Poll: Do you offer Desktop Publishing (DTP) services?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Jul 22, 2014

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you offer Desktop Publishing (DTP) services?".

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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:21
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Jul 22, 2014

It happens to be a "hobby" of mine. I got started as a volunteer many years ago and then went on to doing newsletters for clients. I only work in English, and I charge by the page.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 15:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
No Jul 22, 2014

Nay, nay and thrice nay. I mainly provide a stripped-down translation service, though I do like the sound of "language consultant" which seems somehow more impressive.
By translation, I mean taking the text content of a document and putting it into another language, my native English. Everything else is icing on the cake, or "added-value" if you like, and I consider it the responsibility of the client or author. Any abbreviations or acronyms used in the text should also be defined by the
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Nay, nay and thrice nay. I mainly provide a stripped-down translation service, though I do like the sound of "language consultant" which seems somehow more impressive.
By translation, I mean taking the text content of a document and putting it into another language, my native English. Everything else is icing on the cake, or "added-value" if you like, and I consider it the responsibility of the client or author. Any abbreviations or acronyms used in the text should also be defined by the client or author who uses them - this latter stipulation saves me huge amounts of time wasted on researching terms.

If I want my vehicles fixed I take them to my mechanic; for teeth, I visit the dentist; and for DTP or website stuff I get the appropriate person to do that for me too.
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Michael Harris
Michael Harris  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:21
Member (2006)
German to English
No Jul 22, 2014

I could do it, but do not have the time.

 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 11:21
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
A matter of assembling the menu Jul 22, 2014

neilmac wrote:

By translation, I mean taking the text content of a document and putting it into another language, my native English. Everything else is icing on the cake, or "added-value" if you like, and I consider it the responsibility of the client or author.
...
If I want my vehicles fixed I take them to my mechanic; for teeth, I visit the dentist; and for DTP or website stuff I get the appropriate person to do that for me too.


Perhaps we share the same view, though stated in apparently opposite ways.

I do DTP, have been using PageMaker for 25+ years. Now I use Infix Pro to offer translation + DTP, covering all DTP apps via PDF files. Considering my output, I am a very appropriate person to do that, since I also do it for colleagues who need it, using their translations.

On appropriateness, I don't do DTP when it involves any language I don't speak (for the record, I speak three more languages that I don't translate).

Once I had to translate a rather complex-layout book EN > PT, and a colleague proofread it. Client was an agency in Canada, and they got a francophone-only DTP operator using InDesign. For some unknown reason, that operator got an Italian dictionary as the closest-match to hyphenate text in Portuguese. They asked us to do a final check, and there were countless wrong hyphens. We spotted them all, however each fix caused a new 'bad' hyphen to come up further below in the same paragraph.

Making a long story short, we had to proofread the entire 200+ pages of the book EIGHT times altogether until the iteration had driven all 'bad' hyphens beyond the end of every paragraph.

Is that 'adequate'?

Neverheless I charge DTP apart from translation, these are usually separate items on the same invoice.


What we have in common, Neilmac, is that we both stand up against translators doing (or being required to do) DTP for free, as included in their translation rates - worst of all, using MS Word, which is a most inadequate tool for DTP.


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:21
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
No Jul 22, 2014

For all the good reasons given above.

My target language often takes up more space than the source.

I have on occasions adapted the language - for instance in a comic strip, where the remarks had to fit in the speech bubbles. I used Trados Studio to count the keystrokes and checked that hyphenations would not be a pain to read. My instructions were to shorten or adapt if necessary, but as I was warned in advance, I managed to keep the language colloquial and terse enoug
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For all the good reasons given above.

My target language often takes up more space than the source.

I have on occasions adapted the language - for instance in a comic strip, where the remarks had to fit in the speech bubbles. I used Trados Studio to count the keystrokes and checked that hyphenations would not be a pain to read. My instructions were to shorten or adapt if necessary, but as I was warned in advance, I managed to keep the language colloquial and terse enough most of the time.

But apart from bearing in mind that space may be limited, I do not do DTP.

I was given some VERY good advice when I worked in house: if we had problems (and we did in those days - files would sometimes crash if we needed more than the allocated space...) then we were asked to mail the whole thing to the DTP expert as soon as possible and go and make a cup of coffee or take a lunchbreak!

She said it was far easier to deal with BEFORE we got exasperated and messed up tags and codes, and often her solution was to reduce the font size by half a point. She could then tidy it up afterwards, but she knew what she had done, and it worked fast, so we could carry on translating without further crashes.

