Information to be provided when asking for a cost estimate

Reference may be made to the list below to see what information we need, to be able to provide you, to the best of our abilities, with a cost estimate (the information not in bold can be omitted if you send us a complete copy of the document to be translated):

• Name of the company
• Contact name
• Address
• Fixed and/or mobile phone number
• Fax number
• E-mail address
• Source language
  • Language in which the document to be translated is written
• Target language(s)
  • Language or languages to be translated into
• Country of destination for the translation
  • Important when there are several countries which nominally speak the same language (for example, Spain and Mexico, or France and Canada, or Great Britain and the United States, etc.)
• Audience for whom it is intended
  • Specialists, company technicians, possible clients and company clients, management, the public in general, etc.
• Type of text
  • Technical literature, technical manual, product catalogue, financial document, business correspondence, legal document, advertising, tourist information, literary text, scientific paper, prescriptive text, general text, etc.
• Technical sector
  • Mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronics, chemical industry, aerospace, automotive, civil construction, hydraulic systems, movement control, marketing, corporate management, etc.
• Characteristics of the document
  • Contains a summary, analytical index, tables, figures and captions, equations, etc.
  • Requires scanning and graphic insertions, etc.
  • Specify the complexity and the number of the individual relevant entries
• Options requested
  • Quality page layout, text only with no particular page layout rendering (starting out from the text on paper), graphic insertions, attachments, etc.
• Form in which the translation will be made available
  • On paper, electronic file attached to an e-mail, electronic file on optical media, difficult to read photocopies, handwritten, etc.
  • Sent by fax, ordinary or priority post or courier, to be picked up in person, etc.
• Electronic file format
  • Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe PDF, InDesign CS4, QuarkXPress, PageMaker, etc.
• How the translation should be returned
  • Electronic file attached to an e-mail, electronic file on optical media, printed document, to be put at customer's disposal on our ftp server, etc.
  • Sent by fax, ordinary or priority post or courier, to be hand delivered, etc.
• Size of the source text
  • Specify the size, to the best of your knowledge, in characters, words, lines or pages, etc.
• Date required for delivering the translation
  • When you need the translation by
• Is the text available?
  • Yes/no, when will it be available?