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by crazygringo 1743 days ago
> People may prefer the English experience because they expect the translated version to be inferior

There are multiple comments here about how it usually is inferior.

But even when it's not, there can still be reasons to stick to English.

I've done a lot of work with Brazilian graphic designers, and they all use Photoshop/Illustrator in English -- the Portuguese version is essentially "unusable". Not because the translations are necessarily bad, but because Photoshop has its own bespoke vocabulary.

E.g. what's the difference between "image" size and "canvas" size, between auto "tone" and auto "color", between "crop" and "trim", or between "vibrance" and "saturation"?

In layperson English these are essentially synonyms, but mean different things in Photoshop. And if you want to follow any Photoshop tutorial, or communicate with any designer, you need to know these "English" terms, just like every programmer needs to know "if" and "then".

Translating adds yet another layer of confusion that hinders more than it helps.

Of course, this is specific to professional tools that require training -- it doesn't really apply to consumer software intended for a general audience.

2 comments

It does apply to troubleshooting in other languages though. Tryin to fix my dad's French software issues over the phone when my own computer uses the English version of the software is its own version of hell.
English is a good choice usually because tutorials are easier to follow, there are way more tutorials in english than in other languages.