JAPANESE TYPESETTING REPAIR
Contact usFOR LOCALIZATION AGENCIES AND DTP TEAMS
Japanese typesetting repair for localized files
Japanese text placed by someone who does not read Japanese often looks fine to everyone except the Japanese reader.
The most common problem is Chinese characters mixed into the Japanese text. Your Japanese client notices at once; your team usually cannot.
We are a small typesetting studio in Chiba, Japan. The final check is always made by a native Japanese typesetter with 25 years of experience in Japanese DTP.
PROBLEMS
What we usually find
1. Simplified Chinese characters in Japanese text
Simplified Chinese forms of everyday words in manuals and catalogs. Japanese uses different characters, so a Japanese reader sees these as misprints. Some differ by a single stroke.
| Found in the file (Chinese) | Correct Japanese | Typical word |
|---|---|---|
| 发 | 発 | 開発 (development) |
| 关 | 関 | 関連 (related) |
| 对 | 対 | 対応 (support) |
| 设 | 設 | 設定 (settings) |
| 电 | 電 | 電源 (power supply) |
| 收 | 収 | 収納 (storage) |
| 步 | 歩 | 進歩 (progress — the Japanese form has one more dot) |
2. Chinese glyph forms caused by the wrong font
Many characters share the same Unicode code point in Chinese and Japanese, but are drawn differently. When a Chinese font is applied, or a Japanese font is replaced during file processing, the text looks wrong to a Japanese reader even though it checks out as correct text. A text-only QA cannot catch this.
| Code point | Chinese font | Japanese font | Typical word |
|---|---|---|---|
| U+4ECA | 今 | 今 | 今回 (this time) |
| U+4EE4 | 令 | 令 | 命令 (command) |
| U+51B7 | 冷 | 冷 | 冷却 (cooling) |
| U+5185 | 内 | 内 | 内容 (contents) |
| U+76F4 | 直 | 直 | 直接 (direct) |
| U+89D2 | 角 | 角 | 角度 (angle) |
3. Other typesetting errors
- ・Line-breaking rule violations (kinsoku): a line starting with 。、」) or ending with 「(
- ・Wrong spacing around Japanese punctuation and brackets
- ・Missing or uneven spacing between Japanese and Latin text
- ・Full-width and half-width characters mixed inconsistently
- ・Broken vertical text, ruby (furigana) and tate-chu-yoko
- ・Fallback fonts and missing glyphs
SERVICE
What we do
Services
- ・Repair of Japanese typesetting in files rejected by a Japanese client
- ・Post-DTP for Japanese: fixing the layout after the translation is placed
- ・Japanese DTP for new projects in InDesign and Illustrator
- ・A report in English of what was fixed and where
How we work
- ・Scripts check every character and every font assignment, so nothing depends on someone noticing it by eye
- ・Typesetting decisions are made by a person, following the Japanese layout conventions described in JLReq (W3C)
- ・The final check is made by a native Japanese typesetter with 25 years of experience
- ・Scripted checks make the work fast and consistent, even for long documents
Files and environment
- ・We accept InDesign (INDD / IDML), Illustrator and PDF
- ・Environment: Mac, the latest Adobe Creative Cloud. IDML on request for older InDesign versions
- ・We do not change the translation. If we notice an obvious translation error, we point it out
FREE CHECK
Not sure whether your file has these problems?
Send us the PDF or IDML. We will tell you, free of charge, how many problems we found in each category:
Simplified Chinese characters, Chinese glyph forms, and other typesetting errors.
The free check reports the counts only. Locating and fixing the problems is part of the paid repair.
PROCESS
How a job runs
-
1
Send the files
Use the form below. Attach files up to 5 MB, or paste a download link (WeTransfer, Dropbox, etc.).
-
2
Check and quotation
We check the files and send a quotation with the delivery date. Prices are quoted per project.
-
3
Repair
We fix the files. Time zone: Japan (UTC+9), so work often progresses while you sleep.
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4
Delivery
You receive the corrected files, a PDF for review, and a report in English listing what was changed.
NOTES
Before you send files
- ※Communication: In English, by email only. We do not take phone or video calls.
- ※Confidentiality: We are happy to sign your NDA.
- ※Generative AI: Part of our workflow uses external, cloud-based generative AI services, so the content of your files may be sent to the service provider's servers. If your contract with your client does not allow this, please tell us before you send any files.
- ※Rights: Please send only files that you have the right to share with us.
- ※Fonts: We use fonts licensed to us. To edit the delivered files, you need the same fonts. We list the fonts used with every delivery.
ABOUT
Who we are
- ・Ishii Design Institute LLC, Chiba, Japan
- ・Founded in 2007 (incorporated in 2013)
- ・Representative: Yohei Ishii, typesetter and designer with 25 years of experience in Japanese DTP and print production
- ・Regular work: exhibition catalogs, brochures and printed matter for Japanese trade shows and companies
CONTACT
Send us your request or files using this form. We reply by email, usually within one business day (Japan time).
We handle your information according to our privacy policy and never share it with third parties without your consent.