Supporting multiple languages is one of the best way to promote inclusion and accessibility. Thanks to the efforts of our community, FreeSewing is proudly multilingual.
This translation guide covers everything you need to know to join the effort of translating FreeSewing into other languages.
Supported Languages
FreeSewing is currently available in the following languages:
| Code | Language | Website |
|---|---|---|
de | German | https://de.freesewing.org/ |
en | English | https://en.freesewing.org/ |
es | Spanish | https://es.freesewing.org/ |
fr | French | https://fr.freesewing.org/ |
nl | Dutch | https://nl.freesewing.org/ |
uk | Ukrainian | https://uk.freesewing.org/ |
English is the translation source language and the working language of the FreeSewing project
Become a FreeSewing translator
To gain access as a FreeSewing translator, you will need an invite. You can request a translator invite with the link below. When you do, we will send you an email with all further instructions.
We also have a dedicated Translation channel on Discord for any questions that may remain.
Adding a new language
We would love to make FreeSewing available in more languages. If you are interested in starting a new translation effort, that is great.
We ask that you familiarize yourself with this translation guide to understand what it takes to add a new language. Then if you can submit your request to setup a new language with the link below.
Get the band together
We recommend finding some like-minded people who can help translating.
While the core materials of FreeSewing can realistically be handled by one person, translating all of FreeSewing’s documentation and content realistically is a job you should not undertake on your own.
Do or do not. There is no try.
There is a certain cost to adding a new language. It’s not a cost in money, but rather in increased bandwidth, storage requirements, build times, repository size, test times, and so on.
It’s a cost we are more than happy to pay for the benefit gaining another langauge. But it is also a cost that needs to be paid up front, at the start of the effort.
So, without wanting to discourage anyone, I would really like to avoid a scenario where people enthusiastically start working on a new languages, only to lose interest days or weeks later and see the effort falter.
With that out of the way, I hope to see many more languages being added in the future.
Translation status
The status of the ongoing translation work is available at FreeSewing.org/translation.
It’s a good place to check what languages need extra help, and which are leading the scoreboard.
Translation priorities
To fully translate FreeSewing, the following types of content needs to be translated:
Top priority: UX Translations
These are translations the directly impact the user experience (UX). They include the content used in design, the names of options, translations of menus, emails, and so on.
This is a relatively small amount of text, and makes up less than 10% of the top & high priority content. It’s an effort that a motivated translator can complete over the course of a weekend.
The top-priority translations in Crowdin are everything under the packages
and sites folder. Do this first.
High priority: Translation of Documentation
This includes all the documentation on FreeSewing.org.
This is a significant amount of text that makes up more than 90% of the top & high priority content. It’s an effort you should probably not take on by yourself, but rather tackle with a team of translators.
The high-priory translations in Crowdin is everything under the
markdown/org/docs folder.
Low Priority: Content of blog and showcase posts, and newsletters
This is nice to have as people can use and navigate FreeSewing even when this content remains untranslated.
The low-priory translations in Crowdin is everything under the
markdown/org/blog, markdown/org/showcase, and markdown/org/newsletter folders.
Translation through Crowdin
All of our translation work is handled through Crowdin, an online platform to facilitate translation.
You can reach the FreeSewing project on Crowdin directly via translate.freesewing.org.
Crowdin is configured to automatically detect all of the various translation files in our repository, upload them to the platform, and break them apart into bite-sized portions that you can translate in a collaborative way. Rather than work on one large block of text, various people can jump in and translate smaller snippets,
Once translated, there is a proofreading step that will be handled by one of our proofreaders. This is often a formality, but it’s an extra step to allow quality assurance and avoid any mistakes from slipping in. Much like the code review process when you submit a pull request on GitHub.
Once your translation is approved, Crowdin will automatically submit a pull request on GitHub to update the translation files in our repository. And the next time our website or software packages get built, they will include the new translations.
Machine translation
While everybody knows that translation is best when it’s done by a human being, we also have to be realistic that the growing body of documentation and other FreeSewing content can be a daunting task to take on for translators, especially when you want to start a new language.
Fortunately, machine translation has gotten rather good so we can get some help. Our Crowdin project is integrated with a DeepL subscription, and this can be a great help to translators.
You can use the DeepL suggestions when translating, or there is also the possibility to machine-translate entire files or folders. For example, you may start a new language by machine-translating everything, and then focus on proofreading the top-priority content, and then move on to the high-priority content.
Syntax
Most strings are just text, but sometimes you’ll find a little markup sprinkled in.
HTML formatting
When you encounter HTML tags, simply translate around them. For example:
<b>No</b>, never.
looks like this in Spanish:
<b>No</b>, nunca.
Placeholders
When you encounter a {key} between curly braces, leave it as-is.
These will be filled in later with the correct value. For example:
{field} saved
looks like this in Spanish
{field} guardado
Questions, Suggestions, Discussion
If you have questions, suggestions, or would like to discuss translation-related matters, please join discord.freesewing.org and head to the Translation channel.