How do I know that you really provide quality translation services?
Usually we offer a test translation (up to 300 words), so you can estimate our proficiency in the subject.
There are many other translation providers like Janus, LionBridge, Neotech, etc. What differentiates you from the competitors?
To begin with, we cooperate with such providers, so it is more a partnership than a competition. The number of competent and professional translators available is quite limited. What differentiates us is a personal approach: same persons serve you for years (it is out of the question in a large agency which distributes orders among hundreds of translators) and master your subject and terminology. For this reason a number of large companies have been working with us for five years or more, because we do provide personalized and high-quality service.
How much does it cost to translate a page?
It is impossible to answer without seeing the page first. It could be plain text in font size 8 and in three columns, or five images with large amount of rasterized text on them. That is why the amount of text to be translated is always expressed in words or characters, and never in pages. Please use the Statistics option in MS Word or the FineCount software to evaluate the number of words./p>
Do you provide oral translation?
Who needs translators, when there is Google Translate?
As long as there is no AI (artificial intelligence), automatic translation is impossible. Computers do not undestrand the meaning of text. Automated translation is based on statistical approach, when a huge database of parallel texts in two languages is processed. The database is filled by searching the Net (that is why it is Google that has developed Google Translate). But what has happened is: contrary to Google Translate’s warnings the users have started posting the unedited automated translation results. So the database now includes many, many poorly translated texts, since the computer cannot tell a good translation from a bad one. For this reason the quality of automated translation has been declining. It is even more so for the Russian-English language pair. For both En-Ru and Ru-En translations the results produced by Google Translate are absolutely unacceptable. Please never use it to avoid embarrassment.
What document formats do you accept?
Any format accessible with a Windows operating system: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, pdf, ppt, pptx…, major CAD system and graphics editor files. When you have a pdf file please be aware that is some cases it does not contain a text layer so OCR (optical character recognition) is required which we also provide.
I’ve found lower rates on the Internet. What if I use a cheaper transaltion service?
It is what we call “a parallel world”: unskilled persons ready to translate anything for peanuts. Mostly they are students. While they may know the language, they have no idea about the subject. Only a person with solid engineering background and experience is able to do technical translations. That is why every translator we have holds a PhD in engineering. Errors in technical documents may lead to tragic consequences; better trust the professionals!
What are my guarantees?
Your legal guarantee is a contract. You pay upon receiving the translation and signing the acceptance act. Besides legal issues, we truly value our reputation and do our best to serve you.
Is the document layout preserved in translation?
Yes. The translation will look just like the original (unless you want a plain text). If you submit a pdf file, you’d get the translation as a docx looking just like the original pdf. All the images, captions, headers, footers, etc. are preserved. The same is true for PowerPoint presentations and other formants.