Machine translation post-editing (MTPE)

Combine the speed of AI translation with human expertise. MTPE delivers publication-ready content at lower cost and faster turnaround than traditional translation, without sacrificing the quality your content requires.

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The cost-quality calculation that actually works

Raw machine translation is fast and inexpensive, but the output is not publishable. Fully human translation is high quality, but timelines and budgets often make it impractical for large volumes. Machine translation post-editing occupies the space between these options. Neural MT produces a draft. Professional linguists refine it. The result is content that meets quality standards at a fraction of traditional translation cost and time.

The economics are straightforward. MT handles the bulk of linguistic conversion. Human editors focus their expertise where it matters: correcting errors, improving fluency, ensuring terminology consistency, and adapting content for audience expectations. This division of labor means your budget buys more translated content, your timelines compress, and quality remains at the level your purposes require.

Light post-editing for comprehension

Not all content requires polished prose. Internal documentation, knowledge base articles, support tickets, and high-volume informational content often need to be understandable rather than elegant. Light post-editing corrects errors that impede comprehension while accepting output that is accurate but may lack stylistic refinement.

This approach delivers significant cost savings for content where the goal is information transfer. Editors fix mistranslations, correct obvious errors, and ensure the content communicates its intended meaning. They do not rewrite for style or optimize word choices. The result is functional content at maximum efficiency.

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Full post-editing for publication

Customer-facing content, marketing materials, and documents representing your brand require a higher standard. Full post-editing produces output comparable to human translation. Editors refine style, improve flow, ensure cultural appropriateness, and deliver content that reads naturally to native speakers.

The MT draft provides a foundation. Human expertise transforms it into content you would be confident publishing. This approach reduces cost and timeline compared to traditional translation while maintaining quality standards for materials where presentation matters.

Engine selection and customization

Machine translation quality varies significantly by engine and language pair. We evaluate available engines for each project, selecting options that perform best for your content type and target languages. For clients with sufficient volume, custom engine training using your existing translations improves output quality further.

Better machine translation input means more efficient post-editing. When the draft requires fewer corrections, editors work faster and costs decrease. Our technology assessment ensures you benefit from the best available MT for your specific requirements rather than defaulting to generic solutions.

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Terminology and style integration

Machine translation does not know your terminology. It does not understand your brand voice. Without intervention, MT output will use generic vocabulary and inconsistent phrasing. We integrate your glossaries and style requirements into both the MT process and post-editing guidelines.

Editors enforce your approved terminology, correct MT choices that conflict with your style standards, and ensure consistency across documents and projects. The output reflects your brand, not the defaults of the MT engine.

Performance benchmarks that inform decisions

MTPE delivers measurable efficiency gains across content types. Industry data indicates 40-60% cost reduction compared to traditional human translation for suitable content, with turnaround improvements of 30-50%. Quality scores for full post-editing consistently approach human translation benchmarks in blind evaluations.

These results depend on appropriate content selection, quality MT engines, and skilled post-editors. We help clients identify content suitable for MTPE, select optimal technology configurations, and establish quality thresholds that match content purpose. The result is efficiency gains realized without quality compromises.

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