Articulate Rise and Storyline are the most popular authoring tools chosen by instructional designers. Its principal function is the development of online eLearning courses. Nowadays, many companies in different industries and professionals use eLearning courses to train their employees and improve their skills or learn online.

Both tools were created by the same company and have similar functions. With these two eLearning development tools available, the question is how to choose the right tool to use. Well, the answer depends on the type of project you want to create. In this article, we will talk about their differences and their uses.

Articulate Rise

Features and uses

You can create your course completely on your browser because Articulate Rise is an online tool. That means that you don´t need to download any program on your computer. It’s a cloud-based tool, with a powerful drag-and-drop function included in the browser.

The most important thing about Rise is that it allows you to create content for all screen sizes. That is called “responsive design” and means that your course will adapt to any screen size. Rise is flexible and was developed for pc, notebooks, and mobile phones.

Rise doesn’t have many customization options, which means we have limited control over the look and feel of the content in our courses. But it is an easy-to-use tool, you can learn it in minutes, and allows you to create simple interactions and design a course quickly.

What about localizing courses in Articulate Rise?

Regarding the localization of eLearning courses, Rise supports content creation in multiple languages but unfortunately does not support RTL (right to left) languages at 100%. In this scenario, engineers must create solutions to adapt courses correctly. There are some online tools which can be sued to improve the appearance of an RTL course.

Articulate Storyline

Features and uses

Compared to Articulate Rise, Storyline is a tool with a little more time in the eLearning market. It looks and feels like Microsoft PowerPoint, it consists of a series of slides where you can add content easily.

With Storyline you can create courses from scratch, allowing you to add countless design elements such as graphics, animations, audio, videos, and much more.

In case you don´t have enough experience with eLearning tools, Storyline comes with hundreds of pre-built templates, ready to be customized as you desire.

One of the features of Storyline is that it allows us the creation of attractive and complex interactions in our courses. You can create activities to solve quizzes, games, assessments, etc. Complex interactions include, for example, when a user selects an incorrect answer. The program allows the creation of a custom error message and shows the appropriate explanations.

What about localization courses in Storyline?

As for the localization of eLearning courses, it initially allowed translation through a Word document. Nowadays, Storyline supports XLIFF files, and it simply consists of exporting the content and then importing the translation. The tool supports content in multiple languages, including RTL languages.

Conclusion:

Both tools are powerful in creating eLearning courses. For companies or professionals, Rise works fine. It’s flexible, easy to use and learn, and you can create courses with simple interactions, in record time. The most important feature is that these courses will be flexible and adaptable to any screen.

But if you need to create courses with customized content and complex interactions, Storyline is the best choice. It allows extreme customization of many design elements, including their pre-built templates.

For content localization in multiple languages, both are suitable, but Storyline is a better option, as it supports content creation in RTL.

The post Articulate Rise vs. Storyline: How to Choose the Right Tool appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

While many may not realize it, typography is an art form. Its use and application can impact how a viewer interprets the content presented to them. A simple example is the use of capital letters – today, content presented in all caps is interpreted as yelling.

You may be surprised to learn that there are rules and guidelines for typography and they vary based on the language. This blog will touch on some of the facets of typography and how it impacts content.

Text and Diacrisis

Part of knowing how to design text falls on the ability to give personality and clarity to those words laying in front of us. Written communication significantly improves when those responsible for its graphic representation can identify and accurately apply diacrisis—in other words, are able to visually emphasize fragments as needed to enhance readability.

Diacrisis — “to separate”—is a linguistic resource that implies highlighting or distinguishing some parts of copy from each other. When designing a magazine and formatting a title to differentiate it from the body content; when writing information about a book and we need to differentiate the title of a chapter; or when leaving a note on the refrigerator with a strategically underlined word that requires extra attention from the receptors, we are (in one way or another) applying diacrisis. It is also important to consider that emphasizing some parts over others allows us to manipulate the connotation of a message since we are orientating its meaning in a deliberate direction.

In typography, we have formal variables within the so-called typographic families (or font families) that precisely serve this purpose. The use of uppercase in full words (not really advisable) and quotation marks are considered diacritical signs. Each distinctive type has its own function, which a designer should pay attention to in order to obtain accurate interpretations within the formal parameters of communication.

Distinctive Types

Italic

Compared to regular types, italics are defined by two characteristics: inclination and shape variation (a, a). It should not be confused with the script and roman oblique variables—the first one descends from calligraphy, while the second is slanted, but has no shape variation. Like it or not, we are forced by convention to apply italics when we write certain concepts. Among many, here are some examples:

Pseudonyms and nicknames, only if shown next to the real name — except for kings and queens. E.g.: Ernesto Che Guevara. / Philip I of Castile was Philip the Handsome.

Latinization of species. E.g.: Chamaemelum Nobile, known as chamomile.

Titles of works including paintings, plays, movies, TV shows, paintings, records, newspapers, magazines, etc. E.g.: Last night we watched Phantom Thread.

Names of ships and vehicles. E.g.: Christopher Columbus sailed in the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Foreign words or expressions. E.g.: “There won’t be a next time, capisce?” said the woman.

Emphasized words (called stress in linguistics). E.g.: There’s the truth, and the truth.

Words followed by their definition. E.g.: An error in printing resulting from a mistake in typing is called a typo.

Apart from formal usage, designers might find it suitable to distinguish long segments of text or when they need to give the layout an elegant and expressive voice.

