Spanish localization guide

Use these rules with the localization principles, Qt interface rules and Spanish language guide. They describe current practice, not a sequence of earlier review passes.

Matching masters for interpolation

Use casar for the action: Casar masters, Casar kerning. States are Los masters casan and Los masters no casan; status labels are Casan and No casan. The participle is casados; adjectives are que casan and que no casan. There is no noun: recast noun phrases with the verb, using no casan for mismatch. Never use casamiento, match or hacer match.

The tool is Casamentero, masculine. Casar means both to marry and to make two things correspond; Casamentero is a matchmaker from the same stem.

These terms apply when masters are matched for interpolation. Keep the current translations of master, kerning and all other terms; inflect the match term and follow the command form already used in the file. Tool names are proper nouns and start with a capital letter. Preserve placeholders, accelerator marks, punctuation, capitalization style and file format. Keep English source strings, German and other languages unchanged. If the source says compatible, retain the translation of compatible. Leave other senses, such as search matching, and uncertain senses unchanged. This decision supersedes earlier terms for this sense, including compatibility and synchronization wording.

FontLab terminology and compact labels

Preserve deliberately uppercase source labels using the language’s case rules. Keep numeric controls compact with UPM, PPM and LSB/RSB (French AG/AD); explain the full terms in help. The Family Dimensions “Units Per eM:” label is an intentional expanded exception.

Use the current core memory and its approval status. OpenType lookup defaults to the translation of procedure, with a different term only when strong OpenType-specific evidence supports it. Explicit choices are German Lookup, French lookup, Polish procedura and Russian процедура. Ordinary searches, individual rules and OpenType features are separate concepts. Preserve literal code keywords and identifiers.

Translate Fusion with the fallback Welder. Use the core's phonetic FontAudit transliteration in non-Latin scripts, including Chinese; preserve FontAudit in code. Proposed spellings remain proposed. Before rebuilding a QPH, recover team edits and import their terms and notes into the core memory.

Compare mnemonic-split terms with unmarked labels. Keep labels compact, aiming for 120% of the English length in Dimensions and Glyph Window preferences without losing meaning. Omit redundant font, color or command wording when context supplies it. TTH labels can omit “use” and abbreviate TrueType hinting; help can explain more. A full harmonization requires three complete catalog reviews, then reconciliation of help with the final UI and verification of generated resources.

Current terminology

Latin American Spanish: terminology uses es-419, while the application catalog uses es_MX. Use Mexican display conventions where a region-specific format is needed.

The Spanish term table, generated from localization/es-core.tmx, is the current terminology authority. Use its definitions to select the right concept and its notes for grammar and usage. An approved term stays consistent across the UI, help and manual. A proposed term is a candidate awaiting review; its presence does not establish linguistic approval. Historical translations do not override a current entry.

For references to the FontLab interface, use the current TS catalog in the same control context. Reconcile a conflicting core entry with that catalog before regenerating the term table. Keep dated before/after evidence in the existing fl10n review ledgers and Git history. For a missing term, use the supplied fallback original term and definition to make a supported proposal. Never change its status merely because a translation reads fluently.

Follower node terminology

Use nodo seguidor, plural nodos seguidores; short labels are Seguidor, Seguidor X and Seguidor Y. Keep this term: seguir includes physically going after someone. Here the node follows the movement of leading key nodes. Interpret legacy English Servant as Follower in this physical sense. Use propiedad de seguidor in prose. The earlier fan/supporter reading is obsolete. Keep English source keys unchanged. Lexical sense: RAE, seguir.

Register and address

Use tú in product help and dialogs, with the neutral vocabulary of international Spanish: no regional slang, no vosotros, no vale. Standard commands and short labels use the infinitive: Abrir archivo, Guardar como…. Steps in help use the imperative in tú: Abre el archivo. Product messages drop the first person; the company's own prose keeps a warmer register and is identified as such before translation.

Use usted only where a surface's brief asks for it, and then consistently.

Headline style in compact strings

Strings passed through translation can still be program data. Trace their consumers before translating punctuation-led tokens: .round is a literal TrueType command parameter, not a caption. Preserve it exactly, even when tr() marks it as translatable; localize the surrounding explanation instead.

A navigation path in the English source can be outdated. Verify the live control binding and current page titles before copying it. The loop-fill option is now Información de la fuente › Dimensiones de la fuente › Vaciar bucles. Preserve the Qt source key while using the verified localized route; do not silently invent a replacement path.

When a choice repeats its own definition, keep one complete explanation. For PANOSE, use Ningún valor adecuado [1] without a second no-fit phrase. Keep the numeric value and its distinction from variable/any [0]; update every disambiguated occurrence and the explanatory paragraph together.

