English to Urdu and Punjabi translation with desktop publishing

Tomedes prides itself on being more than just a translation company. Our business is not just about swapping one word for another, but about understanding the context of the client’s translation request and providing a translator who is ideally suited to their needs. This includes client requirements for services such as localization and desktop publishing. 

A recent client was able to take full advantage of our multifaceted service offering. He had a batch of product information leaflets that he wanted translated from English into Urdu and Punjabi. The leaflets contained not just written descriptions, but also a series of labelled images. The client required all of the text (including that related to the images) to be translated into Urdu and Punjabi and for the translations to be laid out and formatted in the same way as the original. 

This was not a problem for Tomedes. We reviewed the client’s needs and then quoted him a great value price for the work, including the desktop publishing. He was pleased to find out what good value for money Tomedes offered and asked us to proceed immediately with the translation. 

A handy hint when you need to format a document that you’re translating is to first use the Tomedes word count ratio tool. This tool allows you to compare the number of words in your original language to the approximate number in your target language. For instance, 1,000 words of English equates to roughly 1,054 words in Urdu and around 1,150 words in Punjabi. This is important knowledge if you’re planning to translate a brochure, leaflet or other document with limited space into another language, as you need to be sure there will be sufficient space for the translated text. 

Of course for the professional Tomedes desktop publishing team such issues are an everyday part of the service. For this client, our top Urdu translator got to work at once, as did our leading Punjabi translator. The two worked simultaneously in order that the client would receive his translations in good time. 

The desktop publishing team also worked hard to produce the two new language versions of the client’s leaflets in a format that directly mirrored his originals. The client was impressed by the results. The documents included word-perfect translation and looked remarkably similar to his originals. Another happy Tomedes client!