InDesign Translation

When it comes to multilingual documents, Adobe InDesign has become the front runner in professional desktop publishing software. As a result of its popularity, a need for professional InDesign translation has also grown. Interpro has been providing InDesign translation since 2002, just about as long as InDesign desktop publishing software has been available.

InDesign was developed as a tool for creating media such as manuals, catalogs, magazines, brochures, books and more. Interpro has the tools to translate InDesign documents into your target language, and our in-house desktop publishing specialists have the skills and experience to format your translated InDesign files to mirror the source language, including left-to-right layouts for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Integral to Interpro’s ISO 9001:2015 and 17100:2015 certified InDesign translation process is our policy to work in, and deliver files to our clients, in the same OS and major release of the authoring software used to create the source file. As such, our team consistently works with all major releases of Adobe InDesign, from CS5 through the latest Adobe Creative Cloud release for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Before You Translate an InDesign Document

Interpro provides a turn-key solution for your InDesign translation needs. In order for us to accomplish this, there are couple of areas to consider before initiating the translation of an InDesign file.

Graphics or "Links"

  • Be sure to include all images or links used in your Adobe InDesign document.

Graphics Text Localization

  • Graphics or images with text should be translated and localized to ensure the most professional, complete InDesign translation.
  • Images with callouts or captions should be provided in an editable layered format. If these files are unavailable, Interpro's desktop publishing specialists can still localize the graphics. However this will require more time.

Text Expansion and Pagination

Translation of an InDesign document with English as the source language will result in text expansion with most target languages, where the amount of space required by the target language is greater than the source. Our desktop publishing team works exclusively with multilingual documents, and uses the tools available within InDesign to format the translated InDesign document so as to parallel the format of the source. Please keep in mind that if retaining the same pagination of the source file is critical, this needs to be specified at the beginning of the InDesign translation project.

Font Usage

There are far more fonts available for English than for Asian or Eastern European languages. Creatively speaking, this is great for designers of English language documents. However, when you need to translate an InDesign file, it can be a challenge to find the right font to match in other languages. There are a few steps content authors can take which will help with the eventual formatting of the target language(s):

  • Use fonts that will support the languages in your InDesign translation project.
  • Adobe Typekit is a helpful resource for font language support.
  • When possible, use fonts that will work with both Windows and Mac OS.
  • Do not convert text to outlines before translating an .indd file – this will convert them into a graphic, which adds time and cost to a project.
  • Make sure to provide all fonts used in the Adobe InDesign document to whoever will be doing the desktop publishing work.

InDesign Translation Process

Translation of an Adobe InDesign document utilizes the same document translation workflow as most other documents. Interpro receives source files from our clients, after which they are analyzed and prepared for translation by the desktop publishing and engineering teams. The files are then translated, revised and proofread by our in-country translation teams before being formatted by our desktop publishers.

Interpro will deliver a translated document that has the same look and feel as the source document. To achieve this, Interpro's desktop publishing specialists will:

  • Choose the proper font to support the target language, whether it be Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian or other Cyrillic alphabet based languages.
  • Resolve any spacing issues that may appear due to expanded text.
  • Match fonts, colors, formatting and line spacing to the source document.
  • Localize all graphics containing translatable content
  • Ensure links (images) are localized, if needed, and updated.
  • Reverse the direction of the text to right-to-left (RTL) for target languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

Each project is unique, and Interpro will take every step to ensure that the format of your translated documents are identical to the source language format.

Turnkey Adobe InDesign Translation Service

Our deliverable will be a document that is professionally translated and formatted to match the source InDesign format (Windows or Mac) and version (i.e. CC 2017) and is ready to publish or print without any additional work for you or your team.

As with all of our professional translation services, your Adobe InDesign document will be translated utilizing Trados Studio Translation Memory technology. The use of translation memory ensures quality and consistency with previously-translated materials. Leveraging against a Translation Memory will help increase translation and delivery efficiency, while at the same time maximizing cost effectiveness.

If your next project involves translating an Adobe InDesign document, get in touch with us to learn how we can ensure its complete success.