Recently I’ve been helping with a great translation project for Veritas in which I have been doing a lot of proofreading and DTP. For those who don’t know, DTP (Desktop Publishing) software is an application used to create documents that combine text and graphics. Nowadays there are several programmes which can do this. The one I’m working with now is called Adobe InDesign, which is normally used for publishing work such as brochures, posters, flyers, magazines, newspapers and books.

Users of the program have plenty of useful tools at their disposal, which means that you can precisely manage every single part of the document and convert it according to your or your client’s needs. Since each language’s vocabulary and grammatical rules vary, the translated content to be placed in the document may take up more or less space than the original text, so you will probably need to adjust this content in order to achieve the appropriate page layout in the target language. Therefore, you can modify lines, colours, texture, and spaces to achieve this; images can also be adjusted, colours and transparency changed, and filters applied, and that’s just for starters! Also, if you want any elements to appear on every page of the document, such as the title, a logo or a link, you don’t have to place these elements individually, page by page, but on master pages, which will automatically do it for you.

If you are a beginner, it may seem hard to get used to at first. However, once you get the hang of it, you will soon realize how exciting and fun DTP is. And I strongly recommend that you give it a shot!

I think it’s amazing how many different related branches the translation world involves. When working on a translation, you never stop learning new things, and I think that’s great! I have to say that I’m really enjoying helping out on this project, and I’m confident that it will be of the superb quality that Veritas always provides.