In the middle of this digitalization, the borders no longer have any impact on business: these have the potential to become global, no matter the scale or industry. And in the very center of this globalization, there are the high quality localization services.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies, no matter the industry, have accelerated their digital transformation processes, and have often been faced with big challenges, forcing them to make decisions and rethink their strategies and the way they make and localize this content. One of these ways was represented by Machine Translation: although it has been on the market for decades, it is now in the spotlight, its evolution being especially influenced by a technological leap in 2017, when the Neural Machine Translation (NMT) component has been implemented. It focuses on imitating the process of thinking of the translator, contributing to a result with a more natural tone of voice by capturing the essence and the nuances in more precise ways.

What is translation technology?

The so-called translation technology represents the use of software tools that support the conversion of a text from one language to another. As well as in most of the technology assisted activities, also in the translation industry, the technological tools can help increase productivity, accuracy, quality and overall efficiency. This term captures everything from translation memories to terminology management tools, machine translation, voice-to-text tools, and various technologies for virtual interpretation.

Before the emergence of these technologies, translation and localization were made manually, the translators consulting paper dictionaries and glossaries and often relying just on their own judgment. Without underestimating the old approach, there have been, over time, negative impacts on businesses: a longer time-to-market for a product (because of a long and though translation process), lack of consistency in terminology (technology cannot be globally uniform), bigger costs for less efficient operations, low quality translations (because of the need to manually check and correct any errors).

But all these have changed with the burst of these technologies.

Translation memories, which store previous translations to improve and accelerate future processes, spelling programs and management systems, among others, increase the control and contribute significantly to the automated repetitive processes.

How does this technology help business globally?

These tools offer businesses all over the world:

• Translation quality assurance;
• Improvement of the operational efficiency through automation;
• Increased consistency of translations;
• Acceleration of the time-to-market by producing more content in less time.

What are the main types of technology tools for the translation industry?

Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools, such as Trados Studio, Phrase, Crowdin or Wordbee, among others– software applications which, by means of termbases and translation memories built upon previous translations, assist on the one hand the translator in his daily activity through a more efficient and faster process, delivering a homogenous result in terms of terminology, and on the other hand, they allow companies to translate larger volume in a shorter time. Read more about CAT tools and other related software here.

Machine translation (MT) – as we mentioned before, Machine Translation represents an autonomous process which transposes the text from one language to another, without the raw product needing human intervention. Find out more about MT here.

Platforms for managing translation projects on a larger scale – these are key tools for the streamlining of processes because they allow users to personalize and design their own workflows based on the actual needs of a localization project.

The contribution of technology in the context of globalization

We live in a highly connected and fast-paced world, where consumers expect that all their experiences are user-friendly, seamless, accessible, while benefitting at the same time of high-quality products and services based on their needs.

Thus, in such a context, the importance of localization – the process of adapting a brand’s message and look to a particular market and culture – has emerged – to be able to deliver content of different types, in multiple languages, to different markets. Localization represents more than just a simple translation, the companies not needing word-for-word translations to conquer these new markets, but translations that can sell a product in a new region, more unfamiliar than the native one. The challenge is no longer represented only by the linguistic barrier, but by the ability to transpose a product or a service in another language and country, considering the cultural differences.

With the help of technology, companies can streamline and speed up their localization processes to stay one step ahead of the competition, while keeping an eye on costs and meeting customer expectations and demand, achieving their globalization goals quickly and qualitatively through efficient and scalable solutions.

The future of the language industry

Thanks to machine learning, technology in this industry now offers solutions for everyone, and with the evolutions in artificial intelligence, it will surely be indispensable, especially with the emergence of even smarter tools. If the industry standards are already circling around a fast turnaround, lower costs, with no negative effect on the quality of the product, then these new features will make the process even easier, faster, and certainly more accurate.

However, we believe that the translation process will never be fully automated without the help of human intervention, the two components complementing each other. Machine Translation cannot replace translators, but it can help them automize the repetitive processes, gaining extra time for the post-editing step, contributing this way with the human ability to give the translation the specific voice, style and meaning based on each project. This collaboration will have the best results, facilitating the transition from computer-assisted human translation to human-assisted machine translation. Read more about the role of human translation in the current context here.

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Nowadays, the processing of documents (DTP) for the translation phase is an essential step for the efficiency of the translation process as a whole, but also for the use of certain specialized programs we currently have at our disposal in this field: computer-assisted translation software (CAT tools), translation memories, term bases and quality assurance programs (QA and QC). Without a properly formatted document, you might encounter situations in which you are not able to benefit from the above, as the text may be altered by numerous factors during the conversion process.  

