Sinhala typesetting

Case study:

The above sample here is from a book we typeset in Sinhala called ‘The Man-Eater of Punanai’ by Christopher Ondaatje. This is the story of a small village in Ceylon where the locals were terrorised by a man-eating leopard. The other sample is of typesetting we carried out for Amnesty International.

Our Sinhala DTP and typesetting services include:

  • Sinhala Document Translations
  • Sinhala Proofreading
  • Sinhala Desktop publishing and typesetting using all major publishing software
  • Desktop publishing into over 100 languages
  • Quality assurance checking throughout the process
  • 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

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.

A simple guide to localising InDesign files using translation software

By using an IDML file exported from InDesign we can speed up the translation and DTP process when using translation memory software. This method keeps all the formatting from the original InDesign file such as links, character and paragraph styles and fonts plus any interactive elements such as cross-references.

Click here to read more information

What is the difference between desktop publishing and typesetting

Simply stated, DTP (desktop publishing) and typesetting are the same. They both include putting the translated text into the original layout using software programs like InDesign, Quark, and Illustrator etc. Historically typesetting was just that, the setting of wood or metal type into blocks to print from. Desktop publishing was first developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s and is often used to describe using a computer and software to set the type for publications.
  • Typesetting is also defined as: Typesetting is the process, the craft, of setting the type for a document, not to be confused with typography, which is the art of designing the type.
  • Desktop publishing is also defined as The production of printed matter by means of a printer linked to a desktop computer, with special software.

Desktop publishing tips for localising English materials

  1. 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.
  2. Overuse of text formatting features such as drop caps, CAPITALISED TEXT, 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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, keywords in English at the beginning of a sentence might end up in the middle or at the end of the sentence when translated.
  5. 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 significant delays in the localisation process.
  6. 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.

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