Our FAQs

Operator manuals, maintenance procedures, safety data sheets, engineering specifications, SOPs, test reports, patents, datasheets, calibration records, training modules, and the strings that show up on machine interfaces. The thread running through all of it is that a wrong word produces a wrong action on a shop floor. We turn down ad campaigns, brand slogans, and fiction, because those need a different kind of writer than the ones on our roster.

Over 60, though the honest answer has two layers. Around fifteen pairs run through translators we work with almost weekly: Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and the Nordics among them. The rest are covered by vetted specialists sourced per project, which adds a day or two to scheduling. Browse our language coverage and ask if yours is missing.

Both. Title blocks, notes, callouts, revision tables, and BOM entries get translated, and the drawing comes back in its native DWG or DXF instead of a Word file listing loose strings. Text buried in blocks or attributes needs extraction first, which we handle with our own tooling. Scanned drawings get a bilingual overlay table instead. The workflow is laid out under CAD drawing translation.

No. Interpreting is a separate profession with its own training and certification, and we would rather say that than staff it badly. If you need a simultaneous interpreter for an ISO audit or a consecutive interpreter for operator training, ask us anyway: we will name two or three firms that do it properly. Our work stays on written technical content.

Yes, for HMI panels, embedded firmware menus, PC control software, and mobile companion apps. We work in the resource files themselves, so XLIFF, PO, JSON, RESX, and property lists come back ready to build. Character limits are respected during translation rather than patched afterward, and variables stay untouched. Send a screenshot set with the strings; context is what separates a usable menu from a guessing game.

Usually yes, and if not we will say so before taking the job. Assignment starts with the subject, then the language pair. A translator who spent years writing PLC documentation reads an automation manual differently than a linguist trained on literature. Our sector pages cover manufacturing, energy, aerospace, medical devices, and chemicals. For genuinely unusual fields we recruit and test a candidate before quoting.

Subject first, language pair second, availability third. A safety data sheet going into Spanish reaches someone with chemical or EHS background, not whichever Spanish translator happens to be free that afternoon. Everyone on the file has documented engineering training or industry experience and translates into their native language. The full sequence of decisions is described in how a project runs from quote to delivery.

A second qualified translator, not the first one rereading their own work, compares every segment against the source and edits. Self-checking misses errors reliably, because the brain reads what it meant to write. The reviser checks meaning, terminology against the approved termbase, figures, units, and silent omissions. This step is priced into every project. It is not an upgrade you select at checkout.

No, and any agency claiming certification without naming an auditing body deserves a follow-up question. We follow ISO 17100: documented linguist qualifications, mandatory revision by a second translator, retained project records, defined project management responsibility. What we lack is a third-party audit certificate, so we say compliant process rather than certified. Each requirement and how we meet it is spelled out in our quality assurance process.

Only when you know about it and the content fits. Internal maintenance logs or a 400,000-word archive nobody will ever certify can justify post-edited machine translation at a lower rate. Safety documentation, regulatory submissions, and anything with legal weight get human translation. We never run raw engine output past a spell check and invoice it as human work. Confidential files never touch public engines.

Please send them. Approved terminology goes into a termbase before translation starts, so your wording appears automatically instead of being corrected during review. Old bilingual documents can be aligned into a translation memory, which recovers matches and lowers the word count you pay for. If your glossary contradicts itself, and most do after a few years, we flag the conflicts instead of picking silently.

Mutual NDA on request before any file moves, and every linguist assigned to your project already works under a signed confidentiality agreement with us. Files travel over encrypted transfer, sit on access-controlled storage, and stay visible only to the people working on them. Working copies are deleted on written request after delivery, keeping only the translation memory if you want it retained.

Send the list. We update the termbase, correct every occurrence across the delivered files at no charge, and push the change into the translation memory so it holds on the next revision. Preference changes are free; where the disagreement points to a real error, we also record why it slipped through. Most term debates surface during in-country review, the cheapest moment to have them.

Per source word, counted before work starts so the number cannot drift. The rate reflects the language pair, subject difficulty, file format, and deadline, while layout work and certification appear as separate line items. Repetitions and memory matches pull the total down. Published ranges by language group sit on our technical translation cost page, and every quote itemizes its components rather than showing one lump figure.

Yes, a modest one, roughly the equivalent of 250 words. A single datasheet still needs a project manager, a translator, a reviser, and a QA pass, and those steps do not shrink below a floor. If you have several small documents, batch them into one order so the minimum applies once instead of five times. Clients on a monthly retainer skip it entirely.

No. Before quoting, we analyze your files against your translation memory and break the count into new text, fuzzy matches, exact matches, and internal repetitions. Each tier carries its own rate, and the reductions appear as separate lines you can audit. A manual revision reusing 70 percent of the previous version costs far less than the raw word count suggests, and the effect compounds with every project.

