A translation is a faithful (as far as the original message is concerned) reproduction of the source text. It says no more (but no less!) than what stated in the original text. When localising, we adapt a text to the cultural differences of the receiving audience, and also to their expectations, so that the text sounds acceptable and logical. In order to do this, relevant changes are made (currencies, measurement units, order of text sections and text length, phone numbers, etc.).

The result of localisation is a text completely adapted to the expectations of the Italian culture. For example, when localising a product manual, we will change the links and names of your Customer Support Team from say, your French Team to your Italian Team, so to avoid your Italian customers calling up a team who cannot speak Italian. Sometimes, important parts of a product – such as its name – have to be adapted or even changed because it would sound too ‘weird’ or even insulting to the receiving culture, or it may evoke other products in the mind of Italians or have connotations that neither Italians or you, the product maker, are happy with. A famous example of this is when the Italian automotive company FIAT had to change their vehicle name Ritmo to Strada, in order to market the car in the United States of America, because here Ritmo was a brand of condoms. In such cases, localisation can represent the difference between your product success and failure when launched on the Italian market.

When carrying out a review we make sure that writing style, tone, register and vocabulary are appropriate according to the specific industry standards and technical terms. Especially when reviewing a target text against its source, we would check that no words (or lines) are missing and that nothing was misinterpreted. During the review process, a text can be changed quite heavily, depending on the quality of the original text.

Proofreading instead, is carried out when the target text is pretty much final and we just need to read it carefully to make sure that it contains no typos, punctuation errors, grammar/syntax mistakes and that the language flows well. We also check the layout and formatting of the entire file (including citations, headers, references and footnotes).

When editing, we look at the text as a product and we make sure that it is ready for launch, whether that is publication, promotion or software/DVD release. For this reason, we check the text (target only) against all possible errors – grammar, yes, terminology, sure, but not only. While editing, we ask ourselves questions like: does the text meet the expectations of the target reading audience? Can it be improved? If so, how? Etc. You can think of editing as a review that makes your text ‘market ready’.

We use Trados Studio, WordFast Pro, SDLX, Passolo, Alchemy Catalyst, MemSource, ApSic Xbench and any proprietary tool developed by some of our clients. We also use CATs for reviewing projects, especially for bilingual reviews or proofreading.

Yes, we can. We have the skills and software (we work mostly with EZTitles, Subtitle Workshop, WinCAPS Qu4ntum and Spot) to handle all the steps of subtitle production, from transcript and captions creation to time spotting and burning. And we can deliver the final files in different file formats, according to your needs and final use.

We usually apply an hourly fee that varies depending on your specific requirements (i.e. it will be higher if there is no transcript to start from, for example, and if you need us to take care of the entire production), but we believe that every project is unique and rates usually reflect this along with the task(s) involved. The easiest way to find out is to request a quote, giving us as many details on the project as possible.

We can support the most common formats (AVI, FLV, WMV, MOV, MP4). Should your video be in a different format, just let us know: we may still be able to convert it and accept it.