By Carina Balbo, ATC ISO Expert
ISO 18968:2026, Translation-oriented writing — Text production and text evaluation, has now been published. For language service companies, localisation teams and multilingual content owners, this is an important development: it puts the quality of source content firmly at the centre of effective translation workflows.
The standard gives practical guidance on authoring, editing and evaluating specialised source-language content that is intended for translation. It also addresses handover recommendations between content production and translation, recognising that good multilingual outcomes depend not only on the translator’s skill, but also on the clarity, consistency and usability of the source text.
What it covers
ISO 18968:2026, developed by ISO/TC 37, focuses on translation-oriented writing: the practice of producing specialised content in a way that makes it easier to understand, translate, review and repurpose across languages. It is relevant to human translation, machine translation and hybrid workflows where automated tools, terminology resources and professional judgement work together.
The standard is especially useful for technical and specialised content, including product information, support materials, user assistance, regulated documentation and other business-critical texts that need to work reliably in several languages. It does not set out requirements for fiction, journalism, advertising or other non-specialised content.
- Authoring and editing specialised source content with translation in mind from the outset.
- Evaluating source texts before translation to identify issues that could affect quality, cost or turnaround time.
- Managing terminology so that key concepts are expressed consistently across documents, teams and markets.
- Improving handover between content creators, clients, project managers, translators, reviewers and technology providers.
- Supporting technology, including automatic source-language checking and verification procedures.
In practical terms, ISO 18968:2026 helps organisations ask better questions before translation starts: Is the source text clear? Is the terminology controlled? Are sentences and formatting translation-friendly? Has the translator received the information needed to understand the purpose, audience, context and constraints of the content?
Why it matters
Poorly prepared source texts can create avoidable ambiguity, inconsistent terminology, unnecessary queries and higher revision effort. For ATC and EUATC member companies, ISO 18968:2026 offers a useful reference point when discussing source-content quality with clients and when building more joined-up workflows between authoring, localisation and quality assurance.
- For clients, it highlights the value of investing in clear, consistent source content before multilingual production begins.
- For LSPs, it supports more constructive conversations about source-text readiness, risks and responsibilities.
- For translators, it helps reduce preventable ambiguity and supports better-quality decision-making.
- For tool providers, it gives direction for developing or improving automatic source-language checks.
A shared responsibility
One of the most useful aspects of the standard is that it brings several professional groups into the same conversation. Translation-oriented writing is not only a task for translators, and it is not only a task for authors. It sits at the interface between content strategy, terminology management, controlled authoring, translation technology, project management and quality assurance.
This matters because many translation issues are introduced before a translation project is even launched. Unclear sentence structure, inconsistent product names, unexplained abbreviations, hard-coded formatting, ambiguous references and missing context can all slow down translation and review. ISO 18968:2026 gives organisations a way to address those issues earlier and more systematically.
What LSPs can do
For language service providers, the publication of ISO 18968:2026 is an opportunity to strengthen client education and internal practice. It can be used when setting expectations at project kick-off, designing source-text checks, advising clients on content readiness, or explaining why terminology, context and authoring quality have a direct impact on translation outcomes.
It can also support broader industry conversations about quality. As AI-enabled translation workflows become more common, source content needs to be reliable enough for both people and systems to process effectively. Clearer input makes it easier to achieve clearer output, whether translation is carried out by expert linguists, machine translation engines, or carefully managed combinations of both.
Let’s build a stronger, more standardised industry together!
Read more about ISO standards development for language services at https://euatc.org/iso-standards-for-language-services/ and industry-expert ISO certification at https://atccertification.com/