Part 5. Translating the interface

This part follows a single interface string from the catalog to the screen. It explains how to keep the compression of a compact English label, how not to add or drop detail, which parts of a label belong to the translator and which to engineering, how plurals and placeholders behave in real Qt catalogs, how the voices of labels, tooltips, help and store copy differ, what to do when the English is wrong, what German, Spanish, French and Polish each demand, and how to review the result in the running application. The worked examples come from the FontLab 9 localization of 2026.

• 501. What this part knows
• 502. Headline style: keeping the compression of a compact source string
• 503. No added detail: pair not kerning pair, mask not mask layer, and the reverse
• 504. Mnemonics, shortcuts and key names: what the catalog may and may not change
• 505. Plurals in practice: three Qt forms, four CLDR categories, fractions and zero
• 506. Placeholders and agreement: label and value, case, gender and runtime assembly
• 507. Registers of the interface: labels, tooltips, help, manuals and store copy
• 508. Source text as evidence: wrong strings, source defects and translating the behavior
• 509. Four language portraits: German compounds, Spanish dialect, French spacing, Polish cases
• 510. Review in the running application: width, wrapping, mixed direction and the screenshot