Typesetting — Putting the Translation Back on the Page

Typesetting is placing the translated text onto the cleaned art. It looks like "putting words in bubbles"; in practice it determines how readable a chapter is more than any other step.

What decisions does it involve?

• Font choice. Dialogue, internal monologue, shouting, narration — each wants a different typeface, and the choice must stay consistent across the series.
• Line breaking. Text in a bubble should form a balanced mass that follows the bubble's shape.
• Size. Too small is unreadable, too large does not fit. The limit is at least one character's worth of space inside the bubble edge.
• Overflow control. English is systematically a different length from Japanese; the same bubble does not hold the same sentence.

Why does it stall most often?

Two reasons. First, it is technically the slowest step — every bubble is handled individually. Second and more important, it is the merge point: it cannot begin until both translation and cleaning are done. Delays from either track accumulate here.

So the answer to "where is this chapter stuck?" is usually typesetting — but the cause usually is not.

Why a shared font library matters

When every typesetter works from fonts on their own machine, two problems appear: two chapters of the same series look different, and when a typesetter leaves, their fonts leave with them. A shared font store fixes both permanently, and records which series uses which face.

Common mistakes

• Filling the bubble. Text touching the bubble edge looks cramped and amateur.
• One font for everything. Shouting and inner thoughts in the same face lose the tone.
• Fixing the translation while typesetting. Shortening a long line is tempting, but that is a translation decision and belongs back in proofreading.

Related

A typeset chapter goes to quality check before release.