terms are settled before translation
A word that names a product feature is decided once, per language and variant, and approved by you in writing. Translators work against the glossary; they do not improvise around it.
About Elvora · Savannah, GA
the localization house for teams who would rather settle terms than correct them
Elvora is a Savannah studio with a single discipline: moving software between English and Spanish, Portuguese, French and German — and keeping a written record of every decision made along the way.
Request a fixed-price quote
Packages begin at $1,740. Prefer to talk? (804) 937-2578
Engaged by
- SaaS product teams
- Documentation leads
- Lifecycle & onboarding marketers
- Support operations
Why the studio exists
five rules the studio keeps in writing
Elvora began from a plain observation: most localization faults in software are not faults of language. They are faults of decision — a button given three names in three places, a plural rule nobody tested, a help article that disagrees with the application it describes.
The studio exists to make those decisions once, record them, and then check the result where a reader will actually meet it.
strings are read where they live
A line that fits a spreadsheet may not fit a button. A native linguist reviews each string in your staging build or screenshots — truncation, gender, plural forms and register.
release is the middle of the job
Thirty days after launch we re-read what shipped, reconcile hotfix strings, and carry every correction back into the glossary so it cannot recur.
the price is stated first
Scope is read, counted and quoted as a fixed sum within one business day of seeing a sample. Words added later are billed at $0.19 per source word, per language, agreed beforehand.
four languages, held in full
Spanish, Portuguese, French and German. Each regional variant is its own undertaking with its own glossary, and each language is reviewed by a native speaker of it. We decline what we cannot review natively.
The working document
the record we keep for every term
Every glossary entry carries the source term, the approved rendering in each locale, and the reason when the choice was not obvious. Where a term is better left in English, the entry says so, and says why.
- Typically 80–150 entries per project
- Approved by you before a single string is translated
- Amended after the day-30 review, never quietly
- Delivered to you at close and kept as your property
glossary extracten → es-MX · pt-BR · de-DE
| Source (en) | es-MX | pt-BR | de-DE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workspace | Espacio de trabajo | Espaço de trabalho | Arbeitsbereich |
| Invoice | Factura | Fatura | Rechnung |
| Seat | Puesto | Licença | Arbeitsplatz |
| Dashboard | Panel | Painel | Dashboard Kept in English |
Illustrative entries. Each project’s glossary is built from your own product vocabulary.
How an engagement is kept
a project, laid out along its own calendar
From the first sample to the second review, every stage has a named document and a date. Nothing happens to your strings off the record.
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Day 0
the sample
You send 300 words or two articles. We read for density, markup, and terms that will not travel.
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One business day
the fixed quote
One sum, with the scope, languages and variants stated on its face.
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Before translation
the signed glossary
Draft entries come to you for approval. Nothing is translated until the terminology is agreed.
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Release
strings in context
A native linguist reviews your staging build. Late strings are handled on release day in the launch set and full catalogue.
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Day 30 · Day 90
the review
We re-read what shipped and file every correction. The full catalogue receives a second review at day 90.
Before you write to us
where the house is a fit, and where it is not
A narrow discipline is only useful to the people it suits. A short, plain account of both sides.
A good fit
products with a live interface and a date to meet
- SaaS applications shipping in one to four of our languages
- Help centers that must use the same vocabulary as the product
- Onboarding sequences where subject lines and merge tags matter
- Teams that can name one person to answer terminology questions
- Budgets set per project, from $1,740
Look elsewhere
work the studio does not take on
- Sworn or certified translation of legal documents
- Video subtitling and voice-over
- Languages beyond Spanish, Portuguese, French and German
- Open-ended hourly engagements — Elvora quotes per project
- Machine output returned unreviewed
Unsure which side your project falls on? Telephone (804) 937-2578 and we will say so plainly.