Translation Quote for a Technical Manual: What to Send Your Supplier
To get an accurate translation quote for a technical manual, send the editable source files, any previous translations or translation memories, your glossary and style rules, reference material and images, the target languages and markets, the regulatory context, the deadline and update plan, who reviews the translation in your company and the file formats you expect back. DEMA Solutions quotes from exactly this package.
Who this guide is for
This guide is for the person who is about to press send: a technical documentation manager, a technical writer, a localization coordinator or a buyer in procurement at a manufacturer of machinery, HVAC systems, lifting equipment, automation or process plant. You have a new operating manual, a revised maintenance manual or a spare parts catalogue, and you need it in several languages, ideally without a week of back-and-forth questions before anyone can give you a price.
The aim is simple: to get a translation quote you can rely on at the first attempt. The more complete your first translation request, the more accurate the translation quote, the fewer surprises in the invoice and the less work for you once the project starts. The sections below explain what to include, why each item matters, and what to do when you do not have it.
Why the request shapes the translation quote
A translation quote for a technical manual is not just a word count multiplied by a rate. A careful supplier has to answer several questions before the number means anything. How much of the text has already been translated and approved? Which parts repeat across chapters and product variants? Can the files be processed directly, or does someone need to rebuild them first? Which terms are fixed by the customer and which are open? Who signs off, and how many review rounds are expected? What format must the translated manual come back in?
When the request leaves these questions open, a supplier has three options. It can ask you, which costs days. It can assume the worst and add a safety margin, which costs you money. Or it can assume the best and quote low, which usually turns into extra charges, missed deadlines or a translation that ignores terminology you already paid to approve. None of these is a good start. A complete request removes the guesswork, which is why it is the single easiest way to lower cost, errors and turnaround on a manual project.
What to send: the short checklist
If you only read one section, make it this one. Preparing documents for translation is mostly a matter of collecting what already exists. A complete request for a technical manual contains:
- Editable source files in the format the manual was authored in, with images and linked files.
- Previous translations of the same or related manuals, and any translation memory you already own.
- Your glossary and any style rules for the target languages.
- Reference material: earlier editions, product photos, drawings, the user interface texts.
- Target languages and markets, including country variants.
- The regulatory context, such as the Machinery Regulation or the MDR.
- The deadline and the update plan: one release or a document that will change regularly.
- Who reviews internally, in each language, and how much time they have.
- What you expect back: formats, file names, PDFs, print or online output.
Each item is explained below, together with what it saves.
Source files: editable formats first, PDF if that is all you have
The source file is where most avoidable cost begins. Technical manuals are usually authored in Word, InDesign, FrameMaker or as DITA or other XML exported from a content management system. If you send the original files, the translation can be extracted from them, translated with your memory and glossary, and written back into the same layout. Repeated sentences are recognised automatically, text in tables and callouts stays where it belongs, and the translated manual comes back in the format your team already maintains.
Send the complete package, not only the main document. For InDesign that means the packaged folder with fonts and linked images; for FrameMaker the book file and all chapters; for XML the full map with its referenced topics. Missing links are one of the most common reasons a project stops on day one.
A PDF is a different matter. It is a picture of the layout, not the document itself. Text can be extracted, but tables break, sentences are split across lines, callouts lose their anchor and every page has to be rebuilt in the target language. Our in-house DTP team can convert PDFs into editable files when there is no alternative, and our explanation of how DTP file preparation works shows what that involves. It works, but it adds a step, it adds cost, and the rebuilt file will never be quite the same as your original. If the editable source exists anywhere in the company, with a former writer, an external designer or a subsidiary, it is worth finding it before you ask for the quote.
The same applies to text inside images. Warning labels, annotated drawings and screenshots with interface text are only translatable cheaply if the editable artwork or the source of the screenshot is available. Otherwise someone has to recreate the image, which belongs in the quote and the schedule from the start.
Previous translations and existing translation memories
Almost no technical manual is new. A new machine shares chapters with its predecessor, safety instructions are reused across the range, and maintenance procedures change only where the hardware changes. If those parts were translated before, you should not pay to translate them again.
The best case is a translation memory you already own, exported in a portable format such as TMX, together with a terminology file in TBX. Send it with the request and the supplier can analyse the new manual against it, showing exactly how much is already approved, how much is similar and how much is new. That analysis is what makes a quote fair, and it is why owning your translation memory matters so much when you change or add suppliers.