 Furthermore, in the translation process, the involvement of a DTP specialist may be needed in the following two stages:  

1. During the pre-processing stage of the source documents that need translation  
2. During the post-processing stage of the resulted translation  

The pre-processing stage of the documents occurs when the source documents that need translation are not in an editable format (PDF, PNG, .dwg and other). Most clients put an emphasis on the final format of the translated documents so, in order to fulfill the clients’ needs, but also to be able to benefit from a series of specialized programs – which are significantly optimizing the work of a translator with the help of terminology resources and automated processes – throughout the translation phase, the documents must be first prepared for translation. 

 Pre-processing implies the following steps:   

• analyzing the source document to identify the sections that need a detailed pre-processing and verification of certain aspects that may have an impact on the final translated document (double spaces, tabs, erroneous alignment, symbols, text converted into images and many more);  
• converting the document into an editable format through specialized programs (for example, Abby FineReader, Smallpdf, Adobe, InDesign, CorelDRAW, among others);  
• performing a proper “cleaning” of the document, respectively deleting symbols and characters that are not in accordance with the source text (which may arise during the conversion process), additional spaces that are not often visible, tags that may make the translation process more difficult (if using a CAT tool), which can be done with the help of a dedicated program (for example, TransTools);  
• reformatting the document, which involves the verification of the document structure and the faithful reconstruction of the source formatting in the resulted document, by eliminating the possible issues that appeared following the conversion, including the transcription of text sections that may have not been processed and are still displayed in .png, .jpg or other image formats (this usually happens if the source document is a non-editable scanned document;  
• ensuring that the source text is correct (including spelling, spaces, line breaks), using the various instruments that Microsoft Word offers;   
• preparing the document for a CAT tool (if the case, using certain processing rules – like Regex – both for efficiency and for ensuring that the elements of the document have not changed);  
• analyzing the document in the computer-assisted program (CAT tool) to ensure it has a correct segmentation and no further issues may arise in the process. This allows the use and leverage of all the entries of a translation memory (TM) and guarantees its optimal consolidation after the translation process.  

 Principal issues to consider during the verification phase:  

• line breaks that result in an erroneous segmentation;  
• spelling issues – ensuring that the source text is correct after the conversion;  
• unnecessary section/page breaks;  
• if certain fonts are unavailable for a specific language.  

 Without a proper processing of the layout of the document that is to be translated, a translator may encounter difficulties, both during the actual translation phase and when using or updating a translation memory:  

• when analyzing a single document from a project (through comparison with the rest of the documents of the projects or with the help of translation memories and term bases), a faulty segmentation of its elements (phrases, short sentences, even words) will generate an incorrect analysis and, implicitly, will result in the inability of identifying them in the translation memories, being, thus, unusable;   
• the existence of certain elements/characters resulted from the conversion of documents will be signaled through tags, which may harden the translation process and can, in certain situations, generate errors when importing and exporting documents in the CAT tool used for the translation.  

However, pay attention: not all tags are elements that must be erased from the content of the document – many of them represent important formatting placeholders (space breaks, strikethrough, bold, italic, punctuation marks and many more). These can be protected by implementing various Regex rules or by converting them into actual symbols and formats, actions that assist the translation process and avoid their accidental erasure.  

 In our translation projects, more often than not, we must outsource the pre-processing and post-processing stages to a DTP specialist, as the documents we receive for translation are usually in a PDF format, and the native files (INDD, IDML and other) are not available. Neither the PDF files nor other non-editable file formats are compatible with computer-assisted software (CAT tools), making the pre-processing stage a mandatory one, to harvest the benefits a CAT tool can offer.  

Communication with the final client is the foundation of a successful translation project; understanding the translation process and involving the client from the start is a crucial step for ensuring a seamless process. Moreover, clarifying certain aspects from the beginning (concerning format processing, preferred terminology, what should be left out from the translation) contributes to achieving extraordinary results.  

