Qwir text + design

Text is communication. Translation is communication across linguistic-cultural borders. Professional translation work enables communication between languages, cultures, countries, and (groups of) people.

We translate texts of all types from and into German and English, from various domains and for different purposes. With us, your message will reach its audience.

Texts for academia & the world

We specialise in translating academic texts as well as texts about social equality but also translate texts from other domains and about other topics.

Read more about our translation work for academic texts.

English ‹ › German

We translate both from English to German and from German to English, respecting relevant standards (such as ‘British English’, ‘Austrian German’ etc.) and making sure that your text will be understood by readers of different national and cultural backgrounds. We help you get your message across to your desired audience.

Global English

As a global language, English is of particular importance for international communication. Global English hosts a diverse range of linguistic and cultural communication styles, which are expressed in many different language variations and communicative expectations. When addressing a global audience, we create translations that can be understood by everyone around the world.

Keeping an eye on AI

Translation requires both precision and creativity. Machine translation and generative artificial intelligence (AI) are useful tools, but despite many recent claims to the contrary, they cannot replace real translators’ knowledge about context, their attention to detail, and the richness of their creativity. Whether we translate an academic article, a children’s book, an ad slogan or something else – good texts need a human touch.

We revise translations created by AI in respect to source text, translation strategies, and target-text effects. This includes checking the logic of the pre-translated text, its structure, style, and discursive positioning, making sure that the translation is not only linguistically sound but also effective and meaningful.

Translating means helping others understand. It’s not about repeating a text ‘word by word’; when we want others to understand our message in another language, then the words need to change. This does not only concern translation between different languages; sometimes, we need to translate into ‘the same’ language.

Translating means referring to a specific situation. No two translations are identical. Everything we say or write could also be expressed in countless other ways. What is important is what we mean and how we can communicate our message in a specific situation for a specific audience. This always requires us to make decisions; there are no ‘neutral’ translations.

Translating means being responsible. When creating translations, we need to take a lot of different factors into account, such as the intentions of the original authors and the expectations of the intended target audience. The work behind translations that meet the many different expectations they face requires not only specialised expertise but a certain sense and sensibility even for minute details.

Subtitles in one or more languages

Subtitles do not only provide important support for video and audio recordings in different languages but are often, as transcriptions or translations, the very condition for enabling understanding for many people. Subtitles are a must for making spoken content accessible to a larger audience.

We create subtitles for video and audio recordings in English and German, employing best-practices standards and respecting subtitling-specific requirements (such as line length, segmentation, and synchronicity) in the respective language. We provide the final subtitle file(s) in the common SubRip format (SRT) or a format of your choice so that you can use the subtitles in your project right away.

If the subtitles are intended to also serve as a translation, we create subtitles directly in the target language. Make your content available to a global audience with English subtitles or embed it in local contexts with German subtitles. Subtitles can also help remove intralingual barriers, such as with translations into simple language or subtitles specifically designed for children.

How much is it?

Prices for translations depend on a number of factors, including text length, type, genre, and complexity. We also need to consider the internal logic and comprehensibility the source text as well as the purpose of the translation: in some cases, a translation might require major restructuring. Additional aspects such as styleguides, terminology rules, and submission deadlines also influence the price.

We calculate our prices for translations based on standard lines. One standard line is 55 characters including spaces (of either the source or target text, depending on the job). For subtitles, we calculate our prices based on minutes (60 seconds) of the source material.

All prices include a translation check by a second professional translator. If necessary, we research specialised literature and parallel texts.

We take into account any relevant specifications, such as stylesheets, internal terminology databases, etc. We usually provide the translations as Word documents (.docx files), though other formats are possible. We use built-in Word styles for formatting so that the translated texts can be processed directly in desktop-publishing software such as Adobe InDesign.

We look forward to your request for a quote. Please send us all relevant information about the project in question (such as the text to be translated, its intended purpose and your ideal/possible submission deadlines) so that we can provide you with a response tailored to your needs.

We are happy to provide additional services after the translation has been completed, such as preparing the text for content-management systems, publishing it online, layouting, etc. Please contact us to discuss further details.

Prices are final prices exempt from VAT in accordance with § 6 (1) no. 27 of the Austrian VAT Act.