Bold

When it comes to standing out, using weight variables is a good option. Because of its volume, a bold word instantly grabs our attention. Depending on the context, it can be applied for both highlighting specific words and for differentiating text typologies in more “colorful” compositions. Typical usage is found in magazines, where questions from interviews are usually distinguished with bold, while the answers are kept in a normal style.. Although we are referring to the bold, the spectrum of weights in typographic families is usually much wider. Between regular and bold, might stand medium and semi-bold; in turn, after bold, might follow extra bold, black, heavy… The main thing is to achieve the right contrast. Moreover, if used extensively in body text the reading becomes tedious as a result of the extra strain on their eyes.

UPPERCASE

Both lower and uppercase are considered distinctive types, because using one or the other changes, not only the tone of text but also the connotation. You might have seen full capitalization being used to highlight or to imply some sort of solemnity and is reminiscent of the inscriptions at Trajan’s Column (think of how popular it remains in the legal field).

Nevertheless, almost every designer will advise not applying it in that way. The uppercase is linked to a strictly orthographic purpose and its rules (that will vary depending on the language) and shape precedes this end. Therefore, its abuse is most likely to be visually unpleasant. As long as there are other distinctive types available (which there are), full capitalization should be avoided.

Small Caps

No, small caps are not smaller uppercases. Small caps emulate the shape of the uppercase but have the height of the lowercase and a different purpose. Not every font family includes small caps—in fact, these are quite exceptional to find. Computer programs such as Adobe InDesign usually offer within their interfaces, an option to apply small caps, however, what this does is create fake ones through a basic shrinking of the uppercase version. If we compare a real small cap against a fake one automatically generated by software, we will see how different their strokes are. This is essential because small caps are made to converge. Besides working as a very elegant yet modest distinctive type, small caps are to be considered for initialism, Roman numerals (as long as they don’t accompany capitalized words, like proper nouns), etc.

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are punctuation marks that indicate citation, irony, colloquialism, etc. Specifically, they serve to differentiate copy that is typed just as they were written or pronounced. There are many types of quotation marks: double quotes (“ ”), single quotes (‘ ’), guillemets (« »), single angle quotes (‹ ›)[1], typewriter or neutral (” ” / ‘ ’)[2], CJK quotation marks (「 」, ﹁﹂ / 《 》), etc. Needless to say, which ones to use, when, and how to combine them will depend on the conventions and norms of each language (and country). This is something to carefully be aware of while working with different languages. Examples of the hierarchy of quotation marks in some languages (and countries) can be seen below:

English (United States): “…‘…’…”
English (Australia): ‘…“…”…’
French (France): « … “ … ” … »
German: „ ‚ … ‘ “ / » › … ‹ «
Hungarian: „…»…’…’…«…”
Spanish: «…“…‘…’…”…» / “…‘…’…”

Color

In a monochromic context, a subtle way to highlight or differentiate specific fragments of text may be through color. Even so, because of technique or budget constraints, it is not common to see color used this way, for example, in books or newspapers. However, in digital media, there is more freedom to use it because it is more easily applied.

Conclusion – Dos, and Don’ts

Dos

Choose fonts foreseeing the diacritical needs of each scenario. Distinctive typographies—such as the small caps—are not available in every existing font. Moreover, we might find out some fonts do not have a proper range of quotation marks. So, when we know our work will demand specific elements or variations we must, first of all, find a font family that best suits our project needs.

Check usage correctness. Each variable has its own function. Italics are not the same as quotation marks, and the uppercase is indeed not a replacement for the small caps. When in doubt, researching these rules will improve communication.

Check context. Some scenarios are more formal than others. Strict citation styles for academic writing like APA, Chicago, or MLA have rigorous instructions to guarantee homogeneity. On the other hand, other contexts may allow designers to break the existing rules and explore creativity.

Don’ts

Avoid redundancy. One distinctive type may be enough. Applying several in the same composition when not necessary, will cause the opposite of what it is meant to. Less is more.

Don’t think about it as an ornament. Distinctive types aren’t to be understood aesthetically, but functionally.

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In the language service industry, multilingual desktop publishing professionals are usually in charge of making documents suitable for cost-effective translations. Whether these are single-page legal documents or extensive high-resolution magazines created with professional layout programs such as InDesign. This step, called file preparation, generally consists of reviewing and fixing technical and structural issues that may cause trouble during the translation phase. Yet, the job of DTP does not stop there. After the translation is done, it is up to the DTP team to adjust and reformat the file to accommodate the translated copy until it is ready to accomplish its purpose: to be printed, published, uploaded, sent, etc.

While estimating a budget for multilingual desktop publishing projects is not difficult, a thorough review of all facets of the file must be taken into consideration to fully calculate the full scope of work required, and ultimately the cost.

Defining the Project Scope

When a quote is requested, the client is asked to provide a complete set of source files known as the “Localization Kit”, this includes all the corresponding native files (the editable format the file was originally generated in) whenever possible, as well as any other auxiliary files (like fonts and images) that were used in the original layout. Having the editable version of the file is crucial to ensure, not just accurate results, but also a cost-effective quotation. You can read more about this topic here.

