John Mastrogiannopoulos was just a techie helping out his girlfriend when he discovered the world of desktop publishing (DTP). Now the CEO of TTS NORDIKA, a Chilean multilingual DTP company, he reflects on how business has evolved over the past decade and how DTP will integrate with the larger translation and localization landscape.
Why do you enjoy reading MultiLingual magazine?
It has been our eyes into the translation industry and helps us stay up to date with current events.
How did you get involved in the DTP business?
I got into the DTP business 10 years ago through an interesting turn of events. My girlfriend at the time, Helenitza, who is now my wife, was a partner at TTS NORDIKA. They had a Scandinavian client who needed a special way to handle their reports. They wanted to extract information from PDFs and use it to create new reports. Their old way of doing it took too much time, and they wanted to make it faster.
I had just come back to Chile from Canada and was looking for work. Knowing I had experience with IT, Helenitza asked me if I could help them make this process better. I agreed to help, and we ended up creating a system that did this automatically for the client. After that project, I continued to work closely with this client, and I kept learning more about DTP and its role within translation projects.
Since you entered the DTP business, how has the business landscape changed?
Since starting in the DTP business, there’s been a big shift in the type of work that needs to be done. In the beginning, the focus was mostly on getting documents ready for translation and fixing their layouts afterward. But now, the scope has expanded way beyond just documents. There’s a need to work on a variety of content types such as videos, e-learning content, software, websites, subtitles, etc.
What is the relationship between DTP and translation?
DTP plays an important role both before and after the translation process in ensuring that materials are not only linguistically accurate, but also culturally and visually appropriate for the target audience. Our processes are normally separated into two stages: pre- and post-translation DTP.
Pre-translation DTP involves preparing the source document for translation. This may include extracting text from non-editable formats (like PDFs or images), which ensures that the text is organized in a way that simplifies the translation process. The goal is to create a document that is easy for translators to work with, minimizing potential formatting issues that could arise after translation.
Post-translation DTP focuses on refining the translated document to ensure it meets the same high standards of quality and design as the original. This stage involves importing or reinserting the translated text into the original layout, adjusting the layout to accommodate text expansion or contraction, and ensuring that all visual elements (such as images, graphs, and tables) are correctly aligned and culturally appropriate. The DTP specialists also ensure that the document complies with any specific formatting rules required by the target market or industry, maintaining consistency and brand identity across languages.
Do you believe it’s a good time to enter the DTP business?
Yes, entering the DTP business can be a good idea, given the growing need for localization and digital content creation across industries. There’s a consistent demand for high-quality, culturally adapted materials — from websites to marketing brochures — especially as businesses expand globally. Advances in technology make DTP tools more accessible and efficient, offering opportunities to work with clients worldwide remotely.
However, it’s a competitive field, so success would depend on your ability to stand out through specialization, high-quality work, or niche market focus. Continuous learning to keep up with the latest software and trends is essential. While economic shifts can affect demand, the flexibility and broad applicability of DTP skills can offer a resilient career path with the right strategy.
Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 10 years? Are you planning to share your great knowledge of DTP with the world?
It’s hard to say, as the rapid technological advancements present both a challenge and an opportunity. My aim is to remain flexible and proactive, adapting to new technologies that can revolutionize how we handle DTP in translation. This means continuously exploring innovative DTP tools and methodologies that enhance efficiency, accuracy, and cultural relevance in our translated materials.
Continuous learning and skill development will be very important, so that we can quickly adapt to and integrate advancements in software and automation that impact DTP work. The focus will be on improving processes to better serve the evolving needs of our clients.
What predictions do you have for the future of the DTP and translation businesses?
In the future, I see multilingual DTP businesses evolving into “digital partners,” significantly broadening their expertise to encompass digital arts and data acquisition. This transformation will enable them to support translators and language service providers (LSPs) handling both pre- and post-translation tasks across various content formats and delivery platforms.
As we progress, the integration of AI into these processes will become paramount, automating many tasks that are currently manual while still relying on human expertise for nuanced understanding and creative judgment. This collaboration will lead DTP companies to specialize in the technical aspects of content localization, making them the technical backbone of the translation process. Meanwhile, translators will focus more on quality assurance, ensuring the linguistic accuracy and cultural appropriateness of translations.
