| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Translator charging per page - 175 words per page ?? Thread poster: emilens
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Hi,
I have a question for all translators out there, regarding how many words that are normal to include per page if you charge per page? I thought the "standard" was 250 words (from source document) per page, when charging a fixed price per page. The translator I hired is charging me per page, and only includes 174 words per page which I find very low. I am used to a page being at least 250 words.
I should of course have asked the translator I hired to explain this in ... See more Hi,
I have a question for all translators out there, regarding how many words that are normal to include per page if you charge per page? I thought the "standard" was 250 words (from source document) per page, when charging a fixed price per page. The translator I hired is charging me per page, and only includes 174 words per page which I find very low. I am used to a page being at least 250 words.
I should of course have asked the translator I hired to explain this in detail before going ahead with the translation, but since he stated he would charge me X USD per page translated I just assumed that it would be about 250 words per page. When invoicing me it turns out he is charging me a lot more pages than I expected since he only includes 174 words per page.
It would be nice to hear other translators´ opinion on the matter.
Thank you! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | You didn't know the page count before? | May 21, 2016 |
How did you get in this position? Shouldn't you have known the page count before he started?
| | | | | Mistake is on me, just want to know the standard in the industry | May 21, 2016 |
You are right- I should have asked for the page count before he started, but I did not. I made the mistake of assuming it would be about 250 words per page. I really just want to know from other translators what the normal is for words per page when charging this way.
I will pay him what he is invoicing me, but it would be helpful to know the standard for this when hiring other translators in the future.
Thank you.
| | | | | unusual perhaps | May 22, 2016 |
I have not ever run into a "per page" charge, though I have heard of it. End clients sometimes tell me they have x pages and ask how much I charge, and I tell them that I don't charge that way. If you are not in the translation field yourself, but simply an end client, then you should have been given better guidance.
When clients come to me, I examine the entire document and then I give my fee for the translation. The rule of thumb is "word count" which gives us a general idea, b... See more I have not ever run into a "per page" charge, though I have heard of it. End clients sometimes tell me they have x pages and ask how much I charge, and I tell them that I don't charge that way. If you are not in the translation field yourself, but simply an end client, then you should have been given better guidance.
When clients come to me, I examine the entire document and then I give my fee for the translation. The rule of thumb is "word count" which gives us a general idea, but in fact, we look at the work as a whole. The policy that I cite to any lay person who contacts me for a translation is:
- send me your document
- I will examine it and give you my quote of fee and completion date
- If you agree to both, and only if we agree to both, then we have a working relationship (a contract).
The client has no surprises, such as you have just had.
A "per page" fee could also be literally "per page". I.e. you hand in something that has 50 pages. Some of the pages have 350 words, some have 500 words, some have 2 words, but the charge is $nn / page X 50 = 50nn. I can't really see a per page charge. ▲ Collapse
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Frank Zou 
China
Local time: 23:04
Member (2016)
Chinese to English
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One page can be made into 2 or more pages if you adjust the font and space between lines. That's common sense. In your case, I assume you agree with him on number of pages of the translated text. That is not a common practice. There's no specification regarding how many words one page should cover. The price should have been agreed upon before the translation started.
| | | | Darmali
Indonesia
Local time: 22:04
English to Indonesian
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| Source or target page count? | May 22, 2016 |
Did you agree on a source or target page count?
Angela
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Years ago, I translated a number of books for a fixed price per page. Those books were sent to me as... books, dead-tree books. While a full page usually was about 250 words, to my initial surprise, blank pages, and pages with only a few words were also paid as "a page." That made sense in the case of dead-tree books to arrive at a lump sum, and it still may make sense if the OP sent the translator similar documents.
Cheers,
Hans
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I presume you mentioned to the translator that it was per "standard page". If so, 250 words is the standard. You can check. Just take any text with standard font, standard margins and standard font size. On average it should contain around 250 words.
