We do not specialize in any particular language or languages. Instead, we pride ourselves on being able to offer translation services for over 50 different languages, from Arabic to Zulu.  That said, some languages do occupy our time more than others.  We consistently receive requests to translate English content into Spanish (South American, Mexican, and Castilian), Brazilian Portuguese, French (Canadian and Parisian), other European languages (Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, and Russian), and Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). Whatever your language translation needs are, please check with us. In nearly all cases, we can assist you with your project.

The cost of a project is directly related to its size, subject material, and target language. However, we do have a minimum charge of $115.00 for European, North American, and South American languages and a minimum charge of $135.00 for European and Asian languages.  The minimum charge represents the cost to translate approximately 350 words (depending on the target language) of English content.  Costs for translation projects that exceed the minimum word threshold for the target language are determined by a price per word.  Our customers are often pleased to learn that the more words a project contains, the lower the per-word translation costs will be. For example, a Spanish project with a count of 20,000 words may cost you less per word than a Spanish project with a word count of 2,000 because we can offer discounts for significant volume.  Please keep in mind that we may apply rush fees of 50% to projects that require a turnaround time that is less than the turnaround time specified in your original quote.

The easiest way to find out how much it will cost your company or organization to translate your project is to submit the project for a free quote. We will then provide you with a detailed itemization of the charges, the turnaround time, and the method to be used for returning your project to you. If the quotation does not seem reasonable to you, we may review it together in an effort to come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

International Communication by Design, Inc. (ICD) translates and localizes a wide variety of technical documents, web sites, and software applications. We receive many different types of projects, including training manuals, e-Learning projects, legal documents, software, brochures, instruction and service manuals, product catalogs, specification sheets, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), newsletters, and help systems.

Because our translators are required to have technical knowledge in the subject matter of the projects they support, we can offer specialization in a broad range of technical fields. ICD’s history of experience extends to multiple subject matter areas, including: 

Automotive
Chemical engineering
Computer hardware
Computer systems analysis
Construction
Electronics
Industrial engineering
Legal
Machinery and tools
Mechanical engineering
Medical
Patents and trademarks
Telecommunications

Turnaround time is directly related to the material’s subject and the amount of words that the project contains. A project that requires research on the translator’s part because of the specific technical nature of the material will take longer to complete than the translation of general material. For projects that contain 3,000 or fewer words, we generally allow three days time for translation. Translation of content with a word count of 10,000 is typically completed in five days.  Note that these turnaround times are for the translation activity and do not include the processing time required for such additional steps as desktop publishing.

Our clients usually provide us with the English versions of their projects in one of the popular word processing, graphics, or design applications for the Apple® Macintosh® or Microsoft® Windows® platforms.  We have the capabilities to work in a wide variety of formats, such as Adobe® FrameMaker®, FreeHand®, Illustrator®, InDesign®, PageMaker®, and Photoshop®; Interleaf, Inc. Interleaf®; CorelDRAW®; Microsoft® Excel®, PowerPoint®, and Word; and Quark® QuarkXPress®.  However, we may also be able to support other applications depending on your needs. For your convenience, you may provide your files to us by uploading the files onto the ICD FTP site or by sending the files to us on CD-ROM or as an e-mail attachment. The final product is returned to you according to your specifications.

We believe that our translators bring the highest level of professional expertise to our customers’ projects. Because of our rigorous selection process for translators, we can help ensure the accuracy and quality of your translation project.  A translator must meet four criteria before being assigned to any project:

• Expertise in the target language. The translator selected for your project will always be a native speaker of the language into which you want your content translated. 
• Knowledge of the subject matter. Our translators have subject matter expertise in a broad range of disciplines.  An understanding of the technical content and terminology of your project is essential for any translator assigned to your project.
• An ability to deliver on time. Your project deadlines are as important to us as they are to you.  We balance carefully the translation resources available at the time your project is needed to ensure that timely delivery of your project is not jeopardized.
• Certification by the ATA. Across the translation industry, the American Translators Association (ATA) is known for having the highest testing standards and the most rigorous requirements for accreditation of translation professionals. For this reason, ICD contracts onlywith those translators who have been certified by the ATA.

To further enhance our quality assurance measures, we encourage our clients to conduct proofreading and—if time allows—in-country reviews by qualified personnel.  ICD will then implement, based on such reviews, any needed changes to your translation at no additional cost to your company or organization.

A review phase by your in-country reviewer (generally, a distributor) is permitted and encouraged after we provide you with your initial translation proof. The amount of time needed for review is established between the project manager and the client.  Any changes that the in-country reviewer requests are reviewed for correctness and, if appropriate, are implemented free of charge.  Our experience has been that most changes requested by in-country reviewers are stylistic in nature and do not affect the quality of the translation.  If the clients’ in-country reviewers request changes that are erroneous, our translators will provide a detailed explanation so that the client may understand the differences in meaning. Ultimately, it is the client’s decision whether or not to implement the changes.

Certainly. We may provide you with a representative sample of our capabilities by translating a small portion of your own material.

Please call 262-781-1644 to make such arrangements.  Alternatively, you may send an e‑mail to translate@icdtranslation.com, enter the text “Request for Samples” in the Subject line, and attach a small portion of your text (maximum 300 words) to be translated.

