Guide to Vertical Writing Document Translation: The Intersection of Tradition and Modernity
O.Translator
Jul 18, 2024
- The Origin and Development of Vertical Writing
- Translation Techniques for Vertical Documents
- I Want to Translate
1. The Origin and Development of Vertical Writing
1. The Origin and History of Vertical Writing
Vertical writing, also known as vertical typesetting, is a method of arranging text from top to bottom and right to left. It is most widely used in East Asian countries, particularly China, Japan, and Korea, where the traditional writing system is vertical.
In China's Oracle Bone Script and Bronze Script, vertical writing was a characteristic, with characters arranged sequentially from top to bottom. The subsequent Seal Script and Clerical Script continued to maintain the vertical writing tradition, and documents such as bamboo slips and silk books were also mostly written vertically.
Japan's Manyogana, like Chinese characters, were arranged from top to bottom and from right to left. Many waka poems and literary works such as 'The Tale of Genji', as well as Edo period ukiyo-e prints, continued to maintain vertical writing. Iconic literary works like 'The Life of an Amorous Man' were also written vertically.
2. The Application of Vertical Writing in Modern Publishing
In modern publishing, many literary works, such as novels and poetry, still play an important role in vertical writing, especially within the East Asian cultural sphere.
In addition, vertical writing is widely used in academic works and the reprinting of ancient books to preserve the original layout and historical authenticity.
Modern electronic media, such as vertically written PDFs and vertically written EPUBs, allow publishers to flexibly present vertical content on both paper and digital platforms. In advertising design and art works, vertical writing is also used as a visual tool to increase uniqueness and appeal.
II. Translation Techniques for Vertical Documents
The translation and preservation of vertically written PDFs or vertically written e-books (such as vertically written EPUBs) are of great significance for cultural heritage, academic research, and international cooperation.
For example, translating classic ancient books like 'Dream of the Red Chamber', preserving the vertical layout of Japanese legal documents, and user guides for Japanese products help protect cultural heritage, ensure accurate citation of academic materials, and provide a better international user experience. This allows global readers to better understand and apply these important texts while respecting the original layout style.
1. Challenges in translating vertically written documents
Complex layout structure
The character and line spacing of vertical text differ from horizontal text, especially in vertical PDFs (such as translated Japanese PDFs). Accurately recognizing and extracting characters and lines is a significant challenge.
In addition, documents may contain both horizontal and vertical text, increasing the complexity of detection. Some vertical PDFs also include multiple columns of text, which need to be correctly identified and separated to accurately extract content.
Image Quality and Preprocessing
Vertical document scans are prone to skewing, low resolution, or noise issues, requiring image preprocessing to enhance OCR effectiveness.
Vertical text demands higher preprocessing techniques because the vertical arrangement of characters is more sensitive to image quality.
Limitations of OCR Technology
OCR is essential for translating images and scanned PDFs. Most OCR tools can efficiently recognize horizontal text, but their accuracy in recognizing vertical text is relatively low.
In vertical documents (such as vertical PDFs or EPUBs), the relationship between characters vertically is much more complex than horizontally, increasing the difficulty of recognition.
2. Use O.Translator to translate vertical writing documents
O.Translator is a website that utilizes cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies (such as ChatGPT and Gemini) for document translation, delivering exceptionally outstanding translation results. The following article provides a detailed introduction to the excellent performance of O.Translator in translating different types of documents:
Currently, O.Translator already supports the translation of vertical documents, including vertically written PDF files and vertically written EPUBs.
Based on experience, vertical writing PDF files are mostly in Japanese. Here is a demonstration of translating vertical writing PDFs:
From the above examples, it can be seen that O.Translator not only maintains excellent layout effects when translating Japanese into Chinese and English, but also has very high translation quality.
III. I want to translate
If you need to translate vertical writing PDFs or other vertical writing documents, you can try O.Translator for free. You will be able to preview part of the translation effect first, and proceed with the full translation if satisfied.
Upload your document now to enjoy the translation service. Give it a try!
