Samtext is an international text agency based in Oslo that provides translation, localization, editing, and proofreading services. It has over 300 translators and offices across Europe. Samtext guarantees error-free texts through native-speaker experts and strict quality control. Major clients include Dell, IKEA, and advertising agencies.

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2. S
tylishly located in a
former dance studio in
the heart of the city,
the Oslo head office co-
ordinates the agency’s major
accounts and provides stra-
tegic direction for the group.
With excellent internal com-
munications and a quality-
control system that is second
to none, Samtext can supply
any kind of document in a vast array of languages,
including Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic.
Since the agency’s inception, Samtext has built its
reputation on the delivery of faultless texts, a
guarantee that remains central to our services. By
‘faultless’, we mean not only free of any grammatical
or typographical error, but also idiomatically correct.
To ensure that we can deliver on this promise,
Samtext operates a strict policy of using only local,
native-speaker language experts. As a result, you can
be sure that your text will be free of cultural faux
pas as well as outdated or
clichéd language.
Whichever method of
communication you choose,
language always plays a key
role. The better that lan-
guage is crafted, the greater
the chance that it will suc-
cessfully achieve its intended
objective. And how much
better can you get than faultless?
Some of the companies who trust Samtext
to get the message across, every time:
Dell
Ernst & Young
Fox Kids Europe
Hilton/Scandic
IKEA
LG Electronics
McCann
An international text agency
Founded as a specialist Nordic language agency in Oslo in 1996, Samtext now
has a network of five offices across Europe,managing a team of over 300 quality-
assured translators, journalists and copywriters.With a client list that includes
top advertising, design and communications agencies as well as major inter-
national businesses, Samtext specialises in creative copy, translations and
localisation of translated texts.
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A question of accuracy
In professional communication, you can’t afford misunderstandings. It’s not just
embarrassing or frustrating if you fail to get your exact message across: it
can be catastrophic. Contracts, annual reports, instruction manuals and safety
regulations are just a few obvious examples of documents where accuracy
is vital.
A
side from the need for accuracy, poorly-
written texts always make a bad impression.
You’ve probably seenTV adverts, websites,
posters and brochures that made you wince
because they were obviously bad adaptations of
foreign promotional material.The wording – even if
it was grammatically correct – was stilted, the design
was brash, the situation or message just felt wrong.
How did you react? Were you irritated, or did you
just laugh at it? It’s often the quality of the text, or
rather the lack of quality, that sticks in the memory,
rather than the message the advertiser was trying
to convey. The text worked against its purpose,
because you were left with the impression that the
company couldn’t be taken seriously – or, perhaps
even worse, that they didn’t take you seriously.
Whatever your reaction to the communication –
from amusement to annoyance – it was unlikely to
have been positive.
Insight and local knowledge
Good text needs to take account of the language,
culture and way of thinking of those that will read it,
and must therefore be written by people with
insight and local knowledge.As an international text
agency, Samtext can supply creative copy, transla-
tions, and localisation, along with editing and
proofing services in most languages and in most
technical fields.
Samtext uses native-speaker translators and copy-
writers who live in the country where the text will
be used. Moreover, they are experts in their technical
fields and always take care to fully understand the
customer’s text and terminology, no matter how
much time this takes.

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Translation, editing and
proofing
Samtext can supply translation, localisation, editing and proofing services, as
well as DTP work in most formats.We use today’s best-known and most-used
translation tools and word processing and presentation applications. Jobs are
carried out by translators, copywriters and proof-readers with experience
of the technical field concerned – professionals who really understand the
material and who can see the text from the target audience’s point of view.
O
ur customers demand accuracy and
consistent use of language, and so we
prepare customer-specific glossaries with
the aid of database tools. We use these glossaries
internally to ensure consistent language use and
to check that the customer’s preferred style and
specific terminology are consistently applied.
These glossaries are also vital when jobs are of
such a size that the work must be divided between
several writers. Samtext also has its own relational
database for technical terminology, which crosses
over between the customer-specific glossaries.
Amongst the many specialist fields in which we
work are:
Advertising and marketing
Agriculture
Art and design
Aviation and avionics
Building and construction
Car mechanics and repair
Computing
Cosmetics
Electronics
Finance
History, literature, religion
Hotels and restaurants
Internet
IT
Law
Medicine
Oil industry
Railways
Shipping
Travel and tourism