Yes. We willingly enter into and adhere to contracts that define which client information is confidential and that outline the manner in which a client requires that such information handled.  Our standard practice is that a client’s information is exposed to ICD’s translators and staff only on a need-to-know basis and that this information is separated at all times from the material of others. Upon completion of the project or at any other time requested by the client, ICD will gladly return any confidential information that we receive for the production of the project.

Upon request, our ATA-accredited translators may certify their translations to the best of their knowledge and provide you with a copy of the certification document.

An efficient way for your company to reduce its translation costs is to carefully reduce the amount of text to be translated.  By editing your text so that it includes only essential information, you sharpen its meaning and reduce its word count.  Try to eliminate repetitive text and idiomatic terms, omit unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, and sales pitches. You may also save money by creating a copy of the text to be translated and removing from the copy any text that is relevant only for your customers in the United States.  You can also save translation time and avoid confusion and possible mistranslation by spelling out acronyms and abbreviations for your translator.

For additional suggestions on writing with the intent to translate, see our presentation “Creating Translation-Ready Documents”.

Users in countries outside of the U.S. need to receive measurements in the metric system. A company may choose to use only metric measurements in their content.  If you are converting U.S. measurements to their metric equivalents, ICD recommends that your engineers provide you with the correct, converted measurements and that you include those values in your source files before you submit the content for translation.  By doing so, you can help to ensure the accuracy of your project.

Except for some areas in Canada, toll-free U.S. telephone numbers in “1‑800” format will not work outside the U.S.  Your company must make prior arrangements if it wishes for U.S. toll-free numbers to operate in Canada.  ICD’s recommendation is to omit toll-free numbers unless your distributors outside of the U.S. direct you to do otherwise. You may also wish to include such toll-free numbers, but also provide the equivalent international numbers. 

The rules and regulations for when and how to translate content are industry specific and vary from country to country. For example, some countries mandate that the non-English version of translated content be equal to that of the English in word, presentation, and type size. Such information is best received directly from the government of the country to which you wish to export. Additional information on translation requirements may be retrieved at no cost over the Internet and at your public library.

Decisions regarding the translation of your information should be an integral part of your company’s export marketing strategy.  Among other factors that companies consider when deciding whether and how to translate is that translation improves business relations and eliminates confusion. In addition, translation of your company’s material demonstrates its commitment to developing a long-term relationship with international customers. Companies are not required to translate their information at any specific time in the information development cycle.  However, a good time to begin the translation process is when your English content has been written and edited or when your existing content has been updated. Keep in mind that the translated version of your content must be prepared before you send your equipment or products abroad or across the border.  For this reason, we recommend that you allow sufficient time and resources for translation activities in your project plans.

International Communication by Design, Inc. (ICD) invests significant resources in maintaining a quality network of interpreters, translators, software engineers, project managers, proofreaders, and desktop publishers in order to assemble teams for each project. Because of this infrastructure, ICD can readily assign a project according to the specialization that your company’s literature requires. The successful orchestration of the many tasks that are involved in the quality production of translation projects is time-consuming and requires experienced people who can supervise each project through the phases of translation, editing, proofreading, typesetting, review and presentation. Most companies have neither the budget nor the time to perform these services internally.

Because the worldwide web enables anyone with Internet access to retrieve information, a company that has a web address receives global exposure.  Many companies now recognize that to reach potential users and customers across borders, they need to internationalize their web sites. Translation of a company’s web site is the key to the door of market expansion, giving companies an edge over their competition and—in some cases—preventing them from falling behind their web-savvy competition.  When you have a multilingual web site, your prospective customers will not only receive instant information about your company but will also gain a heightened awareness and understanding of your products and services. In addition, internationalization of web sites improves customer satisfaction and service and solidifies your position in the global market.

Translation memory tools are applications that enable us to store translated text in linguistic databases.  These databases, or “translation memories”, can be used on future projects, whether they involve the translation of new documents or the revision of existing documents. Use of translation memory tools saves clients money, shortens project turnaround times, and results in a more linguistically consistent translation.  Of the more widely used memory tools, ICD believes that the power and flexibility of SDL Trados® makes this application the most efficient and effective tool for managing multilingual databases. The SDL Trados suite can save our clients time and money because the tool allows us to reuse previously translated material for future projects.  SDL Trados also interfaces well with a variety of publishing and web creation programs, such as Microsoft® Word, Adobe® FrameMaker®, InDesign®, and PageMaker®, Quark® QuarkXpress®, Interleaf, HTML, and XML.

With SDL Trados, files are converted to a user-friendly format. This format allows the translator to access the client’s SDL Trados memory through a user-friendly interface. Once the translator has completed the document, we process it back into its native format and proceed with web or desktop publishing. Our use of translation memory tools also makes future updates easy to process. The client pays less when the memory can be used. SDL Trados also streamlines the client review process and makes the process more accurate. By working in SDL Trados files, we can more easily implement your desired changes, and your changes will be accessible for future projects. As each language database grows larger, more and more matches are available for future projects. When new documents are sent to our office for translation, an SDL Trados analysis is performed. The analysis gives the total word count and the number of matches in the memory.  For 100% matches and repetitions, the client pays for proofreading, not full translation.  For fuzzy matches, the client pays less than the cost for a completely new translation. For sentences that are not in the database, the full price per word is charged.