SOFTWARE LOCALIZATION
ImagineLingua is pleased to offer complete software localization services, including UI, translation, and compilation of Help files, apps localization and DTP for manuals.
Our advanced Translation Memory technology and Intuitive Visual tools help our localization professionals provide more efficient and higher quality translations.
WHERE and HOW TO START
While the phases can be in slightly different order and may go under different names, the process is essentially the same:
- Implement a CMS
- Globalize
- Internationalize
- Localize.
Localizing software may seem like a lot of complicated work, but just a little bit of preparation can prevent a lot of problems and save you tremendous time and money.
OUR PROCESS — OUR TOOLS
We are always happy to offer guidance to lead our customers through successful globalization and internationalization so that your localization process is much easier and less stressful.
It is not necessary for software developers to know HOW localization is done and WHAT is really happening while we have your files. But our work is transparent and every task we complete is done with your best interest in mind.
We offer full product localization support for over 120 languages, including all those of the EU, plus Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and many others. Our most successful projects are entirely completed on a local OS and Windows or Apple systems respectively.
From your original DLL files, our software engineers will provide a full localization service: translation, dialog resizing, hotkeys, help files, complete version rebuild and full QA and testing. Completing all tasks on the same native OS totally resolves all character-display issues, considerably reduces the time for project completion, and enhances the quality of the final local build.
GLOBAL BUSINESS APPROACHES
Even beyond these processes, globalization encompasses different marketing approaches for each country or region, local after-market support, establishing some local presence, and many other aspects of global business.
You can read more about our global marketing services or simply request a free quote today for your current projects.
TRANSCRIPTIONS
ImagineLingua provides audio and video transcribing services with the same level of exceptional quality and rapid delivery as our other services. Our services include:
- Legal transcriptions of prisoner, plaintiff or defendant interviews;
- transcribing depositions;
- Transcribing films, videos and movies before translating them into other languages,
- Transcribing business meetings;
- Transcribing market research interviews;
- and more.
Our transcription services can add time codes and provide summaries of audio files or scripts as desired.
Transcription services are available in English and all other language.
Whether your audio or video file involves multiple speakers, diverse accents, an unknown dialect, or contains background noise, we can help. Please contact us to discuss your particular needs.
VOICEOVERS & SUBTITLING
After a film, movie, video or e-learning course is transcribed and then translated by native speakers of the target language, we can proceed to voiceovers or subtitling.
During translation, cultural issues might be adjusted and localized references may have to be substituted or re-phrased. The key is to ensure that your transformed file will resonate among the target country’s language speakers.
For Voiceovers, we will need to know whether you want a male or female; a child, teen, adult or senior; or a unionized or non-unionized talent. We will then provide you with a selection of voice talents to choose from.
Subtitling is normally much less costly and is priced by the video minute. The process involves converting your translation to STR format, breaking the translation into unit or segments, time-coding them to match the source-language dialog, and then inserting the written language.
It’s important to note that French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian require around 20% more words than English does to express the same concept. German and Russian expand by around 10% while Chinese is less than English. The voiceover or subtitling processes may have to adjust the film to accommodate language expansion.
For video presentations, e-learning platforms, instructional videos, movies or any video with an international audience, we provide a full range of technical capabilities. These include full engineering and integration for all platforms.
Please contact us to discuss your particular needs.
BRANDING
Company names, product names, and slogans are one part of the branding process.
Companies literally invest millions of dollars to launch a new product … and then may discover that its name or slogan has a very negative connotation in the target country. Some examples:
- Ford discovered that its Pinto car when introduced in Brazil was slang for “penis.”
- Puff tissues discovered that “Puff” in the UK means a fag (derogatory term for homosexual) and in Germany is a whorehouse.
InagineLingua provides the cheapest insurance possible: testing or screening company names, product names, tag lines and slogans before your venture begins. With decades of experience, we have a rapid and cost-effective method to ensure that your desired name or tag line is either positive or neutral in up to ten key languages at a time.
For English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic, we normally evaluate your names in major dialects because languages are spoken differently across countries. For example, a Swedish vacuum cleaner manufacturer launched a TV commercial in the UK and Commonwealth Africa where it made perfect sense. But when the company launched same commercial in the US, the slogan “Nothing sucks like Electrolux” had a slightly different connotation.
Evaluating Chinese is a separate matter because we must consider the written language in both Simplified and Traditional characters as well as their pronunciation in key dialects in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Each region or country has its own slang and word usage that could prove offensive. Rendering product or company names into Chinese involves three possible methods.
Please contact us to discuss your needs.
