Order a translated brochure without asking for an itemized quote, and you could end up paying $12 to $25 a page for work that should cost a fraction of that. Here’s why: most language service providers bundle translation and desktop publishing into one blended number, and DTP translation cost, the price of rebuilding layout, fonts, and design around translated text, is exactly where the padding hides. This guide breaks that number apart.<\/p>\n
Desktop publishing<\/a> is the process of producing page layouts, typography, and graphic design using dedicated software rather than manual paste-up. In a translation project, that means rebuilding a document’s visual structure, fonts, spacing, image placement, and columns, around text that’s now longer, shorter, or written in a different script. Ulatus, whose desktop publishing services<\/a> span more than 200 languages, describes the work as templating, font management, and text parsing performed in tools like InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop rather than a word processor, which is why DTP is quoted and delivered as its own line item separate from translation itself.<\/p>\n