🚀 go-pugleaf

Here are the consolidated answers to my original questions about
localization/internationalization of graphics:

>      1. Most discussions on INSOFT-L about localization have
>         concerned text.  To what degree are graphics localized
>         in a program?  For example, if an American-produced program shows
>         a street scene in New York, does it become a street scene in
>         Kakegawa, Japan for the Japanese version?
>
>      2. Has any work been done to internationalize graphics?  For
>         example, if only one small portion of a large graphics image must
>         be changed to suit each locale, can it be done efficiently?

Jeff
INSOFT-L List Manager

*========================================================================*
 Jeff Bowyer                         EMail:
 Computing Center		     jbowyer@cis.vutbr.cz
 Technical University of Brno
 Udolni 19, 602 00 BRNO
 Czech Republic
*========================================================================*


Sender: Doug Smith (sga!dougs@wheaton.wheaton.edu)

I found this in Apple's "Guide to Software Localization"...

> Software graphics include pictures, icons, screen
> layouts, and other nonverbal elements of the
> application's presentation. When designing graphics for
> worldwide software, remember these factors:
>
> * Ordinary objects, particularly those not marketed
> worldwide, may look different
>    in different cultures. Beware of icons that are
> intended to depict such things as
>    telephones, mailboxes, traffic signals, and so on.
> What looks familiar to you may
>    be unrecognizable to someone else.
>
> * Certain images may evoke unexpected reactions in
> another culture. They may be
>    thought to bring bad luck, or be considered vulgar, or
> symbolize unrelated ideas.
>     Colors and even the number of objects in a group may
> have meanings that
>     obscure or contradict the message you are trying to
> convey. This problem is
>     discussed in more detail in Chapter 4, "Cultural
> Factors."
>
> * Graphic design conventions may vary from culture to
> culture. For example,
>     Japanese artists tend to draw tables of data
> differently than Western artists do.
>    Hence parts of your software may have a "look" that
> appears odd or
>     unprofessional elsewhere.
>
> If possible, have graphic designers from the target
> culture look at your icons and displays. If this kind of
> professional review is not practical, then try to stay
> with simple layouts and depictions of everyday objects
> that are used in the same form all over the world.


Sender: Nadine Kano <nadinek@microsoft.com>

1.  Part of a global design is to come up with graphics that are generic
enough for international markets.  Bitmaps should be chosen carefully
so that they will be understood and will not offend in foreign markets.  I
personally think that, unless the product is very graphics oriented, changing
graphics for different language versions would be too much work.

2.  With Windows, it is possible to change text on buttons to a different
language.  The trend however is to come up with generic bitmaps for buttons.


Sender: Chiaki Ishikawa (pmcgw!personal-media.co.jp!ishikawa@uunet.UU.NET)

There are cases when a visual image contains some character strings:
after the translation into a local language, their length vary. My
experience is that Japanese translation tends to be longer than, say,
American English original.

In these cases, the drawing (mostly boxes surroundign the GUI menu
components) have to be modified. The changes are usually handled
automatically by the GUI builder tools or GUI libraries such as XView
for Sun OpenLook (and presumably Motif, but I don't know much about
Motif yet.).
There are cases that the whole layout had to be redone due to the
changes of the character strings length, and height.
I haven't had a purely drawing-type image (no strings) that had to be
localized.

Another thing is cultural taboo: I have not heard/read an incidence of
such change. But, as an example, I have heard that in a South Eastern
Asian coutnry (I think it is Thailand, but please correct me if I am
wrong), patting a child head with (seemingly intended) affection is a
VERY BAD THING. The local culture assumes that the head is a very
sacred place in one's body, and patting your neighbor's child head may
put you in trouble. So, if an image on the screen shows a kinder
garden teacher tenderly patting a child's head, it may need replacing
in such a country. Otherwise a message may be lost.

Some animals are thought to be sacred while others are looked down
upon depending where you travel. Such cultural differences are ubiquitous.

If a program uses the symbolic rendition of a flower, Chrysanthemum,
in a particular way so that it resembles the emblem of Japanese royal
family, the image may bring unwanted message to its users.
(Even though Japan is a constitutional Monarchy, the poplulation is
not at ease with the role the monarychy played in the WW-II, and any
unwanted mention of the royaly family in, say, an office setting may
be thought as untasteful.)

Also, if you or your company intend to include oriental-looking people
in your drawings and documents, and intend to come to Japan, you might
want to hire a professional Japanese artists. There are slight
variations of race(?) in the Asian region, and certainly Japanese and
people from India and Middle East look different. It is difficult to
concentrate to see a non-Japanese looking figures in the document even
if the main text is translated into Japanese.
(I, for one, now understand the diversity of races, peoples in, say,
North America and come to take such somewhat mixed images for granted,
but the common Japanese (and they are your potential users) will find
the images very odd.)