Software localisation
The translation and localisation of a software is a complex task which sees to the development and proofreading steps relating to the management of foreign texts and data in a programme and sees the collaboration of several freelancers among which the translator, the graphic designer and the programmer.
The success and quality of a software project is the result of the combination of different elements:
- Both text and data have to be exported and subsequently imported, and any dates, hours and local currency adjusted;
- Strings are managed and analysed according to their position in the context, taking into account the maximum permitted length to ensure they can be seen correctly and the perfect terminological uniformity of the single elements, observing the alternation of upper and lower case;
- Graphics will necessarily have to be adapted to linguistic, cultural and communication variations;
- Spaces have to be organised for entering the text in the target language;
- The font and its readability are checked in the various programming formats
That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Steve Jobs