In an ideal scenario, the translation projects should include the following:  

• a source file for each document, respectively the native file created in specialized programs, such as Adobe InDesign, CorelDraw, Visio, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office and others. In case the project contains a larger number of files, it is recommended to use an organized transfer method (along with a centralizing file containing all documents and their information, transfer via sharepoint/server and other);  
• a file containing instructions and specifications on:  the target language, respectively specifications about the target audience and country in which the document will be used (for example, a translation into Spanish implies opting for adequate linguists and a quite different approach when it comes to translations that are used in Spain, Argentina, or Columbia); 
• purpose of the translation: where will it be used, is it meant for internal use or does it have a specific scope, which is the desired result following its use (marketing, information or other)? The purpose of the translation helps in determining various aspects concerning the approach in the translation process: from the tone of voice (formal or informal) to the establishment of the stages (native revision, adaptation, localization) which the text will go through until the final version is reached;
• if the case, highlighting certain specific aspects (to what extent is the adaptation necessary, do the images containing text need processing and translation, preferences regarding the tone of voice – should it be formal or informal, passive or active and other); 
• a terminology glossary, a style guide, a term base, a translation memory, or reference materials for the content that needs translation; 
• information on the desired deadline; 
• information on the final format of the resulted translation, based on the requirements of the client (monolingual or bilingual, editable or non-editable, suitable for a CAT tool, in extract or in full and many more);
• information of the internal revision process – if there is going to be a person within the company that will revise the translation or whom should be able to help in case of questions or needed clarifications;    

The post-processing stage of the resulted translation involves the verification of the target documents exported from a CAT tool. There are also the happy cases in which the documents sent to us for translation have already gone through a pre-processing stage, one performed by the client, or which, after our internal pre-processing, have resulted in no formatting errors (there could be slight differences because of the specifics of each language, but these do not require significant work) or these are native files.  

 This post-processing stage involves:  

• including the external elements in the translated IDML file;  
• ensuring the text is correctly displayed and that it is visible in the entire document; 
• ensuring that all elements are correctly positioned and visible;  
• ensuring that all links or other functional elements are working;  
• ensuring both that the correct fonts were used and that these are used throughout the entire document to reflect the original document;  
• ensuring that the formatting of the final translated document reflects the original document.  

Before finalizing the post-processing stage, a final verification of the translated file in an exported format (for example, PDF) is highly recommended. This way, the DTP specialist will be able to make the final amendments before saving the final package for the client.  

The following are the types of files processed by the DTP specialist: Microsoft Office (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio), Adobe Creative Cloud (PDF, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign), CorelDRAW and many more.

In conclusion, technology has become a huge part of the translation process, and tools have become a must, the question no longer being whether to use them or not, but rather which best suits your needs. Currently, at least when we talk about specialized translations, a dictionary does no longer represents the only resource a translator needs to perform his work at the highest standards. In recent years, along with the advancements in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we have seen an explosion of programs, tools and instruments that are able to aid (and make easier) a translator’s work – from software that converts documents to computer-assisted programs, which come bearing a great variety of incorporated functionalities for translation memories and term bases – translation technology puts the linguists in charge of the creative part of the process, while it takes care of the automated and repetitive tasks.

You can find a few more blogposts here – we seized the opportunity, and took a short break from the daily to-do lists and translations tools.

Date of publication: 10.01.2023

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Openness to new things and an on-going research are both essential in order to succeed in the translation industry, and especially in that of Romanian subtitles. So many changes take place while you are reading this article. As a translator, linguist or a philologist, you must always be curious, ready for new challenges and open to new research. Generally speaking, this field is a progressive one, in which you can always feel as a beginner when it comes to words. And if you really are one, any field can rise difficulties and challenges at first, and even if it sounds like some sort of a cliché, it is important to figure out what it is that defines you, and to try to do that something with passion.

If you are on the lookout for a creative and exciting translation field or if you think that translating subtitles represents a path you might want to follow in the future, here is some information you could use to start your own journey in the field.

As for myself, as I also started my journey with subtitles recently, I thought it would be useful to share it with you, in hopes of spreading some details and inspiration for those who might need it. In my case, it came as a pleasant surprise. Being enthusiastic about foreign languages and everything concerning visual arts, the process of subtitling gave me exactly the experience I needed: a creative and versatile space, which turned from a hobby into a full-time job of which I am extremely proud.

Why do we need subtitles?

Being an industry in which curiosity is key, you must ask yourself “why?”. Why do we need subtitles? We need them because they represent one of means for cultural accessibility, they offer an improved viewing experience, a way to learn a foreign language, by understanding various accents and learning new vocabularies.

Subtitles help those who have trouble focusing or who suffer of hearing impairment to better understand the narrative. Not only that you contribute to a cultural flexibility, but you also help others less fortunate than you have the same experience and gain access to information and entertainment.

