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Translation Guidelines

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How can I help?

You can help by writing guidelines for translation. This should cover things such as:

  • Basic translation philosophies, their differences, when to apply them, etc.
  • Character voice
  • Romanizations styles
  • How to work with an editor
  • Finding and using closed captions
  • Song/poetry/etc. translation
  • Onomatopoeia

You can also help by providing concise examples of working from a pad vs. a pre-timed script.

The core of any project is its translation. Without a translation, there's nothing to edit, nothing to typeset, and nothing to style. However, translation is a very complex topic, rife with many different schools of thought, and many different approaches to tackling it.

This section will cover some of the basics of writing translations for anime, and will primarily focus on how to prepare your scripts, how to communicate with your editor, and other more technical aspects.

Different Approaches

There are many different approaches to translation, and no single "right" way to do it. This section will be biased towards the domestication philosophy, as that is what Kaleido primarily follows. However, this does not mean that other approaches are wrong or ineffective. Different groups may have different preferences, and each translator should find what works best for them.

Preparing a script

Modern translators typically work in one of two ways:

  1. Working from a pad
  2. Working from a pre-timed script

We recommend working from a pre-timed script, as it allows you to more easily account for line length, and allows you to easily play back specific lines.

Most translators will work with both. Dialogue is typically written in a pre-timed script, but signage may be written on a pad instead.

Working from a pad

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Working from a pre-timed script

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