5. An objective approach
Many companies have employees who are good
writers and who understand their business in detail,
leaving them well-qualified to write many of the
company’s communications. But there is an inherent
danger in this approach, in that authors of texts are
rarely good at proof-reading them.
It is very difficult to look objectively at your own
writing, and even more so with documents you’ve
been working on for a while. And the greater the
time pressure, the more errors can creep in.This is
a potentially serious problem, since an error-strewn
text will often be seen as representative of a
company for which quality is not a priority.
You risk the errors taking attention away from the
message you were trying to put across, in much the
same way that soup stains on the newsreader’s tie
would distract your attention from the headlines.
The worst-case scenario is that the person reading
your text loses confidence in the writer, the product
and the company.
The material from our clients comes in various
stages of completion, from rough drafts to well-
written texts that may already be typeset and
illustrated. For professionals who write in a language
other than their mother tongue, we usually provide
an expanded proofing service where extra emphasis
is put on the style, sentence structure and choice of
words. When working with rough drafts or un-
finished manuscripts, or when the client wants
further help with the arrangement and structure of
the text, we provide extensive editing in addition to
the expanded proofing service. Amongst the many
clients who use this service are some of the largest
advertising and communications agencies in Europe.
Quality assurance
Uniquely in this industry, we dare to promise error-
free texts, and not just when it comes to obvious
things like spelling and punctuation.We also promise
that the text will flow well, that the translator has
understood all linguistic nuances, and that the final
product will be free of anything culturally sensitive
or open to misunderstanding.
To achieve this, we use professional linguists, copy-
writers and proof-readers, who go over the text
repeatedly, giving special attention to style, sentence
structure and choice of words. Our aim is always to
deliver a finished document that is so well written in
the target language that readers feel it was written
just for them. The best people to do this are
professionals for whom good writing is a passion.

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Advertising copy
Wording which is funny and engaging to some may be confusing or offensive
to those in other markets. Therefore, an internationally aware approach is
needed.
W
ith companies the world over looking
to reduce advertising spending, it’s
small wonder that the technique of
running a single campaign across multiple inter-
national markets is proving so popular. But although
cost savings can be considerable,linguistic and cultural
differences between markets mean that this strategy
is not without risk. What may be funny and irreve-
rent in one country could be seen as coarse and
tasteless in another, and what may be intelligent and
subtle in one language can become totally unintelli-
gible in another.
Samtext specialises in localisation of advertising copy,
a creative process that goes beyond simple trans-
lation and takes account of the specific
linguistic, cultural, historical,
political and legal
conditions and peculiarities of the country where
the copy will be used.We can also offer advertising
consultancy services, and have skilled copywriters
who can supply original copy, either for use locally or
as a starting point for international campaigns.
Talking to the world
The international profile of many of our first Nordic-
based clients meant that we needed to develop
advanced, multilingual communication skills from the
very beginning. Today, creating texts in other lan-
guages has become a cornerstone of our business.
To service this growing demand, we have built up a
worldwide network of hundreds of quality-assured
local translators, journalists, copywriters and proof-
readers who work with us on a
project-by-project basis.

7. DTP work
Producing a brochure that needs to be translated from English into several
other European languages can be a real headache. In addition to actually
bringing the text together, the project manager will need to keep track of a
large number of suppliers, including translators and proof-readers for each
language, graphic designers and printers.
A
satisfactory result depends on thoroughly
co-ordinating the style of the copy in each
language version, as well as proofing the
copy in each language, ideally using native speakers.
This process becomes even more complicated when
you work with languages that aren’t written in
the Latin alphabet. Besides the natural difficulties
of not being able to proof a text you can’t even
read, non-Latin characters often require special
software – sometimes even special versions of the
operating system.
Samtext has the necessary expertise and software
to handle even the most difficult and complex DTP
jobs. We can supply print-ready copy, set in layout,
and will also handle copy proofing, so that you only
need one point of contact for the entire production
of all the language versions. If requested, we can
also deliver files direct to printers in any format they
ask for.
Some of the software packages we use:
Microsoft Office
PageMaker
FrameMaker
InDesign
QuarkXPress
GoLive
Dreamweaver
FrontPage
Acrobat
OmniPage Pro
Déjà Vu
Illustrator
Photoshop

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Samtext UK
1 Pimpernel Court, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 4UW, United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0)1747 826484
fax: +44 (0)7092 376286
e-mail: uk@samtext.com
Please visit our website at www.samtext.com for regularly updated information.
Samtext Denmark
Jakob Dannefærds Vej 6B
DK-1973 Frederiksberg C
tel: +45 35 24 99 50
fax: +45 35 24 99 49
e-mail: mail@dk.samtext.com
Samtext Finland
Konalantie 6-8 B
FI-00370 Helsinki
tel: +358 9 3478 5220
fax: +358 9 340 1530
e-mail: helsinki@samtext.com
Samtext Norway
Møllergaten 9
NO-0179 Oslo
tel: +47 22 33 26 90
fax: +47 22 33 26 93
e-mail: oslo@samtext.com
Samtext Sweden
Gotlandsgatan 75
SE-116 38 Stockholm
tel: +46 8 714 7997
fax: +46 8 714 7998
e-mail: stockholm@samtext.com
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