How Web2Print Can Help You Print More at Home and Abroad
Why you need internationalisation, even if you’re in the UK and what can it do for Web2Print.
Well, one of the great things about the UK is how culturally diverse it can be. Meaning that while you may only operate in the UK, your customers may well be dealing with international audiences.
For example, housing authorities have a wide range of languages they need to support, such as Urdu and Polish, as well as other departments of local authorities. The NHS also has a wide range of languages it has to support, you may well have seen multi-language posters in your local surgery.
Within inner cities, the population is often diverse, and you get clusters of retail stores that cater to specific minorities, which will need point of sale items and posters for example.
How does Internationalisation work?
For websites it is easy enough to understand how internationalisation works. It makes that website appear to any user in their language and currency, and possibly relevant location.
It’s really no different for Web2Print (and at Vpress we do this all the time) – you present your system in the language of the user. In years gone by internationalisation was represented by a flag appearing in (generally) the top right of the page. The user could select that flag for the language of their choice – a manual “switch” process.
Things have moved on considerably and in this modern age, your PC/Mac/Device talks to your Browser to ensure that the options and content in front of you relate to either your personal choice, or a choice set for you by your System Administrator.
Fundamentally there are three aspects of Internationalisation to consider, covered today as a high level introduction:
Internationalisation
Interestingly, sometimes abbreviated to I18n (“I” for Internationalisation, 18 for the number of letters before “n”)
The design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localisation for target audiences that may vary in language, culture and region.
Fundamentally, this is the design and build of the system that supports the requirement. Ensuring that text can flow the right way (Left to Right OR Right to Left). It also ensures that the system architecture or infrastructure is prepared for localisation of its components therein.
Localisation
Interestingly, sometimes abbreviated to l10n (“l” for where 10 is the number of letters between that and the “n”)
The adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market or region.
Localisation is more than the translation of the text within the interface. Examples could be the formulation of date/numeric formats / currency / legal requirements / flow of text. These would support the requirement of the language. This part also takes into consideration the keyboard layout for that region as well as any cultural expectations. Not to forget any legal requirements when required.
Font Integrity
This is the ability to use a font without a User requirement to have that font installed locally upon their device. It is a huge plus point, as not everyone will have fonts installed on their machines.
A true Web2Print system will have comprehensive handling of variable templates. They may be populated in various ways, but critical to this is the use of the correct embedded font. By allowing the Web2Print system to handle the font, it does not need to be installed on the user’s machine. The Web2Print solution will handle all aspects of the use of the font. This includes within the template, and including displaying it according to the character coding utilised by the template e.g. using CP1251 for Cyrillic characters. This can mean that the font can then flow from right to left or top to bottom.
Supporting Your Customers
Having a basic understanding of and inclusion of these three elements within your desired Web2Print solution allows you not only to effectively support your international clients/customer base but also meet the now modern demands of UK based organisations that support Multi-culturism to the highest level.
At Vpress, our Coreprint product supports Councils/NHS/Corporate organisations and housing associations. This could be for a local internationalised requirement, or a need to support primary languages within their business unit.
By supporting other languages, the system will be used as intended. User adoption is faster, speeding up delivery of the benefits these systems offer.
If you want your customers to feel at home ordering their print, contact us for a demonstration.
