Target vs. Source Translations

Translation is the art of interpreting the meaning of a written text and producing an equivalent text in another language that communicates the same message. 

The text that is translated is called the “source” text/language and the language that it is translated into is the “target” text/language. 

When getting quotes and working on projects be sure to check if the translator/agency is working from your source language for pricing or is quoting the target translation.

This is important as most translations will expand in text up to 20% or more. If you are given a quote for the source text than it should be pretty accurate unless the original document is a PDF (an image, which is a bit more difficult to gather an exact word count.)  If you are getting a quote for the target word than it will be an estimate, until the project is finished, when typically a final word count can be provided.