, with all the coloured areas showing the hidden coding that the translator does not see.
Flipping the document from right to left
Arabic typesetting requires flipping the document so it reads right-to-left, also so it can be read with the correct pagination in place. This can be quite time-consuming if the English original has not been designed with this specifically in mind. The World Ready Composer plugin has a “reverse document” option but it isn’t perfect and every page has to be checked for consistency.
What are Arabic numbers?
We often get asked to use Arabic numbers in a document when we typeset, but the term “Arabic numbers” most commonly refers to the numerals we use in Europe and the Americas. e.g. 123456789. In situations like this, what the client is usually referring to is actually “Arabic-Indic” numbers. Please see the examples below.
The Arabic Language
The modern written language (Modern Standard Arabic) is derived from Classical Arabic. Arabic can be spelt without vowels (common spelling) أحب القراءة كثيرا or with vowels أُحِبُّ ٱلْقِرَاءَةَ كَثِيرًا. Modern Standard Arabic is the standardised variety of Arabic used in everyday publications whereas Classic Arabic is used in the Quran as well as in numerous literary texts.
Adelphi is an Arabic Desktop publishing and translation agency that aims to provide a full DTP localisation service to our customers.
Adelphi has its own in-house DTP studio providing Arabic DTP services including localization of images, providing a print ready PDF or InDesign files with either outlined or editable text. All our Arabic DTP is handled in-house and carried out by our own experienced typesetters.
[soliloquy id=”11164″]
Adelphi Translations have been producing Arabic DTP for over 15 years. We produce all kinds of Arabic DTP materials including corporate brochures, packaging, business cards, posters and manuals, not just in Arabic but also in over 60 other languages.
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 all over the world.
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 requires 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 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 the client signs it off 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.
Adelphi records Arabic voice-overs for e-learning companies and their clients and has a rich experience with the specific requirements this kind of work involves. We can offer you a diverse range of affordable Arabic e-learning voice talents, varying from high-end professional actors to our standard voices for more locally-minded or budget-conscious projects.
Please visit our dedicated voice-over and subtitling website at Adelphi Studio
Adelphi has established itself as a competitive translation agency as well as one of the worlds specialist media translation agencies. Specialising in the translation and creation of subtitles, voice-overs and typesetting of printed material to the highest of standards no matter what the language. The benefit of using Adelphi for your translation and media localization is that we can keep a high level of control through out the project from start to finish, whilst maintaining a high degree of confidentiality and also delivering the final product ready to use.
At Adelphi we will try to accommodate whatever type of Arabic voice-over for your e-learning project. We will either send samples of artists we already have on our books, or search for and record new voices for you to choose from. Please be aware that the price of a voice-over artist will be dependent on their level of professionalism.
You can filter by language, dialect, level of professional experience and gender of the artist by using the drop-down menus.
Click the + to add voices to favourites and these will automatically be included in your quote request.
Click the + to add voices to favourites these will automatically be added to your quote request. Fill out the rest of the form and we will get back to you with a quote.
To see all the available audio samples and get a quote for artists, please choose a language above.
Arabic e-learning Translations
Adelphi’s translators are experienced professionals who work only into their mother tongue to ensures accuracy and understanding of the source material. All translators have a minimum of three years’ commercial experience in translation of their specialist fields and your project will always be matched to the most suitable translator with the relevant expertise to work on your material.
Arabic Typesetting
Your Arabic e-learning project may also require Arabic printed materials, such as instruction manuals, packaging, and brochures.
Our professional Arabic typesetting is handled in-house and carried out by our own expert typesetters, offering you peace of mind and the highest assurance of quality. We regularly produce all kinds of documents in a multitude of languages, including corporate brochures, packaging, business cards, posters and manuals.
Arabic Subtitling
E-learning videos are sometimes more suited for Arabic subtitles rather then Arabic voice-overs
We offer a professional Arabic language subtitling service producing both open- and closed-caption subtitles. Adelphi always produces all of its Arabic e-learning subtitles in-house — we never outsource any of the work, thereby maintaining confidentiality, consistency and quality. We can produce your subtitling in any video format required.
Transcription Services
We also provide transcription and translation services in any language, to provide time-coded scripts for translation. The length of many languages will expand when compared to original English and care must be taken in the translation to keep the true meaning of the English, while staying within the time frame allowed. For voice-overs and depending on the language, we sometimes have to edit the English to make a more concise version of the original; this is because the spoken version of many languages is much longer than the English and would not fit in the allocated time-slot. Of course the edited English is approved by the client before translation into Arabic.
Arabic Websites
If your promoting your Arabic e-learning materials then it would make sense to have a Arabic version of your website.
Adelphi have translated and localised websites in over 50 different languages often using 10 or more languages on a website.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Adelphi ensures that all our translators are professional and work only into their mother tongue. This ensures accuracy. All our translators are members of either the Institute of Linguists or the Institute of Translations & Interpreters. They will also have a minimum of three years of experience in professional translation. Your project is matched to the most suitable translator with the relevant expertise to translate your document.
Adelphi is a proud member of the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), who require their members to adhere to a strict code of professional conduct, be subject to the rulings of a professional ethics committee and carry full professional indemnity insurance cover to safeguard the interests of the translation purchaser.
We offer a professional English and foreign language subtitling service producing subtitles in over 50 languages. Adelphi always produces all of its subtitles in-house — we never outsource any of the work, thereby maintaining confidentiality, consistency and quality. We can produce your subtitling in any video format required including MOV, MPEG-2, WMV, FLV and MP4.
Adelphi’s Arabic voice-over service offers a range of quality Arabic voice-over artists and talents with a variety of skills and experience. We also have available a range of English samples by our English speaking Arabic voice artists.
All our Arabic voice artists have been selected to offer a variety of ranges and styles covering everything from drama, commercials, corporate, Films, IVR’s (Interactive voice response), narrations etc., for you to choose from. We have Arabic voice artists in a range of ages and some who can do character voices as well as traditional voices.
Please visit our Arabic voice-over page here
Adelphi has been typesetting Arabic for over ten years and can work on your Adobe InDesign, Adobe Framemaker, Quark XPress or Microsoft Office files. To avoid any problems when printing it is our procedure to provide you with high quality, print-ready PDFs at the end of the process. Our in-house proofreading ensures that your final product is as accurate as possible, offering you true peace of mind. We are more than happy to typeset a translation you have provided or we can organise one for you ourselves if you would prefer.
Please visit our Arabic typesetting page here
Adelphi Translations are experts in website translation. We have translated and localised websites in over 50 different languages often using 10 or more languages on a single website. Adelphi has teamed up with Genius Division, a website design and development company based in the same building as Adelphi. This allows us to handle the full process from website design, development and translation, ensuring a full and painless solution for all your website translation and localization needs.
Please visit our website translation page here
Adelphi Translations Limited is a company registered in England and Wales.
Company Number 06989736 · Registered Office Barnsley Digital Media Centre, County Way, Barnsley, S70 2JW, UK