The team needs to gather certain information that will shape the scope of the project—some specific to the translation step and some to desktop publishing, like: 

• What desktop publishing applications were used to create the documentation (Microsoft Word, InDesign, etc.)?
• What is the final format the client would like for the deliverable?
• Are there any graphics or screen captures within the documents to be localized and formatted separately?
• Can the client provide all the required fonts?
• Can the client provide all the extra material used (photos, graphics, or any other embedded files)?

Turnaround time: expectation vs. possibility

The client will most likely have a deadline in mind, but after the desktop file evaluation is completed, the proposed turnaround time may not coincide with the client’s original expectation. The localization company will analyze the case and allocate resources to achieve this request which may impact pricing.

Evaluation for Budget Estimation

When it comes to estimating the number of working hours required for a desktop publishing project, each company, team, and specialist may follow its own process. Regardless of how the estimate is done, it most likely is a combination of the following factors: 

Number of pages

As DTP is mainly involved in the layout of documents, the main metric unit is not the number of words—this concerns the linguists in the project—, but the number of pages (pages, slides, sheets, graphics, etc.) of the target file. Based on the number of pages to edit and factor in the level of complexity for each page as a variable, we can estimate the number of pages to be handled per hour of work.

Source and target languages

Will the scoped translation require small or major layout adjustments? For example, a project might involve fully re-adapting the page structure to change the reading direction from left to right into right to left text or vice versa. A document that requires multilingual desktop publishing from Arabic into Spanish, will take more time than the same document being formatted from French into Spanish. There are other factors like the average text expansion and contraction from one language to another: English into German may expand up to 35% or contract up to 50% when the target language is Japanese!

File format

The number of pages worked per hour will be influenced by the file format (.jpg, .png, .mp4, .psd, .ai, .doc, .ppt, .xls, and more). Each file format has at least one editing tool with its own complexity and interface limitations. Depending on the file, editing in a program such as PowerPoint can be a bit faster than working with Adobe Illustrator or InDesign files, since these are far more detail orientated and professional compared to PowerPoint.

Assigned Desktop Publishers (DTPers)

There are companies with many desktop publishing employees, there are others with just a few and, there are also others that prefer using external resources (freelance workers). There are projects where the quality might be compromised if split between two or more people whereas larger, segmented files, are easier to parse out to multiple DTPers. Dividing tasks can be considered to save time as long as it doesn’t affect the overall quality of the final product.

File anomalies

Providing incomplete or damaged source files may require adding re-creation costs to the localization process. Tasks like source or graphics re-creation are most likely added when the working files are partially or entirely non-editable.

Quality Assurance

After the translated file is desktop published, the quality assurance (QA) phase starts. The team reviews the file (sometimes by external resources) to ensure that all copy has been properly set, including adherence to typesetting guidelines for the language. This QA task is also included in the cost estimate. The time for this task can be calculated proportionally considering the desktop publishing time. For instance, if DTP requires 6 hours of work, QA could be a third of that time, 2 hours.

Conclusion

To sum up, the number of pages, source and target languages, file format, the condition of the source files, the clients’ parameters on accommodating expanded text, and other factors must be considered when calculating budgets for multilingual desktop publishing projects. While there isn’t a defined process for estimating a multilingual DTP project, there are key components that must be analyzed and, as experience is gained, intuition slides in as a key variable to the formula.

Multilingual desktop publishing is an essential component of the localization process. GPI’s translation and desktop publishing teams produce language versions of user guides, instruction manuals, books, reports, packaging, training slides, scripts, and marketing collateral, among other forms of content. 

 The benefits of working with GPI for multilingual desktop publishing include: 

• Highly-skilled DTPers on multiple applications such MS-Office, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Articulate Storyline, etc.
• Years of experience working with various document types from simple business cards and brochures, to complex technical manuals and video subtitles utilizing XML.
• Client-driven authoring and publishing workflows.

Training and consultation are available on desktop publishing and design best practices to help companies minimize the time and cost of multilingual DTP.

Learn more about this service here.

The post How to Budget for Multilingual Desktop Publishing appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

As a brand owner, once you are ready to take the next step and look to growth and expansion, you need to make your brand global. Whether it is targeting a new demographic in your country or the international market; counting on an experienced localization service is crucial for your product or service to accurately enter the global market.

Localization companies must be able to ensure excellence, not just in translation, but on every level of the process. Within the localization process, those who work on the graphic aspects of a request are the multilingual desktop publishers. You might have not heard of it, but these design specialists have a key role in the localization business.

The What

What Graphic Designers Do

Graphic designers are visual encoders that use text and images to create effective messages and transform information into posters, books, magazines, brochures, flyers, billboards, signage, etc. Fields such as typography, color theory, branding, editorial design, layout, and printing or packaging are directly related to this profession.

What Desktop Publishers Do

Desktop publishing—also known as “DTP”— began with the early personal desktop computers and a set of tools that allowed users to manipulate layout design in documents for printing purposes. Over the years, technology expanded DTP tasks to numerous formats and platforms: multimedia, website content, mobile applications, and e-learning courses just to mention a few.

What Multilingual Desktop Publishers Do

As the title itself points out, being a multilingual desktop publisher means being able to do traditional DTP in addition to having knowledge of different language conventions so that the final piece is properly localized into a targeted culture.

When working for translation purposes, one must foresee that the translated written content will be significantly different from its source appearance, yet it will need to fit the same structures. Think of not just orthotypographic differences (sign conventions, writing in figures, punctuation, diacritical marks, etc.). but also in how much the shape of the text could change from one language to another (typography, volume of text, direction, hyphenation, etc.). The desktop publisher must be aware of all of this first while preparing a document and then while re-editing it in order to preserve the style guide and fit the original layout.