If you have no memory, previous translations still help. Earlier editions of the same manual in the target languages, with the source they were translated from, can be aligned into a memory before the project starts. Our page on translation memory alignment explains how that works. The result is that your new manual reuses the wording your customers, service engineers and subsidiaries already know, instead of introducing a second way of saying the same thing.
One caution: tell your supplier which earlier translations you trust. If a previous version was criticised by a distributor or never properly reviewed, say so, so that it is used as reference rather than reused automatically.
Glossary, terminology and style rules
Terminology is where technical manuals succeed or fail. A component that is called one thing in the manual, another on the machine label and a third in the spare parts catalogue confuses technicians and generates support calls. If your company has approved terms for key components, functions, safety notices and interface elements, send them, even if they only exist as a spreadsheet or a list in an email.
A glossary helps the quote as well as the quality. It tells the supplier how much terminology work is already done, and it prevents the most expensive kind of review comment: the one that asks for a term to be changed everywhere after the translation is finished. Our article on keeping technical terminology consistent across translators and suppliers explains how a glossary is built and maintained.
Style rules are the second half. Do you address the user directly or impersonally? Are units converted or kept? How are warnings structured, which decimal separator is used, are product names translated? A few pages answering these questions save many review rounds, and a translation style guide is the place to keep the answers for every language.
Reference material, images and the product itself
Translators of technical manuals work best when they understand what the text describes. Reference material makes that possible without repeated questions. Useful items include the previous edition of the manual, exploded drawings, product photos, a short video of the machine in operation, the HMI or software texts the manual refers to, and the spare parts list. If the manual describes a control panel, the exact labels on that panel must match the text, so send the interface strings or screenshots with the manual.
This material is not translated and does not appear in the word count, but it shortens the project. Questions that would otherwise go back to your engineers can be answered from the documents, and the translation will match the product rather than a guess about it.
Target languages and markets
Languages seem obvious until they are not. Portuguese for Portugal and for Brazil, French for France and for Canada, Spanish for Spain and for Latin America differ in terminology and conventions, and a manual for one may not be acceptable in the other. Switzerland, Belgium and Austria raise their own questions. State the countries, not only the languages.
The market also tells the supplier what else the manual must respect: units, date and number formats, local electrical and safety conventions, and the language rules of each country. If some languages are needed now and others later, say so, because that affects how the memory, the glossary and the layout are prepared for the first wave.
Regulatory context: Machinery Regulation, MDR and other product rules
Instructions for regulated products are part of compliance, not just communication. The Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, which applies from 20 January 2027, requires instructions in a language easily understood by users, as determined by the Member State where the machine is made available, and it allows digital instructions under defined conditions, with a paper version available free of charge on request. Our article on what the Machinery Regulation requires for translated instructions covers the detail. If your equipment is also a medical device, the MDR adds its own rules on labels, instructions for use and languages, summarised in our guide to EU MDR labeling requirements.
Tell your supplier which legislation applies and which documents are in scope: instructions, safety warnings, the EU declaration of conformity, labels, training material. This shapes the process. Safety content justifies a stricter review, sentences reused from memory deserve a second check in sensitive projects, and the supplier needs to know which elements, such as standard references or model numbers, must never change. Our broader guide to user manual translation explains how these rules apply across EU product legislation.
Deadlines, release plans and updates
A deadline is more useful when it comes with context. Is the date fixed by a trade fair, a machine shipment or a certification audit? Can languages be delivered in stages? Will the source still change after you send it? A manual sent “almost final” and then revised twice during translation costs more than one sent a few days later in its final form, because every change has to be tracked, translated and laid out again in every language.
Tell your supplier, too, whether this is a one-off or the first edition of a document that will be updated with every product release. A recurring manual is set up differently: memory and glossary are built to be reused, file structures are kept stable, and each update is quoted on the changed content rather than the whole document. That is where the real savings in technical manual translation cost come from over time.
Who reviews in your company
Many manuals are checked internally before release, often by a subsidiary, a distributor or a bilingual engineer. That review is valuable, but it needs planning. Say who reviews each language (the role is enough, no name needed), how much time they have, and agree whether they correct the files directly or send comments. A reviewer who sees the glossary before the translation starts can approve terms once; a reviewer who sees it only at the end tends to rewrite, and those preferential changes then have to be reconciled with the memory.
If nobody reviews internally for some languages, say that too. It tells the supplier that its own revision by a second qualified linguist is the final check, which is worth knowing when you compare offers.
What you expect back: file handback and formats
The last item is the one most often forgotten: what exactly should arrive at the end? Clean file handback means the translated manual returns in a form your team can use without rework. Be specific about:
- Formats: the same authoring format as the source, plus print-ready or interactive PDFs where needed.
