Visual Context provides a visual representation of the source content to Translators and Editors as they translate your content. It helps Translators make linguistic, layout, and spacing decisions based on where strings appear in on your website, mobile or desktop application, and is a very effective way to ensure high-quality translations. Visual Context is displayed prominently in the Smartling CAT Tool.
Automatic & Manual Options
Visual Context for any website or web application can be captured automatically by using Smartling’s JavaScript Library, an API integration. Smartling’s Global Delivery Network even automatically captures Visual Context as part of the native integration (see Overview of Visual Context for more information).
If you have limited developer resources, Visual Context can still be captured manually by using Smartling’s Context Capture Google Chrome Extension, or by uploading an HTML or image file via the Smartling Dashboard.
The Image Context API can be used to automate the upload of context images. Unfortunately, image context is not dynamic, and will not display the translated text the same way as HTML context. In other words, if the length of your translated text is longer or shorter than the original text on the site, your translated text won't automatically scale/adjust to the allotted space on the site.
HTML Context
HTML resources from the content you are translating; examples include websites and apps, including desktop, mobile, or other form factors, as well as HTML email templates. One of the benefits of HTML context is that it is dynamic, allowing linguists to visualize their translations in real-time, rather than simply referring to an image of the source content.
HTML context is automatically deleted after 48 hours if the context is not mapped to any strings.
Image Context
You can upload any image file format containing a visual representation of the content that you intend to translate in Smartling. This is the most universal method of Visual Context, as you can feasibly provide screenshots from any source content-type. Image Context can either be matched to strings automatically using OCR (optical character recognition), or by manually mapping the strings to the image within the Smartling Dashboard. Image Context is commonly used for native mobile apps because HTML is not available for them.
Smartling also supports video as a convenient way to provide screenshots for translators. For more information, see the Video Upload for Image Context Extraction.
Tip: The maximum file size for image context files is 20 MB.
Video Context
There are three different approaches for using video contexts:
- Video for subtitle files - Video files or public video links can up used as video context for subtitle files. If a user matches a video context with a subtitle file (like an .srt or .vtt file), Smartling overlays each string on top of the video in the CAT Tool video player. Unlike other context types where you can match the context with any strings in a Job or project, video context for subtitles can only be matched with a single subtitle file. This is to ensure accurate matching of video and subtitle strings.
- Video to images - MP4 files can be uploaded and converted into images. The most common use case for this approach is to take a screen recording while navigating through your web or mobile app. Choosing to convert the video into images means Smartling extracts images from the video. If text is included in the video, it will be matched to project strings using optical character recognition (OCR).
- Video for context - MP4 or GIF files can be uploaded and used as visual context, similar to having an image as visual context. If text is included in the video, it will be matched to project strings using optical character recognition (OCR).
Tip: The maximum file size for video context files is 512 MB.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Smartling uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to automatically match the text in images to your content. You can choose to match the text in the image with strings in your entire project, or in a specific file in the project.
Matching can be reviewed and modified manually, after the automatic recognition has taken place.
Upload Visual Context to Smartling
The following steps outlined is guidance for uploading Visual Context in jpeg, png, gif, html, mp4 file formats.
- Go to your Smartling project
- Upload content for translation
- Once the content file has been uploaded, you can choose to authorize the Job and then upload context, or leave it in Awaiting Authorization and proceed to upload context
- Next, click the Context tab in your project
- Click Upload Context or drop & drop your context file on to the list
- Drag and drop the accepted file directly to the wizard, or click Select File to open and select a file to upload from your local drive
- Multi-select and bulk-upload are supported
- Click Upload
- Next, choose to match text in the context file with any of the following:
- Project: All strings in the project
- File: search and select a specific file from the dropdown list of all files in the project
- Job: search and select a specific Job from the dropdown list of all Jobs in the project
- Do not match: choose to not automatically match the content with strings in a file by selecting do not match
- When uploading context of the same type, you can choose to apply the match settings of the first file to the remaining files, to save having to repeat the selection multiple times.
- Click Upload
- A success message will appear at the bottom of the screen, confirming the number of strings that have been match to the context file
This method is accessible to Account Owner and Project Manager users.
Upload Visual Context via the Job Details
- Click a Job name to enter the Job Details
- In the Context Coverage panel (left), click Add Context
- Follow the instructions from step 5 above
- Matching options are applicable to the Job, rather than the entire Project
This method is accessible to Account Owners, Project Managers, and Requester users.
Alternative Methods of Uploading Image Context
The steps outlined above is guidance for uploading Visual Context in jpeg, png, gif, html, mp4 file formats. If you would like to upload image Visual Context only, you can follow the steps outlined above, or alternatively, choose to upload the image context by any one of the following:
Upload Images via the Strings View
To add context to your strings with images:
- Click the Strings tab.
- Select the checkbox next to the strings(s) you want to add context to.
- Click Actions and select Add Context.
- In the dialog that appears, click Browse and select the .gif, .png or .jpeg image to add.
- Click Add Context. The updated context will be visible in the CAT tool.
This method is accessible to Account Owners, Project Managers, and Requester users.
When you launch the CAT tool, you'll see your uploaded context for your string(s).