Design Tips for Spanish
and other romance languages

Designing your English versions for translation into Spanish, French, Italian, or Portuguese?

Here are some tips to save you time and money...
and a lot of aggravation!

1. Allow more white space than usual for your English text, because translation into all of the languages will typically expand your space requirements from 15-25%.
   
2. Tight text in the English will mean extreme editing of your translated versions. So, allocate your space as you design your documents leaving enough white space for expansion. Then you'll be able to leave graphics in place and keep the same pagination for both versions.
   
3. Clever ad copy in English usually is not very clever in another language. Edit out those cute double meanings or terribly clever headlines that can't bridge the culture gaps. Write your English with the target language in mind. Keep sentences short and relatively simple.
   
4. Establish a close relationship with an experienced translation agency before you finalize your document design. You'll avoid a lot of time-consuming and costly errors!

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