Length restrictions

Length restrictions


OverviewLength restrictions are used to provide feedback to the translator about the maximum translation length allowed by the Client.

They may pertain to:

  • number of characters in each line of a paragraph
  • number of lines in a paragraph
  • line length in pixels depending on font name/size that will be used by Client

 

PreparationFontIf the length limit depends on font then this font has to be delivered to the translator together with ORG/TRA files sent and other reference materials.

The translator has to install the font on their computer, otherwise, a warning is displayed when ORG/TRA file is opened and length calculations/information won't work properly.

There is no need to change the Transtool window font to the one requested. Calculations are done in the background.

Some fonts have a different name when used in Western and Eastern local settings:

In such a case the translator has to use the following workaround:

  1. Go to Control Panel > Clock, Language and Region > Region > Administrative
  2. In "Language for non-Unicode programs" area change language from Chinese to e.g. English United Kingdom
  3. Restart machine (mandatory)
  4. Log in and open the ORG file again, you will not see an error this time.
  5. After the translation is done you can change "Language for non-Unicode programs" back to Chinese

 

Windows settingsIn some cases, different Windows DPI settings are causing significant length calculation difference, Causing translation to fit length restriction on translator's machine but exceeding restrictions when the file is opened by CBG user.

There is a way to workaround this issue:

  1. Right-click on Desktop and then choose “Screen Resolution”
  2. > “Make text and other items larger or smaller”
  3. > Setting is “Smaller” (default), “Medium” or “Larger”

Value other than "Smaller" (default) is causing different row length calculations in Transtool hence differences in translator and CBG results. Hence it is better to set Windows DPI values to normal (100%) before starting work.

Techinical

When we do pixel-to-point conversions, we want to have 96 DPI. If the user has a different DPI setting, e.g. 120 (=125%) or 144 (=150%), then we scale the result by that value.

Due to rounding errors, and the way fonts behave when scaled, this is not a perfect process.

 

Working with length restrictionsTranstool shows information about length in the left-down corner. In case translation is too long translation windows color changes to pink.

For example:

In this case, the paragraph has:

  • 3 rows out of limit 5
  • 1st row has a length of 278 out of the limit of 280 (pixels for requested font name and size)
  • 2nd row has 324 pixels out of 280 limits, and it is causing warning window color
  • 3rd row has 205 pixels out of 280 limit

To fix paragraph translator can move text between lines or/and change translation to shorter if necessary.

To list all length restricted paragraphs see Find and list length restricted paragraphs.

Length restrictions compliance can be checked using QA check functionality.