DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Currently, the desktop publishing (DTP) service in the field of translations represents an essential step both for the efficiency of the translation process in itself, and also for the benefits that the translation tools bring for any translator, mainly the computer-assisted translation tools (CAT tools), translation memories, tools for QA and QC.

Generally, desktop publishing is extremely useful for the processing documents for print, used for advertising or marketing purposes (InDesign, CorelDRAW and other formats) or for reconstructing a written translation, where the goal is to mirror the formatting of the original document when this is cannot be edited (usually PDF, JPG, PNG or other formats).

For this second option, the editing may take place before starting the translation process (pre-processing), by converting the source document, or after the translation is ready (post-processing), on the resulted document.

The purpose of the DTP service is to generate a deliverable that reflects the formatting of the source document, thus contributing to the quality assurance process. This way, the client does not have to work on the input of the resulted text in the desired format, avoiding linguistic and structural errors when it comes to an unknown foreign language.

When it comes to desktop publishing, our team is here for you, ensuring that the translated document is a true reflection of the source document, verifying throughout the process that everything is correct and error-free, through the following steps:

• analyzing the document to identify sections that need pre-processing;
• converting it to an editable format with the help of specialized programs (Abby Fine Reader, Smallpdf, Adobe, InDesign, CorelDraw, among others); 
• reformatting the document, while solving potential problems that may have occurred following the conversion;
• preparing it for a CAT tool, while ensuring a correct segmentation to leverage the existing translation memories.

The main tools for desktop publishing (DTP) are the following: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Adobe CC (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop), CorelDRAW and many more.

You can read more about desktop publishing in our blogpost Desktop Publishing (DTP): Processing Documents for CAT Tools.