Our DTP personnel provide desktop publishing services in languages that clients – and their studios – may not feel able to handle with confidence. We run PCs and Apple Macs, using the mainstream DTP applications.

Costly errors can occur at the design stage. Unless a translator is closely involved, your design may need to be drastically altered after it’s realised that the foreign-language version, now translated and typeset, doesn’t suit graphics that looked wonderful in English.

Things may go horribly wrong because the designer did not realise that Arabic, reading from right to left (and from the ‘back’ page to the ‘front’), imposes a reversed ‘mirror image’ format.

Colours (and even shades) that you find attractive may not be appropriate for your target audience. Predominantly white packaging indicates purity or elegance to a Westerner. To the Chinese, it suggests death.

French text almost always takes up more space than the equivalent English, typically 15% more. German can be up to 30% less, but presents other challenges to the graphic artist. Chinese text usually takes up less space and Japanese text may require up to 20% more. The original design can look peculiar when a one-line, three-word English title in bold type suddenly appears beside a six-word French headline spread over three lines.

Whether the work is in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German or Urdu, our native speakers of the target language work with in-house graphic artists to ensure your print-ready artwork will be accurate, and look good – and that local cultural and stylistic conventions have been reflected and respected.

Many customers find our DTP service particularly useful for Asian and Middle Eastern languages.

When you need ready-to-publish translations, we offer a one-stop-shop.

Studio time is charged at an hourly rate. Please ask for a quotation.