Conclusion? When you do your job passionately and you see the bigger picture, you are able to discover how important it is what you do.

But what’s the use of theory without practice?

What do you need to start a Romanian subtitling project?

Here are the three most important things:

1. A list of specific rules for subtitles (and their translation): this will be either supplied by the client or you can decide to use the general rules (along with the client’s specifications), drafted by Disney (timed text style guide for Romanian subtitles), Netflix (timed text style guide for Romanian subtitles) or others. Like in many other fields, in subtitling as well, rules are meant to be followed; you need to consider the industry standards to supply subtitles that are easy to follow, high-quality and consistent.
2. A subtitling tool: today, technology is our best friend, offering thousands of possibilities for our daily lives, something that also happens when it comes to subtitles. There are many intuitive and user-friendly subtitling programs, even for those with limited IT knowledge. Let’s just name a few: EZTitles, Sfera, Ooona, Subtitle Edit, Happy Scribe, Matesub and the subtitling plugin of SDL Trados Studio. To make your own work easier, it is important to find the tool that best suits your needs and to research everything it may offer, including shortcuts, functionalities and many more.
3. Try this out – put yourself in the shoes of the viewer: offer the experience that you would like to have. I highly encourage you to research to whom the video material is addressed to, who the target audience is. Only after you figured this out, are you able to see the real contribution of a translator. You might as well be the voice that accompanies the viewers in a special journey. So, keep in mind the age group, area of interest, context and style of the material. It’s all in the details.

The basics when it comes to Romanian subtitles

If the aim is to translate the material from a foreign language into your native language, you need to have a SubRip (.srt) file, which is a simple format used by most of the translators, being compatible with many video editing software. You will either receive this from the client or you will have to make it from scratch (maybe using an automated transcription program) – a subsequent article will detail what to do when you don’t receive a source file from the client or if this is not adequately synchronized with the video.

However, be careful, as not all free versions ensure the confidentiality of the material. Without being aware, you might find yourself in a case of transferring the content, or even the confidential information of the client, to a third party platform, which may further share your work.

If you are to translate the material into a foreign language, my advice would be to turn to a native speaker of that language for the localization and final revision of the subtitling file. Cultural adjustment is an important detail, and it provides added value, which you could certainly use in order to get „“closer” to your audience.

Before starting a project, you must read the instructions provided by the client, or if you have not received any, you can find below a few.

Five of most important standard rules that have to be followed for a high-quality result when it comes to Romanian subtitles

1. Each subtitle must have a maximum number of two lines in the lower part of the screen. This will be positioned in the upper part of the screen only if there is already on-screen text in the lower part which the subtitle might cover. Preferably, keep the text on one line. If not possible, in case of two line events, make sure you keep a correct and logical line break, maintaining the second line longer, just like a pyramid.

For example:

Went to the library and bought a

book for you.

Correct version would’ve been:

Went to the library

and bought a book for you.

2. The recommended font style is Arial, and the font size depends on the video resolution and ability to fit 42 characters across the screen.

3. The subtitle line must not exceed 42 characters, including punctuations and spaces. Most of the subtitling tools warn you if you have exceeded the pre-set limit, just make sure to check out the settings and adjust them according to your requirements. Another important aspect, concerning the reading speed, is that a subtitle should not exceed 17-20 characters per second for adult programs, and 13-15 for children’s programs.

4. To indicate two speakers, use a hyphen.

For example:

Speaker 1: – Glad to see you.

Speaker 2: – Me too.

5. Do not use ellipsis when breaking the subtitle into two lines.

For example:

Line 1:  I have talked to her yesterday

Line 2: and decided it’s better like this.

An ellipsis should be used only in case of interruptions by another speaker.

For example:

– I wanted to say that…

– Doesn’t matter!

– …you are pretty.

– Thank you.

And, in the end, the most important ingredient – creativity. Use it and enjoy the process.

Now that you read the theory, I hope this article will be the needed push for you to start working on Romanian subtitles. You will never know if you are good at something unless you try that thing, so I hope I managed to stir your interest, and who know, maybe one day, you will see your words on the big screens.

For more information and rules about high-quality Romanian subtitles, read the following article: Audiovisual Localization: A Short Guideline for Subtitle Translations.

••

You can find a few more blogposts here – we seized the opportunity, and took a short break from the daily to-do lists and translations tools.

Date of publication: 11.11.2022

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