From the Tower of Babel to Comet Illustrator plug-in

Many of us are familiar with the biblical story in Genesis about the Tower of Babel, inciting God to confound the speech of the people, scattering them around the world, each with a different language.

Even now this state of many different languages across the world is something we all accept and live with today. To overcome the need to communicate we have even compromised on clarity of explanation in our mother tongue and use English as the common denominator, this is a practical human approach to make life simple. It does leave many people short on understanding exactly what is being communicated on food packaging listing ingredients for instance. On most products we buy we need to understand how to cook something correctly. A boil and a broil are completely different but can easily be misunderstood.

In a fully connected world should we expect technology to intervene and improve the situation, especially where something is regulated for our own protection?

Placing accurate multiple languages on food products, their labels or on cardboard packaging is a regulated necessity which is one of many Touchpoints on the Customer Experience journey. When assembling the final file for printing, it adds complexity to what to many is still a manual “Cut & Paste” process using language translation software to provide individual language phrases up to the point of introduction to the final Illustrator® file. This is a costly manual process that ultimately adds cost to each product we buy.

priint:suite has a component tool called a Comet plug-in to connect and import data sources through a hub to Adobe® InDesign® or Illustrator® that can then be used in any printed articles. Linking directly and online to the translation engine, ERP system, web site or wherever vital information is located, capturing this as XML to import into the file at the click of a mouse.

God may have been credited with creating the need for communicating across multiple languages, after seeing the Tower of Babel, but man is constantly developing technology to overcome some of the challenges this created.

Login