A selector can complete a sentence: its value and the menu action that supplies that value may deliberately start lowercase. Inspect the adjoining label before capitalizing every QAction. Keep units, identifiers and literal case examples unchanged. In long hints, remove repeated wording while preserving both branches of a condition, every allowed character and each file-format exception.

Review each action’s visible label and tooltip together. When a hint names the tool, use its localized action name without the mnemonic marker; keep grammatical inflection in a functional description. Do not leave an older tool name in the hint after renaming the action.

Include generated property display names and enum choices in casing audits; inspect their .pef definitions and TS disambiguation comments as well as .ui files. A lowercase glossary term may need an initial capital as a standalone label. Preserve case-sensitive identifiers such as uniXXXX and mark/mkmk.

Check casing from the UI role even when the English source starts lowercase. A standalone action such as show Fonts is Mostrar fuentes; literal case examples and sentence fragments need their own treatment. Preserve scope words such as todos when shortening preference labels.

Resolve ambiguous English nouns and verbs from the control's role. The Export Profiles settings-window title is Perfiles de exportación, a name for the profiles, not a command to export them. Check the .ui property and handler before applying an action-style translation to a title.

Check the effect of clear before choosing a deletion verb. Clearing follower state leaves the nodes in place; name the property or disable the behavior. A short label must not imply that the objects themselves will be removed.

When prose quotes a navigation path, copy each localized component from the corresponding control, omitting only its mnemonic marker: Preferencias › Pegar y duplicar. Check embedded paths separately from same-source consistency groups, because the full sentence has a different source key. Do not retranslate a page title or change its casing to shorten the sentence.

A dialog-local checkbox may say No volver a mostrar; the message is already visible. An optical-size checkbox can use Tamaño óptico. Keep the full condition in explanatory text.

Review every same-source counterpart after changing a translation, including strings shorter than the reference language. Generated property-type and property-instance descriptions usually describe the same setting and should agree. Keep justified differences for label versus tooltip, grammatical context and distinct meanings. Compare plural forms by position; do not count a single message’s singular and plural forms as inconsistencies.

Use the edited German label to find redundant wording, not as a hard length limit. Compare the same Qt context, source, comment and plural form. Count visible characters without markup or mnemonic markers; a count cannot prove that a label fits its control.

Let a visible parent supply an obvious object: Referencias in the element menu, Por espacios in Copy Text, Tolerancia in the tracing dialog. Keep infinitives for actions: Añadir guía, Vectorizar. Do not copy German clipped verbs or remove an article that the Spanish phrase needs. Keep warnings, conditions, quantities and the distinction between a font layer and a glyph layer. A fixed term such as ancho de avance may exceed the German label.

Use sentence case: Nodos y manejadores, Capas y másteres. Standalone type labels start with a capital: Seguidor X, Seguidor Y. Lowercase in prose (nodo seguidor) and literal lowercase examples are deliberate. In the Measurements panel use established may. and min. abbreviations. Record a layout exception when a faithful label still cannot fit.

Check every occurrence of a repaired concept, including mnemonic-split source words and quoted menu paths. Snap in drawing is ajustar, not chasquear; Power names are guía potente, pincel potente and trazo potente. A compact anotación can stand for anotación visual when its purpose is already clear. Preserve literal masters/ paths when correcting prose to másteres.

Terminology decisions that generalize

• Professional terminology first: ancho de avance (advance width), margen izquierdo/derecho (sidebearings), cifras elzevirianas (old style figures), asta (stem), contador (counter), rebase (overshoot), interlínea (leading), manejador (handle), recta (straight segment).
• Units per em is unidades por eme, the em being the eme. UPM stays as a short form in compact fields after one expansion.
• One meaning, one translation: coordenadas decimales, repetir texto, Empujoncito and Empuje potente (Power Nudge), glifos obligatorios, capa automática.
• No added detail: par for pair, not par de kerning. Shorten referencias de elementos to referencias only when the visible parent already identifies the elements.
• smart is *astuto/a, inflected: *esquina astuta, filtro astuto, lápiz astuto. Never inteligente.
• Feature names follow the house voice: operations with a fixed technical meaning keep their name (oblicua, Flex, OT Def); Power names are playful power (Empuje potente for Power Nudge); smart is astuto/a; Genius, Follower, Cousins, Skin and Sketchboard take a plain native word where one is attested, otherwise translate the fallback original term in the term table (the Fallback column). See the feature-name rules.
• Established loans stay: kerning, hinting, autohinting, máster (with accent, plural másteres). OpenType lookup is procedimiento. Use espaciado for tracking.
• Standard commands follow the platform: Cancelar, Copiar, Pegar, Deshacer, Rehacer, Salir, Preferencias on macOS, Configuración where Windows uses it, Mostrar en Finder. Qt's own qtbase_es catalog uses the same words.
• Title case is not Spanish. Only the first word and proper names are capitalized in a label or heading.