Software and File Formats Commonly Used by Desktop Publishers

Adobe is probably the most requested software provider in the professional design field. Designers and desktop publishers generally work with Adobe InDesign/.indd (for editorial design), Adobe Illustration/.ai (for illustrations and vector graphics) and Adobe Photoshop/.psd (for photo editing). In addition, Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Word/.docx, Microsoft Excel/.xlsx, or Microsoft PowerPoint/.pptx are also frequently used.

The How

1. The Need

Imagine you represent a company that is looking forward to expanding into the market of a foreign language speaking country. To do so, your company needs to localize a printable brochure that promotes a list of products under your brand in the language(s) of that country.

2. The Request

You contact a well-qualified localization services company, define the scope of the project with them, request a quotation for the job, and send the native files (the editable format that the file was originally generated in).

3. File preparation

To start the process, the DTP team will prepare the file for translation. File preparation consists of fixing issues that may cause trouble during the translation phase. This task includes fixing segmentation, flow, and typographic formats or even recreating whenever we find non-editable files or images.

Another task is to review the images and other style elements to determine if it suitable for the target region and advise the client if any of these elements should be changed in order for the translated piece to be well-received in the target country.

4. Translation

Once the file is ready, it is sent to the translation team. When this job is done, they send the file back to the DTP team, who will receive it this time with its content in the target language.

5. Formatting

When desktop publishers first open the translated file, it is typical to find a document—visually speaking—in terrible conditions. Is up to DTP to re-format the translated content so that it looks and works well again. This stage can include changing fonts (if the originals are not compatible with the target written system), adjusting sizes and other character and paragraph properties (when text is overset or does not fit properly), moving elements, checking color schemes, setting hyperlinks, correcting table of contents pagination, changing reading direction, and etc.

6. Review

Finally, after the translated file is desktop published, the quality assurance (QA) phase starts. The file is reviewed by a team of linguists to ensure that all copy has been properly set, including word breaks, special characters, and other items that are language-specific. At this point, the file(s) are presented to the client for review and feedback. If there are any comments from the client the DTP team takes the file back and implements each of the requested changes.

The brochure is now ready to land in new territories.

The Why

As explained in the above scenario, multilingual desktop publishing is an essential component in the localization process. These specialists work closely with the material from the beginning to the very last step, preserving integrity in every aspect of the design. This is substantial for any brand that needs to earn its place in markets through a solid visual identity and quality communication.

One tip

In order to help multilingual desktop publishers achieve great results for your brand, provide them with the corresponding editable files whenever possible, as well as any other auxiliary files (like fonts and images) that were used in the original layout. Having the editable version of the file to be translated is crucial to ensure that the final product is accurate and the quotation is cost-effective. So, make sure your designers have these available for when this happens. You can read more about this subject here.

The post How Multilingual Desktop Publishing and Design Can Help Your Brand appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

The graphic script on storyboards is an excellent tool to visualize and present all information needed when creating an eLearning course. It helps us unify a multitude of information such as graphics, texts, time, effects, intentions, feedback, etc. Storyboards are essential to carry out work in which different components and steps coexist. In this blog, let me show you some tips on how to easily create an eLearning script.

What is the difference between Script and Storyboard?

The simplest example to define a script is similar to the way we describe an animation scene. When we want to make a scene, we need to prepare a detailed description of the following aspects before we work on recording audios or animation sequence:

• camera shots and movements
• the characters’ expressions
• what we want to emphasize in each scene
• dramatization of the scenes

Considering all the above points is an important step to approaching something more complex: the Storyboard.

In a Storyboard, we can consolidate the visual part, the narrative, and the technique in a summarized yet informative way.

Key points before creating a Storyboard

Building the storyboard requires several key elements to be carried out. First, we need to decide on what type of storyboard will be the most suitable for our project.

There are three types of basic storyboards:

1. Text-based, it’s essentially a detailed description.
2. Graphics-based, the text will serve to provide support and to add only the necessary information.
3. Prototyping sample, this is more complex in addition to using text and image, it includes functional elements, and can even contain animations or audible support.

Building an eLearning Script

Objectives and purposes of the Storyboard

There are many styles of storyboards depending on the functionalities we want to use them for. However, to define this aspect we must consider these important questions first:

• What story are we going to tell?
• What is our beginning, development, and ending?
• What do we want to convey?
• What language style are we going to use? Formal, casual, etc.
• How do we want our audience to react?
• Will there be an interaction between our eLearning course and the learner?

After answering these questions, we will have essential elements to work on. Generally, this process is going to be repeated throughout the eLearning development lifecycle.

Essential elements of a Storyboard

Manager: we will always have a reference person in each section of our Storyboard, whom to consult for content, animation, etc.

Script: the essential reference text for everyone involved to be always on the “same page”.

Graphic elements: the graphic support, animations, photography, color palette, typographies, etc.

Feedback: the multimedia job is ever collaborative. For this reason, we need to reserve a space for feedback.

In addition, we can include estimated durations, execution phases, effects descriptions, audio script, and everything that is relevant to our eLearning project. As every eLearning course has the same degree of importance, so logically, any storyboard is going to be equally important as well.

What are the benefits of working with a Storyboard?