- File naming and folder structure that fit your document management or content management system.
- Linguistic assets: the updated translation memory and glossary in portable formats.
- Layout checks: who verifies page breaks, tables, images and cross-references in each language.
Text expansion matters here. Translated text often runs longer than the source, so a layout that works in Italian or English may overflow in German or French. Solving that in the original files is the job of multilingual desktop publishing, and it should be part of the quote, not a surprise after delivery.
Three common objections, answered
“We only have PDFs.” Then send the PDFs, and say so clearly in the request. A good supplier will tell you what can be extracted, what needs rebuilding and what that adds in time and cost. At the same time, ask internally whether the source still exists: a designer, a former technical writer or a parent company may have it. Even partial source files, such as the text in Word without the layout, reduce the rebuilding work.
“We have no glossary.” That is common, and it is not a reason to wait. Send whatever exists, such as a list of key components, the HMI texts or the spare parts catalogue, and ask the supplier to extract the main terms from the manual before translation. Your experts then approve a short list once, rather than correcting terms in every chapter later. The glossary that results belongs to you and serves every future project.
“We do not know the target languages yet.” Ask for a quote on the languages you are sure of, and for an indicative figure per additional language, based on the same analysis. Preparing the files, the memory and the terminology is largely the same whatever the languages, so the first wave sets the foundation for the rest. Tell the supplier which markets are under consideration, so that layout and terminology choices do not have to be revisited later.
How to compare the quotes you receive
Once the requests are complete, the offers become comparable. Look at how each supplier treats repeated and previously translated content, whether layout and file preparation are included or quoted separately, whether a second linguist revises every translation, how terminology questions are handled, and what you receive at the end, including the memory and glossary. A low rate that ignores your existing translations, or excludes layout, is rarely the lowest total. Our guide to choosing a technical translation company lists the questions worth asking before you decide.
How DEMA Solutions handles a new manual request
When a manual arrives, we start by analysing the files rather than counting words. We check the source format and the linked content, run the text against any memory you send, and show you how much is new, similar or already approved, so the translation quote reflects real reuse. If you have earlier translations but no memory, we can align them first. If you only have PDFs, our in-house DTP team makes them editable, and we tell you upfront what that involves.
Terminology is agreed before translation, using your glossary or a term list extracted from the manual for your experts to approve. Our process is ISO 17100 certified, with a second qualified linguist revising every translation, and in sensitive projects reused translations are checked again rather than accepted automatically. Our teams in Italy, Serbia and Spain work with linguists who specialise in technical content, and the translated manual comes back in its original format, laid out and checked. Your translation memory and glossary remain yours, delivered in portable formats (TMX and TBX), and every update shows transparently how much came from reuse.
Where TUBE fits
For manufacturers whose manuals change with every product release, TUBE is the solution that keeps each update efficient. Your glossary and translation memory control machine translation, every approved translation goes into a memory you own and can export, and leverage reporting shows how much of each update comes from text you have already approved.
Frequently asked questions
Send the editable source files with images and links, previous translations or translation memories, your glossary and style rules, reference material, the target languages and countries, the applicable regulations, the deadline and update plan, who reviews the translation internally and the formats you need back. Each missing item either delays the quote or adds a safety margin to it.
Yes, but it usually costs more and takes longer. The text has to be extracted and the layout rebuilt in every language, because a PDF is not the editable document. Editable source files such as Word, InDesign, FrameMaker or XML give a cleaner result and allow repeated content to be reused automatically.
Because reused content should not be paid for twice. Previous translations or a translation memory let the supplier identify sentences already approved, which lowers the cost, shortens the schedule and keeps the wording your users already know.
No. A glossary helps, but if you do not have one, ask for the key terms to be extracted from the manual and approved by your experts before translation starts. That avoids late terminology changes across the whole document.
Enough for a translator to understand the product: the previous edition, drawings or photos, the interface texts and the spare parts list are usually sufficient. Reference material is not counted in the quote but reduces questions and errors.
Request a quote for the confirmed languages and an indicative price per additional language. File preparation, memory and terminology work are largely shared, so later languages build on the first wave.
The translated manual in the same format as the source, checked for layout, plus any PDFs you need, file names that fit your systems, and the updated translation memory and glossary in portable formats so you can reuse them with any supplier.
Send us your manual and get a quote that holds
If you are preparing a manual for translation and want a quote that reflects your existing translations, your formats and your markets, send us your files and the languages you need. We will analyse them and tell you what you can reuse before you commit to anything.
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