What parameters are important when you market yourself as, or search for, a DTP specialist? Thread poster: Henry Dotterer
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Hi all,
Many translation companies using ProZ.com offer DTP services to their clients, and many freelance members of ProZ.com offer DTP services. We would like to offer easier ways for the two groups to connect, by improving the directory, profiles and job posting system.
What parameters are important when you market yourself as, or when you are looking for, a DTP specialist? (Language, country, tools, etc.?)
Thanks in advance.
| | | | | Platform (OS) can be critical in some cases (Mac/PC/Linux) | Mar 24, 2013 |
Dear Henry,
I think the platform (operating system) is sometimes critical for DTP. Whereas for translation it is rarely very important, for DTP it can become quite important in some cases.
Typically, having to process a Mac-based project on a Windows system or reversely can sometime create problems (or even turn out impossible in rare cases) due to differing character sets, font incompatibilities, automatic file renaming, etc. This is particularly sensitive with some A... See more Dear Henry,
I think the platform (operating system) is sometimes critical for DTP. Whereas for translation it is rarely very important, for DTP it can become quite important in some cases.
Typically, having to process a Mac-based project on a Windows system or reversely can sometime create problems (or even turn out impossible in rare cases) due to differing character sets, font incompatibilities, automatic file renaming, etc. This is particularly sensitive with some Asian or rare/exotic languages.
Although there are usually ways and tools to deal with these things, clients and DTP operators don't always know about them, have them or know how to use them, so they may prefer to remain on the same platform to avoid these difficulties. On the contrary, in some cases, they may prefer or have to switch to a different platform for lack of available resources such as fonts or hardware.
Also, quite often clients don't know whether their native artwork files were created on Mac or Windows (not to mention Linux-based OS, which are becoming more and more popular in some areas and cultures).
In some cases, clients don't care which platform is used as long as the DTP supplier can provide print-ready High Res PDFs for their commercial printer. In other cases, they can become upset if the supplier decided to move to another platform without asking permission first.
Therefore I suggest you use the following options:
- Mac
- Windows
- Other
- Not sure
- Don't care
The last two categories are particularly important options.
Regards,
Patrick ▲ Collapse
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