DTP Services Singapore

No, because nobody here opens your original. The first thing we do is copy it, lock the copy away untouched, and work on a second copy. At the end you get your original back exactly as you sent it, plus the new version. One small favour in return: before you send anything, keep a copy on your own drive as well. Files do get lost in email, and it has nothing to do with us.

That happens more often than you would think, and it is fixable. We rebuild the layout from the PDF by hand, matching the fonts, the spacing and the picture positions until it looks the same. It takes longer than working from the real file, so it costs a bit more, and we tell you that upfront. The good news is that this time you keep the editable file, so nobody has to do it again.

First we try to make the space work: slightly tighter spacing, a small size drop, a column shifted. If the text is still too long after that, we come back to you rather than shrink it until nobody can read it. Usually the answer is either one extra page or a shorter sentence from your translator. Both are your call, not ours. Squashing a warning line down to five point type is how leaflets get pulled from shelves.

Very common, and there is no way around it: a font can only show the letters it was built with. We pick a second font that sits well beside your brand one, matching the weight and the feel as closely as we can, and we send you a sample before using it everywhere. Your English pages keep the brand font. Only the pages in the other script change, and most readers never notice the join.

Ask your printer for their spec sheet and pass it to us at the start. Every press wants something slightly different, and matching theirs is easier than guessing. We set the colour, the bleed, the marks and the file type to their list, then run the same check they run before we send it. Do this at the beginning and the file goes through first time. Do it at the end and you are paying twice.

Long books are ordinary work here, and one person stays on yours from cover to cover so the style never drifts. We deliver chapter by chapter if you like, which lets your editor start checking while we carry on. One thing worth knowing: the index and the contents page are done last, because page numbers move right up until the final layout is locked.

Both, and they are priced separately so you only pay for what you need. Plenty of clients already have their own translator and just want the pages fixed, which is completely fine. If you do want both from us, send the design file before translation rather than after. Working from the real file first saves a rebuild later, and that alone often costs less than the layout job you were about to book.

If the fault is ours, we fix it free. Forward the printer's note within thirty days and we correct the file and send it straight back, to you or to them. Being straight with you though: if the press is asking for something nobody mentioned at the start, or the artwork you supplied was low quality to begin with, that is a change rather than a mistake, and we will say so and quote it.

Yes, and repeat clients almost always ask for it. Your typesetter learns your habits, so briefs get shorter every round. We also build a style sheet from your first job, listing fonts, sizes, colours and margins. That sheet is yours. If your person is on leave, whoever steps in works from it, and you keep it even if you take the work elsewhere one day.

Send your own confidentiality form and we sign it the same day. Unreleased packaging, price lists and results that are still under embargo are normal work for us. The file goes to one named typesetter, never onto a shared folder, and it is never used as a sample. Ask in writing and we delete everything after delivery, then send you a note saying it is done.