For example, I roughly estimate word count of a standard pdf document that contains standard text, without converting the file. I know that if it contains 10 pages, the word count will not exceed 3,000 words. Now, I never charge per pag... See more I presume you mentioned to the translator that it was per "standard page". If so, 250 words is the standard. You can check. Just take any text with standard font, standard margins and standard font size. On average it should contain around 250 words.
For example, I roughly estimate word count of a standard pdf document that contains standard text, without converting the file. I know that if it contains 10 pages, the word count will not exceed 3,000 words. Now, I never charge per page. If I take on the project, I run the file through my OCR software and charge based on the actual word count of the source document. ▲ Collapse
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I am astonished nobody mentioned this.
A "page" or any other given volume has surely more words in English than for example in German or Finnish that may have very long words...
Discussing about the number of words is merely theoretical as long as we don't know the languages involved.
[Bearbeitet am 2016-05-22 09:21 GMT]
| | | | | It doesn't really matter | May 22, 2016 |
Christel Zipfel wrote:
A "page" or any other given volume has surely more words in English than for example in German or Finnish that may have very long words...
In the case of a dead-tree book, or a large "dead" PDF, a publisher is only interested if the translation fits his budget, and the agency if he can offer his end-clent a competing price.
Cheers,
Hans
| | | | | Just to clarify | May 22, 2016 |
Just to clarify - i sent him a 50 page pdf document, where some pages (source document) has 580 words per page and others 135 words, to give an example.
He then sent me a quote where he did not state the total amount to be charged, only " I will charge XX USD per translated page". I want to be clear I was the one making the mistake of hiring without understanding the quote, only assuming it would mean what I am used to from previous experiences (1 translated page = 250 words from so... See more Just to clarify - i sent him a 50 page pdf document, where some pages (source document) has 580 words per page and others 135 words, to give an example.
He then sent me a quote where he did not state the total amount to be charged, only " I will charge XX USD per translated page". I want to be clear I was the one making the mistake of hiring without understanding the quote, only assuming it would mean what I am used to from previous experiences (1 translated page = 250 words from source document), and that therefore I will pay what he has invoiced me, although I would never have hired him if I new that his definition of 1 page = 174 words from source document, which I find an incredible low number.
Thank you all for your feedback so far ▲ Collapse
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In my experience it's 220 (Korea) to 250.
I also find 174 extremely low.
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emilens wrote:
Just to clarify - i sent him a 50 page pdf document, where some pages (source document) has 580 words per page and others 135 words, to give an example.
He then sent me a quote where he did not state the total amount to be charged, only " I will charge XX USD per translated page".
Did they actually charge you for 50 pages in the end? If they did, since you sent them a PDF with 50 pages, and you both agreed to a 'per page' fee, well, that wouldn't sound very odd to me, although they could've mentioned the total amount with their quote...
One thing that actually sounds even more ambiguous to me is the expression "per translated page", as opposed to "per source page"... Are you sure they're not charging you "per target page"?
| | | | Rolf Kern
Switzerland
Local time: 16:04
English to German
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In memoriam
In my standard system 1 page corresponds to 225 words.
Rolf
| | | | | page as fixed number of characters | May 22, 2016 |
Pages are not uncommon units in certain countries and markets. The definitions vary, but in my experience, they have always based on a set number of characters being defined as a page (but the number of characters, whether to count in the source or the target text, whether to count spaces and other significant details vary substantially).
I've never heard of them being based on a number of words in a translation context (although I do think that there was something about 250 words for Eng... See more Pages are not uncommon units in certain countries and markets. The definitions vary, but in my experience, they have always based on a set number of characters being defined as a page (but the number of characters, whether to count in the source or the target text, whether to count spaces and other significant details vary substantially).
I've never heard of them being based on a number of words in a translation context (although I do think that there was something about 250 words for English term papers at my US university = one inch margins, 12 point Times New Roman and double spaced).
Basing an offer on number of pages, but not defining the meaning of "page" seems very strange, because I would think most people are aware that there is no universally understood definition. I would ask the translator what a "page" is, just out of curiosity.
And with a page count based on a German or - even more so - an English text, it would be more or less impossible to get down to an average of 175 words per page over the course of a substantial text. ▲ Collapse
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