Situation
A regional NHS trust was preparing a public health campaign targeting a diverse urban population across several of its service areas. The trust’s communications team, led by a patient engagement coordinator named Priya, needed a suite of health leaflets and brochures translated into multiple community languages ahead of a scheduled distribution date. The materials covered vaccination guidance, appointment attendance, and preventative care information — content where accuracy and plain-language accessibility were both essential. For more on LingvoHouse’s public sector translation services, see the public sector translation overview.
Challenge
The project involved eleven languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin Chinese, Somali, Polish, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, and Romanian, alongside the core European languages of French and Spanish. The source documents were supplied as a mix of InDesign files and print-ready PDFs, with page layouts that included infographic elements, coloured text boxes, and NHS branding that had to be preserved across all language versions. Several of the target languages required right-to-left text handling, which added typesetting complexity beyond standard translation workflow. The publication date was fixed: the materials were tied to a trust-wide distribution event and could not be delayed.
Approach
LingvoHouse received the brief and assigned a dedicated project manager to assess the file set before translation began. The project manager identified which files required DTP handling alongside translation and flagged the right-to-left language requirements — Arabic and Farsi — for specialist typesetting from the outset, rather than treating them as standard language pairs.
Translation was carried out under LingvoHouse’s ISO 17100-certified workflow, with specialist translators assigned per language pair and a review stage built into the schedule for each version. The DTP team worked from the original InDesign source files, maintaining NHS branding, font specifications, and layout integrity across all eleven language outputs. Print-ready PDFs were produced for each language version to the trust’s specifications.
The project manager maintained daily contact with Priya throughout, providing a status update at each workflow milestone and flagging a minor source text ambiguity in the vaccination guidance copy, which the trust resolved before translation proceeded.
Outcome
All eleven language versions of the health leaflets and brochures were delivered as print-ready PDFs by the agreed deadline. The files were accepted by the trust’s communications team without revision and passed to the print supplier on schedule. The distribution event proceeded as planned. Priya confirmed that the files met the trust’s accessibility and branding requirements across all community language versions.
What This Demonstrates
- ISO 17100-certified translation workflow applied across eleven community languages simultaneously
- DTP handling for multilingual InDesign and PDF files, including right-to-left typesetting for Arabic and Farsi
- Dedicated project manager assigned from brief to delivery, with milestone-based client communication
- Proactive identification of source text ambiguity before translation commenced, preventing downstream revision
- Secure handling of NHS-branded materials under ISO 27001-certified systems
Work with LingvoHouse on a Similar Project
NHS trusts and local authorities commissioning leaflets and brochures translated into multiple community languages are welcome to discuss project requirements with LingvoHouse. Request a quote at lingvohouse.com, or contact the team directly to outline the language count, file format, and timeline — a project manager will respond promptly.
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Multilingual Leaflet & Brochure Translation for Local Authorities
Urgent 12-Language Public Health Campaign Delivered Across a Metropolitan Regions