Dialect discipline

A word from the other variety is a compliance error, not a spelling choice: computadora (not ordenador), archivo (not fichero), carpeta, clic (not pulsar for a click), el mouse (not el ratón), video (not vídeo). Decimal point, not comma, in es_MX. When the same catalog must serve Spain later, keep a list of such divergences in the ledger so a fork can be produced by rule.

Facts for reviewers

• Plurals: one (1), many (exact millions and larger round numbers, which take de: 1 millón de glifos) and other. Qt numerus strings carry two forms; a string that defines only one and other is safe. Test 0, 1, 2 and 21.
• Numbers: 1,234,567.89 in Mexican Spanish; four-digit numbers not grouped (1234); 25 % with a space; short date 5/3/26, long 5 de marzo de 2026, month names lowercase; ordinals 1.º and 1.ª agree in gender.
• Mnemonics: Archivo takes A, Edición E, Ver V, Ayuda Y on Windows; check the localized platform. One & per label, unique per menu, never on ñ or an accented vowel.
• Key names: Mayús (Shift), Ctrl, Cmd or ⌘ (macOS), Intro (Enter), Retroceso (Backspace), Supr (Delete), Esc. Platform spelling wins.
• Quotation marks: «…» in prose with “…” inside; an inverted mark opens every question and exclamation: ¿Deseas continuar?
• False friends: billion is mil millones; billón is 10¹². Actual means current; asumir does not mean assume; soportar is not support in the sense of admitir or ser compatible con; librería is a bookshop, biblioteca is a library. Font is fuente; typeface is tipo or familia tipográfica by the term table.
• Capitalization: months, weekdays, languages and nationalities are lowercase.

Placeholders and agreement

primero, primera, primer, primeros agree with a noun the string does not name; No se pudo abrir %1 is safe, %1 no es válido is not when %1 can be feminine. Recast as label and value (%1: valor no válido) or ask for one string per case. A trailing space or a fragment means runtime assembly: report it.

Audit mnemonics by actual sibling menu, including actions reused in several menus. Keep visible wording and technical terms intact. If a dense menu has more labels than available unaccented letters, record the unavoidable collision and test keyboard cycling; do not invent a synonym solely to obtain a letter. Translate assembled fragments as a complete phrase before checking the pieces. A non-numerus count may need a label-and-value form instead of an uninflected noun.

Review the Spanish

First compare source and target: omissions, added specificity, changed conditions, quantities, placeholders, markup, mnemonics, numerus forms, dialect. Then read the Spanish as Spanish: is a compact label unambiguous, does a help paragraph move from the object through the action to its result, is the tú register steady? Recheck the facts after any stylistic edit. Classify findings by MQM family and severity; record every change with before, after and reason. Report only checks performed.

Nudge terminology

Nudge is Empujoncito, a noun. Use dar un empujoncito a los nodos for the action and mover los nodos con Empuje potente for the advanced mode. All Power feature names use potente (plural potentes): pincel potente, guía potente, trazo potente. These house decisions were updated on 30 September 2026.

Rapid tool and Quick Help references

The tool name is Rapid. Use Dibujo con Rapid for Rapid draw and Edición con Rapid for Rapid edit. Keep the name distinct from ordinary descriptions of speed and from the Vertical rapid and Horizontal rapid contrast classifications. Do not use Rapidograph as the tool name.

Keep Rapid in Latin letters; inflect the surrounding tool or action wording.

For Quick Help, match tool, panel, option and command references to the current TS catalog in the same control context. Keep inflection natural in sentences. If a core entry differs, reconcile it with the catalog before regenerating phrasebooks. A compact UI label and its full prose explanation can differ. Check the current English conditions and consequences: disabling Cloud also disables mark/mkmk generation, and mark generation requires Cloud. Preserve mark and mkmk as literal OpenType feature tags.

Use posición for a master or instance location in design space; reserve ubicación for file and project locations where the UI uses it. In a metrics formula or a field explanation, distinguish ancho de avance from geometric ancho. Copy actual quoted command names, including Actualización en vivo and Vincular métricas de glifos….

A glossary equivalent does not replace a contextual control name. In the component-variation dialog, Handle location is Posición del ancla: retain ancla in that dialog instead of substituting the Bézier term manejador. Keep fuller help headings when they identify the affected text or tests.

Use margen vinculado for a bound sidebearing, matching the binding controls. In TrueType hinting, inspect the specific control: the preference is Añadir enlace al punto del margen derecho, even where another panel names a link Vínculo. A stem's anatomical thickness is grosor; do not replace it with peso merely because the source uses weight in that sentence. Coordinates are measured in unidades de fuente. The UPM count may be explained as unidades por eme in prose.

The style-link menus display the runtime strings Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic. Keep these names in help that lists those choices. Preserve literal shortcut tokens supplied by Quick Help templates; use the platform key-name conventions above when writing ordinary keyboard prose.