Guidelines for efficient, effective production:
- Organize intelligently, identifying items in a photo with letters or numbers rather than word descriptions.
- Leave ample white space to accommodate the language expansion phenomenon, lengthier words in the target language.
- Leave ample time (the equivalent of white space) in your multi-media presentation or video to accommodate the language growth.
- Avoid narrow columns to eliminate excessive word breaks.
- Make intelligent color choices, with the understanding that color backgrounds with reversed type or color photos will add cost to the project.
- Position headlines or taglines to accommodate the language expansion phenomenon.
- Keep text separate from art as much as possible, to eliminate the need for digital editing of pictures or design elements.
- Plan for a page that will adapt to international paper sizes by avoiding a design that locks you into the 8-1/2 " x 11" format.
- Avoid design elements that rely on text to be read from left to right.
- Avoid boxed copy or allow space for language expansion when boxed copy is essential, such as in electronic publications and software.