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Spanish (Spain) style guide

Use this page for Spanish written for readers in Spain. The shared Spanish guide covers grammar, messages, punctuation, notation and literal syntax. The regional choices below take precedence where they differ.

Address and regional vocabulary

Use tú for one reader in ordinary product help unless the brief establishes usted. For an informal plural audience using vosotros, match the verb and possessive forms: podéis, vuestros. Ustedes remains appropriate for a formal audience or a regional convention that uses it. Do not ban it throughout Spain. Keep one treatment consistent within the task.

Prefer ordenador, el PC, ratón and vídeo for this edition when they identify the intended objects. Follow the actual localized interface and glossary for exact labels. A regional preference does not justify claiming that another word is never used elsewhere.

Both -ra and -se imperfect-subjunctive forms are available. Choose the natural form in context; there is no house requirement to change every estuviera to estuviese. Preserve the shared distinctions of tense and mood.

Claims and instructions

A natural marketing rewrite must keep product conditions. Un dispositivo de confianza is not cualquier dispositivo; large files are not files of unlimited size. Keep requirements such as a browser and identify whose device or connection is required. A claim of reliability must not become a claim of security without evidence.

Use an imperative for a direct step and an infinitive for a compact action label where appropriate. Preserve accents and the spelling of exact labels, including an ellipsis that belongs to a command. Follow capitalization and abbreviations.

Retain the operation and relevant object in an error or recovery instruction. No se pudo guardar reports a failed attempt; no se puede guardar can describe a present limitation. A sequence of events does not establish its cause. Use the shared message guidance, including its restrictions on changing placeholders and named arguments.

Numbers and recordings

A decimal comma is customary in Spanish prose for this locale: 12,5 mm. Follow the application’s verified formatter for dynamic data. Preserve a decimal point in code or input where the specified syntax requires it. A date such as 13 de septiembre de 2026 makes the month explicit.

Keep a space between a value and its unit or percent sign, as in 25 %. Preserve the value, currency and conditions of a price. Do not rewrite a version identifier to match a decimal convention. See numbers and formats.

Choose pronunciation for the intended audience in Spain, with recognizable product names and consistent treatment. Do not impose one accent as a condition of correct Spanish. Preserve the necessary characters in spoken identifiers and follow the shared audiovisual guidance.

Easy-to-read and plain writing

Plain writing applies to all FontLab help: short sentences, one term for one concept and the main fact first. Easy-to-read goes further. Use it for readers who need the simplest possible text, such as onboarding, error recovery, accessibility notes and a support reply to a reader who needs it. The Spanish edition of the Inclusion Europe rules, prepared with FEAPS, calls this lectura fácil, lowercase in running text, and calls the language castellano. It addresses the reader as tú and accepts usted, which fits the address rules above. The regional vocabulary and terminology above still govern ordinary help.

The edition translates the shared rules plainly. Put one idea in each sentence and start each sentence on a new line, separating ideas with a full stop rather than a comma or y. Never split a word at a line end: conserje stays whole, never conser- on one line and je on the next. Prefer the active form, el doctor te enviará una carta, and the positive one. Explain initials: UE is Unión Europea. Accept only foreign words everyone knows, such as OK. Explain hard words where they occur; a list at the end is a glosario.

The Spanish section adds these rules:

  • Rewrite ordinals: la reunión número 7 instead of la 7ª reunión.
  • Write quantities as digits, 1, 2, and never as Roman numerals.
  • Prefer the present tense, como rather than comí, and avoid the subjunctive, comiera.
  • Avoid abbreviations such as Gral. and etc.
  • Give dates in full: martes 13 de octubre de 2026, not 13/10/2026.

The subjunctive rule needs care. In FontLab help, mood often carries a condition or a possibility; removing it can change what the reader is told. Keep the shared distinctions of tense and mood in ordinary help. Recast a sentence to avoid the subjunctive only in dedicated lectura fácil material, and only when the meaning survives. There, mark interface labels with house highlight (==Apply==), or bold where highlight is unavailable, but never italics. Align text left.

Based on Inclusion Europe: Information for all.