Multilingual book writing

A translated textbook is usually detectable within a page: the examples are foreign, the idiom is English wearing another script, and the typesetting fights the language. Content Factory writes and edits in fifteen languages natively, and says no to the rest rather than outsourcing a script nobody here can read.

Write it, or translate it

Only languages we can verify

Fifteen languages are written, edited and proofread by people who read them natively. A manuscript is never signed off by someone working through a dictionary.

Other languages are taken on only when a native writer and a separate native proofreader are both available for that script, and we say so before you commit.

Each script sets differently

Dropping a translation into the English layout is where regional editions usually fail.

• Line height reset per script, not inherited from the English edition
• Tamil and Malayalam set at a larger optical size than Latin at the same point size
• Devanagari and Bengali matras given headroom above the line
• Urdu and Arabic pages mirrored to run right to left
• Hyphenation and justification rules set per language
• Numerals in the form the readership expects
• Page extent recalculated, because translations expand or contract

A second reader, always

Translation is checked by someone other than the translator. On educational titles the subject is checked separately from the language.

• Translator and proofreader are never the same person
• Subject accuracy checked separately from language on textbooks
• Terminology list agreed and applied consistently across a series
• Names, places and citations verified against the source
• Final read against the typeset proof, not the manuscript

Indicative rates

Indicative rates. Language, subject and turnaround all move the figure. See the full price list.

Frequently asked