Technical translations: understanding your business

When translating a technical document it is of course of immense importance that the translator should know exactly what the document is about. The technical translators at our technical translation agency Noorderlicht have a technical background and are at home in various sectors and industries, such as automation, IT and software, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, environmental science, architecture, shipping and the automotive industry.

If you want to have a manual, technical website, software, user instructions or construction drawing translated, you can confidently hand this over to us. Your translation will be carried out by one of our specialist technical translators and then carefully proofread by a second native speaker in the target language. If necessary, we will carry out additional research into the topic, we will find reference material, and we will put specific questions to the client or another expert in the field in question. You can rest assured that your technical translation is in good hands with our technical translators.

If you would like to have a technical text translated into an Eastern European or non-European language, it can make a difference to the price if you supply the original text in English. In that case we can have the technical translation carried out in the country in question, which is usually less expensive than having it translated in The Netherlands. This will keep your costs down.

The technical translation of manuals, specification sheets and reports often includes not just the translation of plain text but also the translation of images, tables, graphs and figures. Obviously it is important that the translated text should also fit into the figures. But that is easier said than done for your DTP person if he or she is not familiar with the target language. In this case it is a good idea to have us check the pdfs of the proof before the printing stage. We will carefully check that everything is positioned correctly, that no text or symbols have been lost during the preparation work, and that all the words have been hyphenated correctly. If necessary, we will consult with the publisher to clarify everything.

We can also handle the whole project for you and produce the DTP in InDesign for you ourselves. In the case of languages such as Russian, Arabian, Chinese or Japanese this can definitely make life easier for you. Ask us about the options.