• Allows collaborative work.
• It is flexible. We can modify it. It means, we can consider it as an evolving part of our project.
• It allows the objectives to be clearly stated and design the best possible work strategy.
• It allows establishing a system and specific work dynamic.
• It also allows us to improve our communication and language resources, such as to look for new ways to improve our workflows. Thus, optimizing both processes and the final product.

In conclusion, the Storyboard is a powerful vehicle to develop an eLearning script and allows space for creativity.

The post How to Create an eLearning Script? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

The “&” or ampersand (in English) is certainly one of the most attractive glyphs in the Latin writing system. Originally conceived for economic purposes – the economy of time, economy of space, economy of energies—, with time, the ampersand acquired some elegance and became gifted. For example, an & can promote mere associations to a brand status just by showing up. “Dolce and Gabbana”, “The Velvet Underground and Nico”… sound the same, but look downgraded if not used.

For some reason, this curvy and august character tempts us to exploit its possibilities each time a sentence meets an and, but at the same time, its usage seems limited to rare and privileged occasions—which perhaps, makes it more appealing.

So, what is this symbol? What does it mean? Where did it come from and what is its role in modern writing?

What It Is, What It Means

Better known as the “and” sign, the character & (the ampersand) is a logogram¹ used to substitute the conjunction and. Behind its multiple shape variations is the merging of the letters e and t, since & is, precisely, a ligature² for et—the Latin word for and.

History

Although the exact moment of the birth of the ampersand remains unknown, evidence of its usage dates back to the Roman civilization. The oldest known et ligature appears as graffiti on a wall from the remains of Pompeii; buried under the ashes of the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption in the year 79 AD.

The ampersand managed to reach different languages as the Roman Empire spread.

Centuries later, because of its space-saving quality, scribes first, then typesetters, made extensive use of this ligature in running text—contrary to how it is used in modern writing. In this way, the & was used as a replacement for and whenever a line got too crowded.

It is also worth mentioning the parallel existence of a Tironian et (⁊), designed around the year 100 BC by Marcus Tullius Tiro (Cicero’s secretary) as part of his shorthand system³, known as Tironian notes.

…derived neither from the original Roman letters E and T, nor from their minuscule forms —e and t— but from a scribal abbreviation used in the Tironian notation system. […] The forms of the Tironian notes had almost nothing to do with the Roman alphabet but consisted of unmodulated strokes that carefully differentiated between oblique, vertical and horizontal⁴.

The Tironian et faded after the 1st century but had quite a comeback during the Gothic period. Yet, this script never shared a single piece of writing with the ampersand.

_{Jan Tschichold. A brief history of the ampersand. From left to right: Tironian et, Pompeiian graffiti (79 AD), early Roman cursive (131 AD), two late Roman cursives (mid-4th century), two manuscripts (before 509 AD and 7th century), from Anglo-Saxon Gospel book (8th century), from English Pontifical (10th century) and from Flemish Bible (around 1160).}

In the present day, the digital advantages of the OpenType expanded character sets allow flexibility, variety, and reminiscence in typography. A font family, for example, Adobe Garamond Premier Pro has ten different ampersands distributed among its Roman and italic versions, while Poetica (by Robert Slimbach) offers a total of 62 variations.

Despite of many writing variations, we usually distinguish two main streams or versions. Firstly, a roman glyph, which follows the Carolingian stroke, which we know and use the most. On the other hand, an italic variable that emulates later cursive et ligatures from the Renaissance resembles more the word itself. Even though styles and variations are frequent, it is by no means a rule in modern typography design.

About Its Contemporary Naming

An explanation to its English designation, ampersand, can be related to & being taught alongside the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet until the nineteenth century.

As explained in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Starting in the late Middle Ages, single letters that also functioned as words—think I and A—were referred to as letters with the aid of the phrase per se, to clarify that it was the letter being referred to, and not the word. […] When the 27th quasi-letter & was referred to it was called & per se, and, meaning “& by itself (is the word) and.” That read as “and per se and”⁵.

Eventually, English speakers summarized this “and per se, and” expression into “ampersand”.

The French, on the other hand, went straight to the definition. The word for & is esperluette. This derives from es-per-lou-et, which is the Occitan equivalent for the French C’est pour le « et »: “it is for the and”. Crystal clear.

In Spanish, we simply call it et, honoring its Latin roots.

When and When Not to Use It

In Spanish writing, its use faces a functional dilemma, as the word for and is y, and it is simpler to draw than the ampersand itself. In which case, choosing to replace the word y with the ligature & will be a matter of aesthetics (and perhaps snobbery, too) rather than practicality.

Regardless of the language and despite its former purposes, using & as a replacement for the word and in running text is perceived as a grammar mistake and should be avoided, with some exceptions.

Most common usage of the ampersand:

In commercial-related matters such as business partnerships and, branding and logo design (Tiffany & Co., Johnson & Johnson).

In certain fields, to denote professional collaborations (“Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino & Roger Roberts Avery”).

In abbreviations that include the word and (B&B for bed and breakfast, R&B for rhythm and blues).

In academic writing, formal style guides like APA encourage its use in the citation when the source has more than one author.

The Latin expression et cetera (meaning and so forth)—frequently identified with etc.—can also be written &c.

¹ In a written language, a logogram is a character that represents a word or morpheme. All ten digits of the Arabic numeral system are logograms: 4 designates four. Moreover, it can be found in Chinese characters, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and even cuneiform scripts, dating back in the Bronze Age. You might be already familiar with logograms such as % (meaning percent), £ (meaning pound), or @ (meaning at).

