Adobe Photoshop: translating text on images

Adobe Photoshop is the standard for raster graphics: photos, banners, screenshots, captioned illustrations. In a translation project this content is the classic bottleneck: the document text is translated, but the pictures still speak the source language. At MovaPro, images go through the same cycle as text: translation — editing — and careful recreation of the captions in Photoshop.

What we do in Photoshop

• Collect the text from images. Banner copy, screenshot captions, text on product photos — all of it enters the translation process together with the main text, under the same glossary.
• Recreate the captions in the target language. The designer swaps the text layers (or retouches and resets them when there are no source files), preserving the font, color, shadows, and composition.
• Keep everything consistent. The “Order” button on a screenshot reads the same as in the translated interface; the product name on a banner matches the catalog. Translation memory and the glossary in the CAT system enforce it.
• Deliver in the format you need. Layered PSDs for your designers, or ready JPG/PNG/WebP files for the website.

Why it matters to you

The site looks fully translated. In website localization, banners and illustrated guides with source-language captions instantly give away a “half-done” translation. We cover both text and graphics — the site feels made for that market.

The advertising works instead of merely being translated. In marketing materials the caption on the key banner is half the message. A linguist with marketing experience translates it, and the designer recreates it so the artwork is indistinguishable from the original.

Manuals with screenshots stay usable. Technical documentation is full of captioned interface screenshots; we keep their translation in sync with the terminology of the whole document.

How we work

1. Material assessment — send the images (ideally source PSDs with fonts); we count the volume and return a quote in 15 minutes.
2. Translation — image text is translated together with the main body: translation memory, glossary, editor, Xbench.
3. Design work — captions are recreated in the target language; composition and style are preserved.
4. Final review — the editor checks the finished images: context is only visible in the artwork.

Alongside Photoshop we lay out in InDesign and Illustrator — so we can close the full set: the document, the catalog, the website, and all the graphics behind them. Rates are on the prices page.