Does it make sense for me training in DTP? Thread poster: Jorge Rodríguez Rodríguez
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Hello colleagues,
I am very interested in training to add DTP to my range of services.
However, I have got a question. Does it make sense for a technical translator to offer DTP services? I mean, I guess that you can offer DTP services for a translation done for any other colleague about any other field, but I think that DTP is more useful for marketing, advertising, brochures and literary texts.
Thank you for your comments.
Jorge
| | | | Joakim Braun 
Sweden
Local time: 06:37
German to Swedish
+ ...
I'm a professional print designer and a sworn translator, spending about equal time in both areas.
Over 20 years, the crossover between those two areas has been zero.
Translation jobs involving Indesign (layout) files are always translated using CAT tools. The end customer will usually be an international company with annual reports or marketing material in several languages. They will usually outsource logistics to a PR agency, and the agency will then hire a translati... See more I'm a professional print designer and a sworn translator, spending about equal time in both areas.
Over 20 years, the crossover between those two areas has been zero.
Translation jobs involving Indesign (layout) files are always translated using CAT tools. The end customer will usually be an international company with annual reports or marketing material in several languages. They will usually outsource logistics to a PR agency, and the agency will then hire a translation agency for all their translation needs, and use in-house or freelance designers.
And as a translator, you'll never get to talk directly to the PR agency.
So that "hey, suppose I handle the DTP for you too" situation never materializes...
With smaller direct customers it could happen, but I haven't seen it.
I'd very much encourage you to learn DTP, but doing work efficiently requires knowing the applications quite well and having regular practise. Using Indesign three times a year will be slow going. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 06:37
French to English
If you're interested in doing that, why not, but I'm not sure that anyone will ask you to provide such services alongside translation.
Clients do need DTP for technical translations such as handbooks and instructions. The layout may not be as fancy or colourful as in marketing, but it needs to be clear, with legends obviously describing pie charts etc.
However, the client will mostly already have someone to do such work for them, they'll have worked on the source text ... See more If you're interested in doing that, why not, but I'm not sure that anyone will ask you to provide such services alongside translation.
Clients do need DTP for technical translations such as handbooks and instructions. The layout may not be as fancy or colourful as in marketing, but it needs to be clear, with legends obviously describing pie charts etc.
However, the client will mostly already have someone to do such work for them, they'll have worked on the source text before even thinking about having it translated.
It then makes sense for the same person to clean up your translation should the layout not fit perfectly (when your translation doesn't fit in the box that the source text was in).
The agency I worked at tried offering DTP as well as translation and they had to practically bully a long-time, well-paying client into agreeing to them doing it rather than their usual guy. I won't say any more, except that it was the last job we did for that client, and that client has since reached out to me as a freelancer, so it wasn't a problem with my translation.
I get the impression that clients will just say "oh you have InDesign? oh that's cool, I don't need to send a pdf then" and will expect you to simply make sure your translation doesn't mess up the layout, but without paying any extra. After all, nobody has ever paid us to stick to the same layout in Word, have they? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | And only DTP? | Jun 17, 2022 |
Kay Denney wrote:
If you're interested in doing that, why not, but I'm not sure that anyone will ask you to provide such services alongside translation.
Clients do need DTP for technical translations such as handbooks and instructions. The layout may not be as fancy or colourful as in marketing, but it needs to be clear, with legends obviously describing pie charts etc.
However, the client will mostly already have someone to do such work for them, they'll have worked on the source text before even thinking about having it translated.
It then makes sense for the same person to clean up your translation should the layout not fit perfectly (when your translation doesn't fit in the box that the source text was in).
The agency I worked at tried offering DTP as well as translation and they had to practically bully a long-time, well-paying client into agreeing to them doing it rather than their usual guy. I won't say any more, except that it was the last job we did for that client, and that client has since reached out to me as a freelancer, so it wasn't a problem with my translation.
I get the impression that clients will just say "oh you have InDesign? oh that's cool, I don't need to send a pdf then" and will expect you to simply make sure your translation doesn't mess up the layout, but without paying any extra. After all, nobody has ever paid us to stick to the same layout in Word, have they?
I have just come across with the website of a translation agency based in UK and they offer DTP services to their clients. I am wondering if they may have a database for DTP experts, as well as translators or interpreters, and ask you for doing only DTP in a translation done for another person.
I was not thinking of offering translation+DTP but being requested doing DTP in some cases as another type of task.
I am not sure about what to do. I would like to be able to use InDesign well and any other tool related to those kinds of jobs, but, to be honest, I have specific training in Software, Mobile Apps and Video Games localization but I have done only 1 job in that field. I heard once, and I completely agree, that the areas of expertise choose the translator in many cases and not vice versa and I am afraid of spending more money to learn to use a tool and never need it.
I have wondered to self-teach InDesign myself but I used the app several years ago before starting my career as a freelance translator and it is not that easy, although I am young and I am quite tech-savvy.
I will have to give it quite more thought to decide.
Thank you.
[Edited at 2022-06-17 15:14 GMT]
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Joakim Braun
Sweden
Local time: 06:37
German to Swedish
+ ...
Jorge Rodríguez Rodríguez wrote:
I have wondered to self-teach InDesign myself but I used the app several years ago before starting my career as a freelance translator and it is not that easy, although I am young and I am quite tech-savvy.
Adobe nowadays is subscription-only, and having a complete set of DTP tools available (less won't do for professional print work) is expensive enough to be annoying unless you use it regularly.
Have a look at the Affinity apps, though. They're quirky but impressive. Anything you learn there can be put to good use in Indesign.
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Other areas where it may be useful:
_For you direct customers, there's always a need to resize neatly due to language expansion.
_If you'd like to be hired as an in-house DTP specialist in a translation agency. Some offer the full process to their customers.
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