Translate a sales brochure into Italian

What Italian changes in a brochure

The first decision is register. Business-to-business Italian addresses the client with the polite Lei, or with voi when speaking to a company or an audience. Consumer brands often switch to the informal tu. The same call to action therefore takes three forms:

• Contattaci (tu)
• Ci contatti (Lei)
• Contattateci (voi)

The usual mistake is not the choice itself but mixing them: a formal Lei in the introduction and a casual Scopri on the back-page button. Read the whole brochure once with that single question in mind.

Headings are the second point. Italian does not capitalise every word: Le nostre soluzioni per l'industria, not Le Nostre Soluzioni. Months and days are lower case too: dal 3 marzo. Brochures written in English title case need this adjusting throughout.

Typography, numbers and plurals

A brochure is short and highly visible, so small slips stand out.

• Accents: è (is) takes a grave accent, perché an acute one. In capitals, write È, not E', a common error in upper-case headings.
• Punctuation: no space before ? ! : ;. Italian uses « » or " " for quotations.
• Numbers: full stop for thousands, comma for decimals: 1.200,50 €, the reverse of British usage.
• Contact details: country code +39, postcode before the city, then the province abbreviation: 20121 Milano (MI).

Italian has three plural categories: 1 prodotto, 3 prodotti, and a form for large round numbers that requires di: 1 milione di clienti. If your brochure shows key figures or counters, check that construction.

Taglines, slogans and local references

Wordplay rarely survives the move into Italian. A tagline built on a pun or an idiom has to be rewritten rather than mirrored. Calliope renders the commercial meaning; you are best placed to judge whether the Italian line lands with the same effect.

Italian marketing copy readily keeps English loanwords such as brand, know-how or business. Seeing them in the translation is normal; just check they are used consistently from page to page.

References tied to your home market, such as a national trade fair, a domestic certification or a local quality label, may stay as they are but sometimes need a short explanation for a reader in Milan or Turin.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce translates the text in your file (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF, CSV) and returns it in the same format, layout included. Italian generally runs longer than English, so if your source is English, check narrow boxes and one-line headings; from French, the length stays close.

What Manuce does not do:

• it does not read scanned PDFs: a page that is only an image, with no selectable text, is not translated. A slogan baked into a photo is in the same situation;
• it does not take glossaries or instructions: for a product name you want left untouched, check the free excerpt, then the translation;
• it does not create local details (an Italian address, a subsidiary's partita IVA): it translates what is in the file;
• it does not produce sworn or certified translations, which a sales brochure does not normally require.

Preparing the file and checking the Italian

Before uploading:

• export the brochure as a PDF with selectable text, or upload the original Word or PowerPoint file;
• move any text you want translated out of images;
• update prices and contact details in the source so you are not translating an outdated version.

Once delivered, check in this order: register (Lei, voi or tu) across every page, accented capitals in headings, number and phone formats, then line breaks in boxes and captions. For a brochure of around 1,200 words, one careful read-through covers it.

In practice

1. Export the brochure as a PDF with selectable text, or keep the original Word or PowerPoint file.
2. Upload it, choose Italian and a level: the quote appears straight away.
3. Read the free excerpt to judge the register and how your brand names are handled.
4. After payment, download the Italian brochure in its original format.
5. Check register, accented capitals, numbers and contact details before printing.