What is localization?
Localization is the adaptation of a product, a piece of software or a body of content to a specific market, called a locale: a language in a region, such as French in Canada. It is abbreviated l10n. The goal is that a user in that market never feels the product was made somewhere else.
Localization vs translation
Translation is the core of localization, but only part of it.
- Translation renders the text in another language.
- Localization also adapts dates (2026-10-28 or 28/10/2026), numbers (1,000.50 or 1 000,50), currencies, units, addresses, phone formats, examples, images, colours, legal mentions and even the length of the interface text, which grows when French replaces English.
For a Canadian French market, it also means Canadian vocabulary rather than France’s, and Quebec’s language requirements.
When translation is enough, and when you need localization
A manual for equipment sold only in Canada may need translation alone, in the terms your firm approved. A specification written for a Quebec site needs more: the local words, such as devis where France would write CCTP, and the references a Quebec bidder knows, such as BNQ standards. If the reader’s market changes what the document has to say, you’re localizing. If you’re rewriting a marketing message from scratch for another market, that goes further still, and it’s sometimes called transcreation.
Localization vs internationalization
Internationalization is the preparation done once at the source so the product can be localized: text separated from code, flexible layouts, locale-aware formats. Localization is the work done for each market on top of it. Without internationalization, localization starts with rework.
Localization vs globalization
Globalization is the business strategy: which markets to enter, in which order, with what product. Internationalization and localization are how the strategy is carried out.
The localization process
- Prepare. Extract the text and the resource files; agree on the term base and style for the locale.
- Translate. Translate the strings, help, documentation and training in the same terms.
- Adapt. Formats, images, examples and anything regulated in the target market.
- Test. Build the localized product and check it in context: truncated buttons, wrong formats, untranslated strings.
- Maintain. Each release brings new strings; the term base and translation memory keep them consistent with the last one.
Localization in engineering documents
On a Quebec project, the localized terms have to be the same in the drawings, the specification and the reports, or the site sees three names for one product. We translate all three for Canadian projects from one term base your engineers approve. Units stay as the documents issue them, and are converted only if you ask.
What is software localization?
Software localization applies this process to applications: the interface, messages, help, installer and documentation. Terminology matters here too: the same button label appears in the interface, the manual and the training, and users notice when they disagree.
Are your translations consistent? Get a free terminology check.