Solutions for Multilingual Solutions for Multilingual Literature by XSL FormatterLiterature by XSL Formatter

6,800 known languages

AgendaAgenda

The Problem!Example of multilingual formattingSome of the issues/complexitiesConsiderations in putting together a

solution

LanguagesLanguages

6,800 known languages spoken in 191 countries.

2,261 have writing systems5 languages are those of 50% of world’s

populationAnother 100 are spoken by 45%

United NationsUnited Nations

6 Official languages– Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and

Spanish3 Working languages

– English, French, Spanish

EU LanguagesEU Languages

11 Official Languages– Spanish (11%), Danish (1%), German (24%),

Greek (3%), English (16%), French (16%), Italian (16%), Dutch (6%), Portuguese (3%), Finnish (1%), Swedish (2%)

BBC World ServiceBBC World Service

Why worry?Why worry?

“THE WEB!”Global economy and the web has greatly

simplified doing business internationally which has lead to the need to produce instructions, operation, maintenance and service documentation in multiple languages.

Look around the hotel!Look at the attendees!

Why worry? (continued)Why worry? (continued)

You can’t always deal in just one language.

Delays can lead to shorter time to sellDelays in deliveryThere is a need today to have parallel

processing of documentation in all languages

Antenna HouseAntenna House

Has sold Formatter in over 20 different countries.

This week I’ve communicated with people in 12 countries. (6 different languages and 5 forms of English)

Example of multilingualExample of multilingual

Antenna House’s XSL FormatterBIDI (bi-directional)VerticalEnglish, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Thai,

Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean (8 different writing systems)

Problems and ChallengesProblems and Challenges

How to create source – What character encoding?

The first criteria is that computers have to be able to handle the character encoding.

80s and 90s this was a serious limitation.Unicode overcomes this limitation.

– V3.2 handles over 300 languages. Unicode provides writing direction, line breaking properties and other specifications.

(cont.)(cont.)

What operating system?Fonts

– Without fonts characters can neither be printed or displayed.

– Consideration includes source, quality, copyrights, can they be imbedded in output?

XML and XSL make it possible XML and XSL make it possible to solve the problem of to solve the problem of multilingual publishing.multilingual publishing.

XMLXML

XML has adopted Unicode encoding schema.

Being able to have external files linked to a main file enables storing the text portion of different languages into separate files.

XSL – designed for global XSL – designed for global languageslanguages

Offers means to specify writing directionTypesetting rules for each language can be

specified using object and properties in XSL.

IssuesIssues

Glyph Substitution– Change depending on whether you are writing

horizontally or vertically– Arabic change depending on whether it is

beginning, middle or end of wordPunctuation

– Japanese, complicated rules governed by where punctuation is in a line

Line BreaksLine Breaks

Dependent on languageMultilingual must implement by language

– Kinsoku characters in Japanese, cannot begin or end a line

– Japanese and Chinese break between any character

– Thai breaks between word, but no word space

Line Breaks (cont.)Line Breaks (cont.)English and other European languages can

be hyphenated, but rules of hyphenation vary by languages.

Variants of the same language can have different rules.

With some languages when a word is hyphenated the spelling changes, when unhypenated the spelling reverts.

SummarySummary

Multilingual publishing is here.“Typesetting rules for each language can

be specified using object and properties in XSL.”

Where to Get More InformationWhere to Get More Information

www.antennahouse.com