How to Translate an Illustrator File
Translators handle lots of projects. Most times, these projects come in editable file formats – think, doc, PDF and the likes. However, there are those odd jobs that come in file formats that are not readily editable. To translate an Illustrator file, the process is a little more complex.
You may wonder, what has easily editable and not-so-easy to edit file formats got to do with translations?
You see, when a job comes in all prepped and ready to go, translators don’t have to spend extra hours editing or trying to convert the file into editable forms. This way, the job is done pretty fast, and for translators that use computer-assisted translations in their process, they can easily upload the document that needs translation into the machine.
Now, that’s not the case if, on the other hands, the document comes in a hard to edit format – for instance illustrator file or with a .ai extension. First, the file would have to be converted into an editable format before any meaningful translation job can commence.
In this piece, you’re going to learn how to translate an illustrator file using the Sysfilter for illustrator.
What exactly is the Sysfilter?
For those of you unfamiliar with Sysfilter, it is a plugin or add-on programme that extracts editable texts for translation from several different applications like Corel Draw, PowerPoint, Visio, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.
The tool essentially cuts the time for preparing document into half since you don’t have to copy and paste texts nor do you need to create a word document nor worry about having the right text box. With the Sysfilter you can easily reconvert the processed document into the target format.
In a nutshell, with Sysfilter you simply extract the texts you want to translate from programs such as Illustrator or Photoshop and then send it over to your translator. Once the translated document is delivered, simply plug it back into Sysfilter to change it back into the target format.
But, what if the text is not editable?
Remember Sysfilter is effective if the texts are editable. However, there are times when the source file texts are not editable. In this case, the texts are usually outlined.
So, before you use Sysfilter, you will have to make the texts editable. To do that, you will need to create a text box in illustrator and then copy and paste the text.
Be sure to take this additional work into account when billing and estimating how long it would take to complete the translation work.
How to use Sysfilter
Before using Sysfilter, be sure the file you want to export is editable. Also, check that the texts aren’t split – a quick way to do that is to ensure the words flow within the paragraph by removing formattings like line breaks and tabs.
The next thing is to make sure the file is in .ai or .eps format – that’s the extension for an illustrator file. Move the file into a folder on the desktop.
Now launch Sysfilter for Illustrator, open the export folder and select the file you want to translate. Be sure to check the Type of file, version and format. In the tools setting, select the format you want for the export text like word, rtf or xml formats. Save the settings and click Text export.
You should have an exported file in the desired format which you can now translate or send to your translator for processing.
How to import a translated Illustrator file
After translating the file, you may want to import and convert it back to its original format.
On Sysfilter, click the import tab and follow the same steps you followed to export the document. Be sure that the name of the exported and imported files are the same – as any changes would make importing not work. So, it is recommended not to delete the exported file. Simply replace it with the imported translated version.
Open the file in illustrator after importing to see the texts in the translated language.
Alternatively, save yourself a lot of time and trouble, by using a professional Translation Agency!