² A ligature is the result of the merging of two or more letters into one. For example, ae into æ. From modern alphabets, letter w is the result of the merging of vivo and uu, and ñ was originally created to replace nn. The equivalent Armenian word for and—եւ—also has its own ligature: և.

³ This and future shorthand systems, were created with the intention of speeding up the writing process.

⁴ Tschichold, Jan. A brief history of the ampersand. Paris, Zeug, 2018.

The post Ampersand: The History Behind the Glyph appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

If we look at the movie posters around us, we would probably feel those behind them follow the same formula every single time. The cinema industry gets more competitive every day, and taking creative risks or delegating the task to independent designers seems to be neglected in the process. In general, as long as a movie poster presents commercially relevant data, like genre, actors, awards or box office numbers, the goal is achieved. But this wasn’t always so.

Just a few decades ago, movie posters would rarely cross their local border, due to logistical obstacles, disparity of resources or military conflicts. This global scenario gave artists and designers the opportunity to propose very different images from the originals.

Devil’s Temple / 鬼の棲む館 (1969). Kenji Misumi.
Japan (left): Japanese photomontages overflow with contrasting scales and text.

Poland (right): By Tomasz Rumiński. Polish designers understood the potential of color and framing.

Posters and Cinema

Posters, as we know them, began in France in the mid-nineteenth century. By 1895, during the first public screenings of the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe, they were already settled as the main channel of advertising in every corner of Paris. Cinema industry was, then, born and immediately found its everlasting ally.

Films started traveling the world, but countries reserved the right to create their own movie posters. Each of them handled the task in different ways, chasing different ambitions and under different circumstances.

During Hollywood’s Golden Age (from the 1920s to 1960s), the success of the star system as a recipe for blockbusters set a canon for movie posters that lasted for decades—this is: highlighting the movie star (and main attraction) with recognizable faces and big names. However, with the American counterculture, old Hollywood stepped aside. The New Hollywood movie posters showed rejection for these earlier standards.

Across the ocean, groundbreaking movie posters from the Russian avant-garde in the 1920s (like those from the Stenberg brothers) were created as an answer to the nation’s new political agenda. But these years of fruitful experimentation came soon to an end, when Socialist realism was declared “the official style of Soviet culture” ¹.

In contrast with the mentioned situations, adaptations from Central and Eastern European and Cuban designers from the second half of the twentieth century approached true individual artistic freedom. None of them was being directed by profits or official aesthetics. Of this group, the unsetting and vibrant metaphors from the Polish School of Posters stand out.

The Godfather (1972). Francis Ford Coppola.
USA (left): This is a New Hollywood poster. Having been made a decade before, this sober (yet solemn) design by S. Neil Fujita would have been very different.

Poland (middle): Tomasz Rumiński’s version replaced the earnest concept from the USA design for bitterness. Colors are used to emphasize certain feelings, like expressionists from the early twentieth century.

Cuba (right): “I strongly believe in humor. It is a palliative to enjoy what is expressed”² says the author, Antonio Pérez Ñico.

Virtues and Limitations

Each country created posters according to the technology available at the time of production. Nevertheless, these limitations generally end up defining the artistic profile of a certain group. For example, the so celebrated visual rhetoric of poster designing from post-revolutionary Cuba—all commissioned by the ICAIC—would not have been the same without the screen printing.

The same nation-technique alliance emerged around the 1960s between Japan and their signature photomontages (inherited from Berlin Dadaists) with retouched photos that displayed their dominance overcrowded compositions. In addition, hand-painted movie posters from Bollywood are so bound to Indian identity that transition to the digital era is perceived by many as an offense to tradition and a threat to those dedicated to this craft.

Medea (1969). Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Italy (left): Despite belonging to a subsequent generation, it shares attributes with the Italian neorealism posters.

Japan (middle): The superposition of scenes leads to the expressive eyes of Medea in the background.

Poland (right): By Andrzej Bertrandt. Maria Callas’ silhouette is made of flames. Although the concept is the same as the Japanese version (Medea and the fire), the result is completely different.

Reflecting a Movement

Cinematic movements shaped not only filmmaking but also poster designing. For instance, while movie posters for German expressionism are likely to have nightmarish chiaroscuro, distorted angles and sharp forms, the gloomy paintings for Italian neorealism will focus on the characters and their dramas. You can guess the link between the Soviet montage and their posters.

Some say movie posters reached their creative peak during the 1960s when the young, rebellious and experimental filmmakers of the French New Wave—or Nouvelle Vague—associated with likewise designers to reinforce a spirit that would spread all over the world.

Stolen kisses / Baisers volés (1968). Francois Truffaut.

France (top left): From Nouvelle Vague artistic director René Ferracci. This picture is actually part of a poster series.

Hungary (top right): Drawn movie frames designed by András Máté, key artist from the colorful poster scene in the 1960s. The tagline references another Truffaut film, The 400 Blows, which is unusual for both the time and place.

USA (bottom left): Resembles the classic style of the New Hollywood era designs by Frankfurt and Gips. See their work for Rosemary’s baby (USA, 1968), Dracula has risen from the grave (England, 1968) Downhill racer (USA, 1969) or Emmanuelle (France, 1974).

