What is internationalization?
Internationalization is the design and engineering that make a product ready for other languages and regions before any of them is added. It is abbreviated i18n: the first and last letters with the 18 letters between them counted.
For software, it means the interface text lives outside the code, layouts make room for longer words, and dates, numbers, currencies and units follow the user’s locale instead of being hard-coded. For documents, it means a source written and laid out so it can be translated cleanly: consistent terms, no text baked into images, styles instead of manual formatting.
Internationalization, localization, globalization
- Internationalization (i18n) prepares the product once, at the source.
- Localization (l10n) adapts it for one market: translation, formats, examples, regulations. See what is localization.
- Globalization (g11n) is the business strategy that ties both together: which markets, in what order, with what product.
The difference: internationalization is done once, by your developers or authors; localization is done again for each language.
Why it pays to do it first
Without internationalization, every new language starts with rework: strings to extract from the code, screens that break when the French runs longer than the English, dates in the wrong order, a decimal comma that crashes a calculation. Each fix is made again for the next language. That is the frustration of fixing the same problem twice, once per language.
With it, adding a language is mostly translation. The cost of the extra engineering is paid once.
When to start
As early as possible: at design, before the first release. Retrofitting internationalization into a finished product is possible, but it costs far more than building it in.
The same principle applies to technical documents. A specification or a manual written with consistent terminology from the first draft is much cheaper to translate, and much more likely to be translated consistently, than one whose terms vary from page to page. A spec that calls the same part a hanger on one page and a support on the next will be translated both ways.
Internationalize your documents too
For engineering firms, the source that most needs internationalizing is the specification: one term per concept from the first draft. If your firm does not have one yet, we build your term base from your past translations, and it stays yours. Your last French deliverable shows whether it had one.
Are your translations consistent? Get a free terminology check.