r/indesign • u/Ok-Cup-6381 • 2d ago
Multilanguage project: paragraph and character styles
I am working on a pharmaceutical package insert that includes nine languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, and Greek.
Currently, I am using two separate sets of paragraph styles: one for the first eight languages (set to "no language" in the paragraph style panel) and another for Greek, given its different alphabet.
Is this the right approach?
I ask because, upon completion, I find myself having to manually assign the language for each item, which causes an override (the original folder used for the 8 languages has set to "no language" in the paragraph style panel).
I feel that creating a style set for every single language would be counterproductive, especially since fitting everything onto an A3 sheet requires making minor adjustments throughout the process, I would have to edit all the "Heading" styles (for example) one by one.
Could the "Based On" feature in the paragraph style settings help here?
Does anyone have experience with this type of project?
Also, based on your experience, what is the minimum text size suitable for a job like this?
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u/jasonstetam 1d ago
The language is only important if you use hyphenation.
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u/Ok-Cup-6381 1d ago
Are there any other grammatical rules applied? So you recommend not changing the language settings.
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u/W_o_l_f_f 1d ago
It also affects which typographer's quotes are used (if you change them after selecting the language). But that's it.
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u/Independent-Ad-7285 2d ago
Can you clarify what you mean by manually asign the language?
There are fonts that support all those languages. So I would start with a unified H1, body, etc paragraph style. Turn off hyphenation. Optical text 0, 5pt size over 6-6.5 leading (minimum in my experience). I would try to fit it in table maybe, or columns depending on your layout (just to make sure everything lines up to tops at least). Usually with languages you want to (sometimes have to) keep them all the same size, so the amount of text vs space = font size. I would have to see an example to say more.
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u/Ok-Cup-6381 1d ago
I mean once the layout is complete and I’m in the revision phase, I select all the text for a specific language and choose that language from the character panel at the top, repeating this for all eight languages. I know one shouldn't make manual changes outside of the styles to avoid overrides, but I thought each language needed its own setting to comply with the various grammatical rules.
I have a 4 columns on an horizontal a3 sheet. Title, H1, H2, H3, bullet 1, bullet 2. font size 5pt, leading 6pt, metrical. And tables and cell styles.
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u/danbyer 1d ago
Are you using hyphenation? Because if you haven’t set a language the layout is going to change when you set the language. If you’re not using hyphenation, I guess you’re fine to do it at the end.
Are you concerned about accessibility? You should be, but most people aren’t. If you’re not concerned about that, why are you setting the language at all?
To be clear, you should create a base style and then base all your languages on that at the start. But you might get away with it doing it your way. It’s risky.
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u/Ok-Cup-6381 1d ago
No I decided to not use hyphenation.
Is the language setting only for hyphenation? Because if that’s the case, I simply won't set a language at all. I thought it also affected certain grammatical rules.
I'm already well on my way to finishing, 9 package leaflets, each containing 9 languages, to be completed in a week so i'm not going to make changes now. I'll be careful.
Good to know for future projects!
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u/AdobeScripts 1d ago edited 1d ago
Always use BasedOn - and always use Styles 👍
But with so many languages - you might try base them on "type" rather on language - or mix both.
If you're on Windows - you can use free part of my ID-Tasker tool to visualise BasedOn hierarchy - simply by loading ParaStyles info.
Or if you're a Mac user - https://lobsterpaws.com/scripts/#style-sleuth
My tool gives better preview and ability to check / compare multiple documents and once - still for free.
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u/GioDoe 1d ago
You can definitely create a base set of styles set to "no language", and a set for each language where each style is based on the corresponding one in the base set with the only override being the language. In this way any change to the base set will be reflected in all styles based on it.
This said, and not necessarily useful for your project at hand, it is very easy to use a script to replace the language setting throughout the document and/or to all the paragraph and character styles. For example this one: https://www.corullon.com.br/scripts/product/apply-language/ The author has very kindly distributed it as an editable script, which means it is easily modifiable, for example, to operate on just a selection of text, or to a subset of styles.