All the same, I developed a habit of hitting the Ctrl + S keys after every other sentence!
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nrichy (X)
nrichy (X)
France
Local time: 15:21
French to Dutch
+ ...
Yes Jul 22, 2014

As a complementary service. But it was my work for twenty years, before I became a full time translator, and I still own Quark and Indesign, although the first one is not used anymore. After doing the translation in Studio, I like to see the end results with InDesign and to correct if necessary.
And as for Powerpoint, which is also a DTP, I cannot imagine delivering the file without seeing the translated files! Sometimes a long title has to be adapted, and this is not the work of the DTP g
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As a complementary service. But it was my work for twenty years, before I became a full time translator, and I still own Quark and Indesign, although the first one is not used anymore. After doing the translation in Studio, I like to see the end results with InDesign and to correct if necessary.
And as for Powerpoint, which is also a DTP, I cannot imagine delivering the file without seeing the translated files! Sometimes a long title has to be adapted, and this is not the work of the DTP guy.
But I have mainly direct clients.
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Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 15:21
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
Other Jul 22, 2014

I am rarely asked, but I have done a few brochures and posters in InDesign.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 15:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
No free lunches Jul 22, 2014

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:


What we have in common, Neilmac, is that we both stand up against translators doing (or being required to do) DTP for free, as included in their translation rates - worst of all, using MS Word, which is a most inadequate tool for DTP.


Exactly. If I offered all these services, I'd need to charge twice as much as I currently do - and my clients would all rather pay the lower rate and do all that "other stuff" themselves.


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 11:21
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Offer them options Jul 22, 2014

neilmac wrote:

Exactly. If I offered all these services, I'd need to charge twice as much as I currently do - and my clients would all rather pay the lower rate and do all that "other stuff" themselves.


nrichy wrote:

And as for Powerpoint, which is also a DTP, I cannot imagine delivering the file without seeing the translated files! Sometimes a long title has to be adapted, and this is not the work of the DTP guy.


Of course, if I keep translation and DTP costs separate from the start, the client can compare each one with other vendors'.

I have no objection to doing part of the job. In video subtitling, this is pretty common. Direct clients whose core business is far away from video (and most translation agencies who serve them) want a turn-key service, often an authored DVD from me. Video producers may want only the translation, sometimes with time-spotting too; their staff will take it from there.

Regarding PowerPoint, I give clients a choice. If they merely want it translated, saying something like "Never mind adjusting the layout. I've spent a fortune in courses, and now my secretary is a PPT wizard, she can fix it all in no time.", I'll merely charge them the per-word translation rate, and deliver as it comes out. If they want the layout neatly adjusted, I charge 30% extra on the translation cost. Since it's proportional to the volume of text I'll have to fix, it makes sense.


 
Triston Goodwin
Triston Goodwin  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:21
Spanish to English
+ ...
Yes Jul 22, 2014

I have been working as a graphic artist and illustrator since I was about 17. I enjoy the work and stepping away from translation every so often keeps things interesting.

 
Erzsébet Czopyk
Erzsébet Czopyk  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 15:21
Member (2006)
Russian to Hungarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
complete nightmare with satisfactory results Jul 22, 2014

José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:

neilmac wrote:

Exactly. If I offered all these services, I'd need to charge twice as much as I currently do - and my clients would all rather pay the lower rate and do all that "other stuff" themselves.


nrichy wrote:

And as for Powerpoint, which is also a DTP, I cannot imagine delivering the file without seeing the translated files! Sometimes a long title has to be adapted, and this is not the work of the DTP guy.


I have no objection to doing part of the job.
I give clients a choice.
If they want the layout neatly adjusted, I charge 30% extra on the translation cost. Since it's proportional to the volume of text I'll have to fix, it makes sense.



Last week I was literally forced. Hard client, urgent work and a complicated tabelle with a translation to be inserted ANYHOW. Call the printing house partner - they have work full house. Call a former DTP partner - not available. Call my older son - got some instructions how we can do it. It was a complete nightmare but finally after a sleepless night I did it. 2 days after the client paid the invoice, contacted me with another job. It was a hard try but the experience worth it.


 
Alexander Kondorsky
Alexander Kondorsky  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 17:21
English to Russian
+ ...
Why? Jul 23, 2014

Why am I supposed to offer such services? You may as well have asked me about offering load lifting services.

 


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Poll: Do you offer Desktop Publishing (DTP) services?






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