Best File Formats For Translation Services
Affinity Translation can translate text received in files of almost any format (e.g., MS Word, PDF, image files, etc.). Still there are certain advantages, disadvantage, likes, and preferences about the type of file format we receive. Here’s a brief summary:
1) MS Word: Probably the best and most preferred file format is an editable text based file such as MS Word. For one thing these documents are easier to quote (since quotes are calculated on a per word basis and editable file word counts can be determined precisely). When exact word counts aren’t known we estimate word counts, or price services based on the resulting word count known as project conclusion.
Some translators have a preference in working with MS Word files too since it’s possible to “work on top” of the existing source language text during the translation process.
Another advantage of translating from MS Word files is that the much of the original formatting is retained. Editable Excel and Powerpoint files also work well as source file formats and have similar properties to MS Word files.
2) PDFs: PDF files are another common type of file received for translation services. PDF files exported directly from a graphic design application such as InDesign allow efficient quoting because word counts can be extracted.
Usually translation deliverables from PDF files do not retain the original formatting and post-translation formatting in the target language must be performed after translation, either by the client or as an additional service from our company.
3) Image Files (e.g., jpegs, tiffs, pngs, etc.): We frequently receive many files in image formats, usually as scans from hard copy documents. Translators can work with them without problem although quotes based on word count are typically estimated since an exact count can’t be determined. Original formatting is not retained but translators attempt to approximate the original layout so that source-target word correlation can be inferred.
Other file formats we more occasionally work with include html, xml, and basic text files. Of course there are no bad file formats for translation companies … we’re happy to receive work in any way clients choose to provide it.