One translator handles roughly 2,000 to 2,500 words a day, so a single linguist plus revision lands around eight to ten business days. Split across three translators sharing a live termbase and memory, the same job compresses to four or five. Splitting costs some stylistic evenness, which matters less in a parts catalog than in a training script. Tight deadlines get both options quoted.

For live projects, yes, at a surcharge stated on the quote before you approve anything. Weekend work needs a translator willing to take it and a reviser available Sunday evening, so a Friday morning request has a better chance than a Saturday one. Tell us the actual hour you need the file in hand rather than the day. We plan backward from that hour.

Only if the input changes. A quoted price holds for the files and scope you approved. Send a revised source mid-project, add a language, or ask for InDesign layout that was not in the original scope, and we issue a supplement before doing the work, never after. Unreadable scans trigger a conversation, not a surprise invoice. Request a quote to see the format.

We rebuild an editable version first. Clean scans go through OCR and cleanup; poor ones get reconstructed by hand, billed hourly and quoted before anyone starts. Either way you receive a formatted document rather than loose text in a table. If the original DOCX or INDD exists anywhere, even an outdated version, dig it out. It usually saves a day of production and a few hundred dollars.

Yes, and expansion is the part clients underestimate. German runs 25 to 35 percent longer than English, which breaks table cells, drawing callouts, and two-column spreads. We work in IDML, FrameMaker, or the native Office file and adjust the layout so nothing overflows or hides behind a graphic. You get print-ready files plus a PDF, with a linguist checking the final pages before delivery.

Often, yes. We connect to the common translation management platforms, accept XLIFF exports from any CMS, and can work directly in your instance if you provide access. For DITA, structured XML, or a headless setup, send one sample export and we will confirm what survives the round trip before you commit to anything. When in doubt, email us the file and we will run a test.

That text is invisible to translation tools, so it needs handling on purpose. Best case, you send the editable source of the graphic and we translate the layer, then export it back. Second best, we recreate the graphic. Cheapest, we deliver a numbered caption table under each image. For software manuals, retaking screenshots in the localized interface after the strings are approved reads best.

Yes, on request and at no cost. The memory and termbase built on your content belong to you, delivered as TMX and TBX or as Excel, whichever your systems read. Bilingual review files are available too when your in-country reviewer wants side-by-side segments. We keep a copy so the next project reuses it, and you can ask us to delete ours whenever you like.

Yes. Maps and topics go through as XML, with elements, attributes, and conrefs preserved so the output still builds. We translate what belongs to a translatable element and leave keys, IDs, and conditional attributes alone. Reused topics translate once and propagate everywhere, which is where structured authoring finally pays off. Send the ditamap along with your specialization DTD if you run a custom one.

That is not our field. Immigration documents, birth certificates, and court exhibits belong with agencies built around sworn and notarized personal records, and several handle them well for a fraction of what we would charge. What we certify is technical content: an accuracy statement covering a manual, a validation protocol, a submission dossier. Ask us and we will point you toward the right kind of provider.

A signed statement on letterhead naming the document, the language pair, the date, and the qualifications of the linguists, attesting that the translation is complete and faithful to the source. Regulators, notified bodies, and some corporate customers ask for one with a submission. We issue it at delivery on request at no charge, and it can be notarized for a small fee if the recipient insists.

The translation supports compliance; it cannot create it. We keep GHS hazard and precautionary statements in their standardized wording, preserve H and P codes exactly, match section numbering to 29 CFR 1910.1200 Appendix D, and keep pictogram references intact. Where your English source has gaps, we flag them instead of translating around them. Our page on SDS translation describes the review pass in detail.

Yes, for instructions for use, labeling, validation protocols, and design history file content. Linguists on medical work hold life sciences backgrounds, revision is mandatory, and back-translation with reconciliation is available for sections a reviewer will scrutinize. Symbols follow ISO 15223-1 and readability expectations for patient-facing text are respected. We document the process so it survives an audit, but we do not write regulatory strategy.

Tell us before sending anything. On request we staff a project entirely with US persons working on controlled infrastructure, with no offshore transfer at any step, and we will sign the language of your technology control plan. Not every language pair can be staffed that way, so feasibility gets confirmed before you upload a single file. If your restrictions cannot be met, you hear it on day one.

Yes. The Machinery Directive requires instructions in the official language of every country where a machine is placed on the market, and the Declaration of Conformity travels with them. We translate operator manuals, maintenance procedures, safety warnings, residual risk statements, and DoC text into the EU languages you need, keeping harmonized standard references intact. Name your target countries and we will list the languages required.