Four languages, one sheet of paper
Singapore has four official languages, and a significant amount of printed material here must carry more than one language. Government-related documents, healthcare information, notices in Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks, packaging for local markets, and signage for businesses whose customers are not all reading English are all examples of this requirement. While this requirement is ordinary, the production challenges it poses are significant.
Multilingual print often encounters issues that monolingual print does not, and these issues are usually invisible to the person approving the proof. This is because the approver typically cannot read at least one of the languages on the page. This single fact explains most of the problems that arise.
The font problem comes first
A Latin font typically includes a few hundred characters. This is sufficient for English but falls short for Chinese, which requires thousands of glyphs to be fully functional.
In practice, this means that your brand's font likely does not include Chinese characters. When you input Chinese text into a text box set in that font, the application will quietly substitute a different font for those characters. This substitution may look acceptable on screen, but in print, it results in two typefaces sitting side by side. These fonts will often have different weights and proportions, making the mismatch obvious to anyone reading both versions.
Tamil and Malay each have their own version of this. Malay uses the Latin script, so it typically behaves well, although it requires proper support for the specific characters it uses. Tamil, on the other hand, is a distinct script with its own shaping rules. A font that does not properly support Tamil can result in either boxes or letters joined incorrectly.
What to do about it
- Select a typeface family that supports your scripts, or intentionally pair fonts that were designed to complement each other.
- If pairing is necessary, match the visual weight rather than the name. What appears bold in one script may not be bold in another.
- Embed or outline all elements, as font substitution can be far more damaging here than in English-only work.
- Never let a proof approve itself just because it "looks fine." If you cannot read the script, you are not properly proofing it.
The embedding point is not optional at this level. Our note on preparing a print-ready file covers the mechanics, and multilingual work is where getting it wrong costs the most, because a substitution in a script you do not read is a substitution you will not notice.
Text does not stay the same length
This is the layout killer. The same sentence can occupy wildly different amounts of space, depending on the language. Your design was built around one of them.
| Language | Relative length vs English | Layout effect |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Considerably shorter | Leaves gaps, needs different sizing |
| Malay | Noticeably longer | Overflows boxes designed for English |
| Tamil | Longer, taller | Needs more line height, not just width |
Malay is the language that tends to catch people off guard. It is a longer language than English, conveying the same meaning but in more words. Therefore, a headline that fits neatly into one line in English might require two lines in Malay. Similarly, a paragraph that spans two lines in English might need three lines in Malay. A layout with no room for expansion often does not accommodate these additional words.
Tamil requires additional vertical space. The script uses marks above and below the baseline, so tight line spacing suitable for Latin text will result in collisions. Instead of reducing the type size, increasing the leading for Tamil is recommended. Shrinking the type size can make an already complex script difficult to read.
Chinese text faces the opposite challenge. It is highly compact, so a box designed for English text appears spacious. The natural reaction is to increase the size of the Chinese characters to fill the space. This can be appropriate, but only up to the point where the Chinese text begins to appear overly large or shouty, while the English text remains relatively small or whispery.
Issues a Latin keyboard layout might cause with Chinese input
Some conventions do not translate well, and applying them can make a piece look amateurish to the reader.
Chinese does not use spaces between words, so the line-breaking logic is entirely different. Software will break a line almost anywhere unless it knows better. Some breaks are wrong in ways that change how a phrase reads. Punctuation also has its own set of rules: certain marks cannot begin a line, while others cannot end one.
Chinese punctuation is also full-width, meaning that commas and full stops occupy a whole character space. Using Latin punctuation within Chinese text is a visible error, roughly equivalent to using a comma where a full stop should be.
There are two written forms: simplified and traditional. Simplified Chinese is the standard in Singapore, while traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. These forms are not interchangeable. Sending a traditional Chinese document to a Singaporean audience is a mistake that no one in the print process will catch for you.
The translation issue is not a printing problem, although it might appear that way.
Here, responsibilities need to be clear. A printer reproduces exactly what is fed into it. If the Tamil text is a poorly executed machine translation, the printed output will be impeccable, but the message will be flawed. No one at the printing press can discern this issue.
Three habits prevent nearly all of this:
- Have a native speaker review the final proof, rather than the original translation. Errors can occur during layout, not just during translation.
- Never allow anyone to retype text into the design file. Instead, use copy and paste. Retyping a script that you do not read can introduce errors invisibly.
- Check names, dates, phone numbers, and prices in every language version separately. Numbers are where retyping errors often hide.
The retyping point is the source of a significant share of real-world failures. Someone rebuilds a layout, retypes a Chinese headline from a PDF, and gets one character wrong. Now the sign says something adjacent to what was intended. There is no spellcheck coming to help.
Deciding how much to carry
Not everything requires four languages, and trying to fit them all onto one card usually doesn't benefit anyone. Three approaches work.
When the audience is genuinely mixed, put all languages on one piece for short messages, such as safety notices. Keep the text minimal, as four languages of anything long can become overwhelming.
Print separate versions when the message is substantial. This approach is more expensive, but each reader receives a document that respects them, rather than a mere quarter of a page. On a digital press, short runs of several versions are more affordable than many people assume.
Or use one primary language and include a QR code linking to the rest. This approach works well for content with significant depth. However, it may fail for audiences who are unlikely to scan a QR code. These are precisely the audiences most likely to need the translation.
Bring us all the versions at once
The most useful action you can take is to send all language versions together before the layout is finalized. We will inform you about any overflow issues in the Malay version, the need for additional line height in the Tamil version, and whether your brand font supports the necessary scripts. Providing these details at this stage is cost-effective, whereas addressing them after a proof can be significantly more expensive.
We will also clearly state when we cannot verify something. We can confirm that characters are rendering correctly rather than substituting. However, we cannot confirm that a Tamil sentence conveys what was intended. That verification must be done by a reader during the final proofreading.
You can see the range under our printing guides, and if you are new to ordering here, start with our first-timer's guide to ordering print in Singapore. Send your files through the contact page and tell us which languages are involved. It changes what we check.
