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GLOBAL: Typesetting Technology and Support Services

Typsetter
There are 7,378 languages spoken in the world today, but only 717 of them have access to a completed Bible translation. Over half the world’s languages have no translation at all.

Hundreds of millions of people in the world must be able to speak a second or third language if they want to access God’s Word.

This is a heartbreaking statistic. To overcome the ongoing shortage of Bible translations, UBS has prayerfully launched an ambitious plan to create 1,200 new translations by 2038, including 880 first translations. To accomplish this goal, investment into Scripture typesetting and support services is vital.

Typesetting is the process of arranging text on a page in an aesthetically pleasing and legible way. It is a crucial step in producing attractive, high-quality Scripture publications which are well-received and engaged with by their audience.

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3,883

There are currently 3,883 languages with no Scriptures.

70%

More than 70% of full Bible translations in the world have been provided by United Bible Societies.

600M

The translation roadmap will make the Scriptures accessible to 600 million people for the first time by 2038.

Typesetting Technology and Support Services

  • Our most vital piece of software for typesetting is Publishing Assistant, which gives a typesetter creative flexibility to interact with, adjust, and refine page design and layout.
  • Every new language requires typesetting customizations. This project will develop Publishing Assistant and make the necessary adjustments for printing God’s Word in a new language for the first time.
  • The translation project will also train new typesetters, build collaboration between translation teams, and increase our capacity and sustainability in printing first-rate, affordable Bibles for all.
“With dozens of translations nearing completion and many more planned, the shortage of typesetters threatened to bring Bible translation in South Asia to a standstill. To address this, we held a Publishing Assistant (PA) training workshop in March. Participants were able to grasp and master many topics much more easily with all the new features. The new version handles many things that were previously complicated or tedious. What amazed everyone was the responsiveness of the PA7 development team. Every morning we’d wake up to find that the problems reported the day before had been solved while we slept! We’re so grateful for all the work that has gone into making PA7 such a useful tool!”

~ Workshop trainer at a workshop for new typesetters in Nepal (Participants in this workshop were given access to an early version of PA 7.0).