The Word Gym

Given the sophistication of today's computers, you'd think laying out and typesetting foreign-language copy would be really straight-forward.

But then you realise that most executives use PCs, while most designers and layout artists prefer Macs. So there are cross-platform issues. Then there are the different types of font - PostScript, TrueType, OpenType and so on - not to mention the legacy font foundries, each fighting to preserve their own proprietary keyboard layout.

And that's before we start talking about making allowances for text expanding or shrinking when it's translated, or punctuation, or the impact of long words on column sizing, or a whole heap of other issues. It goes without saying that we can provide cross-platform conversion services (e.g. Apple Macintosh to PC or vice versa) as well.

Multilingual typesetting

Multilingual proofreading

Fortunately, we offer extensive multilingual typesetting services, covering most world languages. Once again, these are offered to a standard consistent with the excellence our clients expect from The Word Gym, and include advice on typeface-related issues such as how best to achieve a uniform "look and feel" across different markets, or when to avoid such uniformity in order to increase local-market impact.

We also offer multilingual proofreading as a separate service... but please note! We make a distinction between proofreading and editing.

By proofreading, we mean the careful checking of existing copy for typographical errors, omissions and basic grammatical errors (known as "literals" in the trade), as well as consistency of usage.

By editing we mean the (more demanding) process of adapting existing text or copy so that it's more suitable for its intended purpose.