All the myriad formats

This morning's e-mail included the 129th Tool Kit newsletter from Jost Zetzsche with its usual collection of interesting and generally useful information. The most interesting item in this edition is the mention that ECM engineering is offering an annual subscription to all its special filters for € 195 (about USD 250 currently). While this still isn't chicken feed, it can quickly pay off for translating projects that include formats such as

• Indesign®
• XML
• Visio®
• Excel®
• Photoshop® CS, CS2, CS3
• Illustrator® 10
• Illustrator® CS (11)
• Illustrator® CS2/CS3
• CorelDraw® 11
• CorelDraw® 12
• CorelDraw® X3 (13)
• CorelDraw® X4 (14)
• Syscat

Why Excel and XML are on the list is a mystery to me; maybe that is for the benefit of translators who don't have ordinary CAT/TeNT tools. Many of these tools also now include InDesign filters in various stages of maturity, but since these files are often sill a problem, I welcome alternatives. As for the others, I personally don't know or use any CAT/TeNT that can handle them. I have partners who use CorelDraw filters (maybe even these ones - I never asked) from whom I could probably beg a conversion favor, but that's not much of a business model, so if I decide to get serious about expanding the range of formats covered by our services, this is probably the way I'll go. And of course I'll charge a suitable premium to offset the cost of the subscription.