A Report On Translating Informative Visual Texts

Today,visual texts have gained popularity with extremely concise language,attractive illustrations and designs.Translators,as active participants in public communication,gradually encounter these special texts.As a kind of multimodal texts,visual texts may require translation methods different from those for texts with written words only.Moreover,the communicative goals and contents of the texts will affect translation considerations.This report looks at the translation of informative visual texts.Based on the practice of translating informative pictures themed on patent applications,as well as the guidance of Text Typology by Reiss and the relevance-theoretic approach by Gutt,the report proposes the translation goal of informative visual texts: to allow readers to obtain the information easier and quicker while maintaining the accuracy of information and formality of language.To this end,the author presents general translation methods and specific translation methods.The general methods are compliance-oriented,including using the right words,formalizing the language and adopting the established translations.While the specific methods will highlight the flexibility and remind translators of fully considering the visual designs of the texts and reducing the processing efforts of target readers.These methods include(1)making good use of the layout and reducing redundancy,(2)adapting to the layout and shortening sentences,(3)presenting the highlighted information first and(4)adjusting the typographic structure if needed.