Comprehensive Service

Clear, accurate translations written in natural-sounding language are essential to convey your message to a global audience. Lucida's comprehensive translation service will give you word-perfect documents that precisely convey the technical content and nuance of your originals. Our highly experienced translators work mainly from English to Japanese and Japanese to English.

There are three essential elements to first-class technical translation:

• Source language proficiency: The translator must completely understand the original document, including the technical content as well as the tone and linguistic nuances. Lucida's translators are gifted linguists having years of experience translating highly complex technical documents.

• Target language proficiency: It is essential to be able to express the content and concepts in clear, natural-sounding expressions in the target language. Our translators are competent writers in their target language, having years of experience writing technical material.

• Technical knowledge: Even the best completely bilingual translator will have trouble translating your document if he or she does not understand the subject. It is essential to have field-specific knowledge of the subject matter. Lucida's translators have technical and scientific degrees covering all major disciplines.

We would urge you to look for all of these when choosing a translation company to handle your most important documents. Rest assured that Lucida satisfies all of these requirements.

Specialist Translators

Lucida's translators are carefully selected for their extensive experience and qualifications, in translation as well as in science and technology. They have degrees in the sciences, engineering, and technology, often in addition to translation qualifications. All have years of experience translating complex technical documents. You can see brief profiles of some of our translators here.

Quality

Our translators will carefully and accurately turn your source document into high-quality natural-sounding language. All technical terms are checked and used consistently throughout the document, and any unclear portions in the original will be translated into lucid, logical descriptions.

After completion, we carefully check that all content has been accurately translated, that terminology is used consistently, and that the final document reads smoothly and logically in the target language. All of our translated documents are checked by a native speaker of the target language, also having a technical or translation background. We will usually attach a memo listing any problems found in the original, how they were handled, and any assumptions or major changes made by the translator. In many cases, we may contact you during the translation process to ask how you prefer to handle these issues.

You can rest assured that the final translation is a faithful and natural-sounding version of your original, whatever the intended purpose.

Competitive Rates

Our rates are among the most competitive you will find for this kind of comprehensive service. After you send us your document, we will send you a quotation showing the costs involved and the completion schedule. You will always know in advance the exact cost of translating your document. Details of our translation rates are shown below.

Fast Turnaround

We will respond to your inquiry within 24 hours, often within a few hours, with a detailed estimate showing the cost and schedule. The turnaround time depends on the length and complexity of your document. More details of turnaround time are shown below.

Technical Fields

Our specialist translators cover all major scientific and technical fields.

Rates and Turnaround Time

We provide Standard and Express services. The Express service is roughly twice as fast as the Standard service. Please contact us if you need your document even sooner. Please also read the important notes below.

Notes

• These rates are based on the volume of the source document.

• For Japanese source documents, 1 page = 400 Japanese characters.

• For English source documents, 1 page = 200 English words.

• Word and character counts are obtained using Microsoft Word's word count feature and then divided by 200 (for English) or 400 (for Japanese) to calculate the number of pages.

• There is a 3-page minimum document length. (Shorter documents will be charged as for 3 pages.)

• Captions and labels in figures and graphs to be translated will also be included in the word count.

• These rates are for translation only. Work for producing drawings, page layout, document formatting and so on will incur an additional charge.

• The turnaround times are in business days and do not include weekends, public holidays, and company holidays.

• Japanese consumption tax (10%) will be added to the above rates.

Process

1. Send your document and place order

Preparing your document

Text. If only a portion of your document is to be translated, please indicate it clearly, for example, using underlining or a different color, or by crossing-out text to be ignored.

Figures, tables, and images. If you have any figures, tables or graphics to be translated, please send them together with the text.

Reference material. If you have any preferred terminology or similar material that has previously been translated or published, please send it to us. It will help to ensure consistency.

File formats. For electronic submissions, we accept the following file formats: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), Rich Text Format (.rtf), LATEX (.tex or .txt), plain text (.txt), Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf), Postscript (.ps), Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt), Microsoft Excel (.xls), and Adobe Illustrator (.ai).

Compressed files. If your files are large or if you need to send us numerous files, please compress them. We can accept most compression formats, including ZIP, Stuffit, LHA, TAR, GZIP, and BinHex. (Note: our online form can accept up to 10 attachments, maximum total size: 100MB.)

Sending your document

Use one of the following methods to send your document.

• Online form (preferred method): Complete our secure online form to upload your files.

• Email: Please use this email template. Fill in the requested information and attach your files (maximum 25 MB). For secure transmission, we can receive SSL encrypted email. Please contact us first to request our digital certificate.

Get quote and place order

Once we have received your files, we will send you an acknowledgement message by email. Then, within 24 hours and often within a few hours (excluding weekends and holidays), we will send you a firm quotation by email showing the cost and schedule. Once you accept our quotation, we will start translating your document.

2. Translation

After carefully reviewing your original document and deciding technical terminology to be used, we will translate your document into the target language, while keeping in mind the intended purpose of the document to ensure clear natural-sounding expressions.

3. Quality control

We carefully check the translation by comparing it with the original to make sure that all content has been correctly conveyed into the target language, that technical terminilogy is used properly and consistently, and that the language used is clear and logical.

Where necessary, your translated document will be edited by a native speaker of the target language to ensure concise, natural-sounding expressions, whatever the purpose of your document.

Together with the translated document, we will send you a memo noting any issues found by the translator or checker, how these issues were handled, and any assumptions or corrections made during translation.

4. Customer feedback

The customer reviews the translation and memo and, if necessary, gives feedback or suggestions for changes, such as preferred expressions and terminology. In such case, we will revise the translation according to your preferences and return the final version. Client participation is an important aspect to ensure the highest quality and accuracy of the completed document.

5. Invoicing and payment

We will send you invoice documents in any format you require. We usually request payment within one month, but with prior agreement your organization may settle the invoice according to its standard payment procedures. Payment should be made by bank transfer to our account (details are provided on the invoice).