Cuba (bottom right): By René Azcuy. Another example of remarkable Cuban poetry. The screen printing technique is at the service of an unpretentious joke (or is it the other way around?).

To see a more detailed study of this case, please, check out the amazing article on François Truffaut’s Stolen Kisses by Adrian Curry.

Conclusion

Nowadays, some of these adaptations endure hanging on walls—mine included—reduced to an ornament purpose, by their aesthetic value rather than the historical. Even so, what’s most attractive about them manifests only through a comparison exercise. Then, at least one fact is exposed: context is not invisible.

Cabaret (1972). Bob Fosse. EE.UU.
USA (left): By graphic designer Joe Caroff, who created some of the most iconic posters and logos from the 1960s onward. See West Side Story (1961), Last Tango in Paris (1972) or The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

Poland (right): A whole different movie for Wiktor Gorka.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Movie Poster of the Week by Adrian Curry.

The Poster Boys, blog and podcast.

Film movements: A beginner’s guide.

Cartelismos por Sebastián Vivarelli.

French New Wave film posters: ‘They broke the rules’ by Killian Fox.

The Polish School of Posters by Eugenia Luchetta.

50 watts archive.

The post Lost in Translation: How Movie Posters Changed Over Time appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

In October, Adobe broadcast its annual conference called Adobe MAX 2020. Led by Shantanu Narayen; Chairman, President & CEO; and Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer, the main motto of the event, viewed by half a million people, was: “Now more than ever the world needs creativity.” It was an accurate introduction to what they showed. New products include Adobe Illustrator for the iPad, Photoshop Express, Photoshop Camera, and Adobe Spark. And as always, Adobe continues to release updates for their software.

Also in October, Adobe delivered an October 2020 release (version 16.0) of Adobe InDesign, which is part of the Creative Cloud Applications. Adobe InDesign is oftentimes used as a graphic design and digital publications tool. Since October, Adobe has delivered a few small updates (16.0.1 and 16.0.2). In this blog post, we’ll describe the new features in version 16.0.

Review Content Seamlessly with Text Annotations

Share for Review now has enhanced text editing capabilities to provide a more seamless experience for content reviewers. It offers a new set of tools such as highlight text, insert text and strikethrough text.

Image Credit: Adobe

Locate Colors in Documents

You can now search for all instances of color in InDesign. You can then replace the color with another color or delete the color. You can search from the Colors panel as well from the Find/Change window.

Image Credit: Adobe

Detect Subjects and Wrap Text Intelligently

You can detect a subject and wrap text in an image intelligently—no more manual work of finding the subject and using the pen tool to wrap the subject. Wrap text around the contours of a subject directly without needing Alpha Channels or Photoshop paths. You can do this work with the intelligent wrap functionality powered by the new Adobe Sensei engine.

Image Credit: Adobe

Use HSB Values without RGB Translation

When you use HSB values to set colors, you now don’t have to translate color values into RGB values. You can set HSB values wherever color values can be set, including swatches.

Image Credit: Adobe

Detect Damaged Documents and Recover Them

Sometimes a document can become damaged, so it won’t open when you try to open it. The new version of InDesign can attempt to recover the file from the Adobe servers. When you try to open a damaged file, a dialog window will appear and offer to troubleshoot and restore the document. This saves you time troubleshooting.

Image Credit: Adobe

Use Navigation Points to Start Videos in a Different Place

If you have a video that you want to start playing in a spot other than the start, you can set a navigation point at one or more specific sections. You can set this precise navigation in the media panel.

Image Credit: Adobe

Conclusion

Adobe has added some new and exciting features to InDesign. Like all Adobe applications, the 16.0 release will keep evolving every time an update is released.

The post What’s New in The Latest Version of Adobe InDesign? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

When translating an InDesign File, SDL Trados Studio can be used to process it. To maximize this capability, it is important to consider some factors for optimizing the translation and DTP processes.

INDD vs. IDML

Documents generated by Adobe InDesign are saved by default as INDD files (InDesign Document). However, the software allows files to be saved in other formats, too. Since version CS4, Adobe replaced the outdated INX format with the IDML format.

Translatable Format

IDML stands for “InDesign Markup Language”. The main difference between IDML and INDD files is that InDesign Document files can only be opened by the same Adobe InDesign version they were generated with (or above).

While IDML files are backward compatible, i.e., they can be opened with any version of the program (above the version CS4, in which this format was launched).

Why this is important when preparing files for translation.

By default, the Trados option to process InDesign-generated files is disabled. However, it can be enabled very easily for a project or by default for all projects created from then on.

If this option is enabled, Trados will be able to process IDML files, but never INDD. To do so, go to File – Options – Adobe Indesign CS4-CC IDML – Common and check the “Process unsupported file versions” checkbox.

Conversely, to enable this option for a specific project, the same configuration must be set (following the same options) in Filetype Settings section when creating the project and before adding the files. It should be noted that this change in configuration is not retroactive, i.e., it cannot be applied to an ongoing project already created.

Other Configuration Options that May Be Useful

In the same dialog window where Trados can process IDML files, there are useful options such as:

• To include (or not) the track changes in document processing.
• To extract (or not) the content on hidden layers, cross references, master pages, etc.
• To ignore (or not) the characters that determine word breaks or line breaks.

Segmentation

One of the main aspects to consider when preparing files to process and translate is fixing the segmentation. The segmentation of our source file may be intentionally altered in order to visually and harmoniously organize the text to ease its readability in the final format.

While this decision drives better readability, it affects the overall text during translation. The wrong segmentation of sentences can cause a change in meaning or even a contradiction.

Solving this problem is easy. All characters that are interpreted in Trados Studio to end or break a segment must be deleted. To do so, you must first make sure you are seeing them. They are shown in blue by default among printable characters.

More information: List of hidden characters symbols in InDesign.

If the view is disabled, it must be enabled in Type – Show Hidden Characters (Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + I).

Once the view of hidden characters is enabled, those that are breaking a segment must be deleted. These are generally paragraph marks and soft returns, but also wrong use of periods, tabs, consecutive spaces, etc. During this phase, functionality is more important than aesthetics.

It is important to note that all linked content, such as EPS, AI or PSD graphics, must be prepared and processed separately, following the proper considerations for each format.

Master Pages

The content in master pages of InDesign documents must not be ignored because, if it is not translated, then it will not be shown properly.

In order to prepare it, the same criteria described for the general content of the document must be followed. If there is content to be excluded from translation, the following steps can be considered.

Excluding or Blocking Content from Translation

To exclude one or more text boxes from translation in Studio, they must be moved to a separate layer and that layer must be blocked in the IDML file that will be processed. It should be noted that text boxes cannot be partially excluded or blocked.

After Translation

Before the Desktop Publishing phase, some general parameters may be considered in order to facilitate and optimize the DTP task.

Right to Left Languages

If the target language of the document that needs to be translated is an “RTL” language, meaning that it is read and written from right to left, Adobe InDesign has a very useful feature to reflect the disposition so that it will be interpreted properly: Layout – Reverse Layout.

More information: Arabic and Hebrew features in InDesign

Hyphenation

InDesign has dictionaries used mainly to split words in syllables. In a recently translated file, the dictionary will be set to the original language of the document. It is important to modify it in the character menu, particularly if automatic hyphenation is enabled.

Justified Paragraphs

Text boxes with justified alignment must be checked in order to correct the spacing errors that this property generally creates. To do so, a menu is accessed in the Paragraph – Justification window (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Alt + J) that allows to set the minimum, desired and maximum values of Letter Spacing, Word Spacing and Glyph Scaling.

Values vary according to languages. For example, those with longer words, such as German, need more space.

In Summary

As you could read above, SDL Trados Studio can become a powerful ally when translating Adobe InDesign files. But it is critical to take the time to set it up before processing the INDDs to maximize all their capabilities.

The post Adobe InDesign Tips and Tricks for Translation Projects appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Hebrew, along with Arabic, is one of Israel’s official languages. Hebrew language history as a spoken language goes back many years in time; in fact, Hebrew is one of the oldest known living languages that’s currently still spoken. It’s culturally considered the Jewish language. Hebrew is spoken by 7 million people in Israel. The United States is the second-largest Hebrew-speaking country with approximately 200,000 people, and Hebrew is also followed by Jewish diaspora (Jews living outside Israel) worldwide communities.

Hebrew Language History

Hebrew was first documented in the Old Testament of the Bible. Historically, Hebrew has been a very widely spoken language. It was considered a sacred language. Mishnaic Hebrew was the last dialect that was spoken as a native language in the region of Israel prior to the downfall of Hebrew.

Until 1880, Hebrew was not spoken as a native language in any land. During this period, it was exclusively spoken instead as a liturgical language used in religious ceremonies and prayers.

The Rise of Hebrew

Hebrew did not experience a rebirth as a natively spoken language until the late 19th century, while the primary surge was experienced in 1880. Modern Hebrew is mutually intelligible, meaning speakers of different but related dialects can generally understand each other, among most Jewish communities worldwide.

In today’s world, Modern Hebrew is spoken in everyday use in Israel and other Jewish communities worldwide (for everyday use), and Classical Hebrew is practiced for prayer and historical studies with Hebrew literature.

Hebrew Translation and Layout Tips

The Hebrew language has some characteristics that require special attention, whether you’re laying out content for a document, localizing a website or localizing software. For example, the Hebrew writing style is right to left, so when translating an editorial document such as a manual, book or brochure, you must change the layout to right to left. Some authoring programs such as Adobe InDesign and Adobe FrameMaker offer a reverse layout functionality, which is one of the most useful options when working with a Hebrew or Arabic file.

Here are some other interesting characteristics of Hebrew. The language doesn’t have capital letters. And five letters change their shape when they’re in the last position of the word: 

• mem (sounds like an “M”)
• nun (sounds like an “N”)
• pei (sounds like a “P”)
• tzadik (sounds like a “TZ” conjunction)
• jaf (sounds like a “J”)

Hebrew is a Semitic language, and like most of the early Semitic alphabetic writing systems, the alphabet has no vowels. Normally it only uses consonants, but diacritical marks above and below the letters are often added to indicate vowels as pronunciation aids when required. These dots and dashes are named nikud, which means “applying dots” and are written above, below or inside the letters. Text containing nikud is called “pointed” text. They don’t alter the spacing of the line.

Conclusion

The Hebrew language has a unique history as one of the oldest known living languages that are currently still spoken. Its nuances require attention during the translation process.

Hebrew Translation Services

If you’re considering translating some assets into Hebrew, you’ll want to select a translation vendor that specializes in Hebrew given the nuances of the language.

The post The Hebrew Language: History and Translation Tips appeared first on Globalization Partners International.