🔧 What Is Internationalization (i18n)?
Internationalization—or i18n for short—is the behind-the-scenes prep work that makes your content and technology ready for global adaptation.
Think of it as building the scaffolding that allows your product, website, or content to be easily localized for any market—without rebuilding everything from scratch each time.
🛠️ Why Internationalization Matters
If globalization is the big-picture strategy, internationalization is the technical foundation that enables that strategy to succeed. It’s about:
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Structuring websites, apps, and documents so they can display any language
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Preparing your code and design files to support multiple scripts, formats, and layouts
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Reducing the need for costly rework when entering new markets
Done right, internationalization helps teams avoid problems before they occur.
đź’ˇ Real-World Example: Arabic & Japanese Websites
Let’s say you’ve built an English-only website and want to expand into the Middle East and Japan.
Without proper internationalization:
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Arabic (a right-to-left language) may break your layout
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Japanese (a double-byte language) could display as garbled symbols
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Your buttons and design might not resize to handle longer German or French phrases
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Images and graphics may overlap text due to expansion or alignment issues
Internationalization fixes these issues at the source code and design level, before localization or translation begins.
đź’Ľ i18n in Action: Product Labels
Planning to localize product packaging?
Instead of recreating each label design in Canva or InDesign for every language, an internationalized template can:
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Adjust for different language lengths
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Include or exclude regulatory icons based on country
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Ensure formatting follows local standards (dates, decimals, colors, etc.)
This saves hours of production time and prevents errors that could delay compliance or distribution.
đź’¸ The Business Case: How i18n Saves Time and Money
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Faster localization turnaround
When your tech is prepared, translators can focus on content—not fixing broken layouts or sending questions to devs. -
Lower rework costs
Designs and code don’t need to be rebuilt for each language. -
Future-proof scalability
As you add more markets, your content scales effortlessly instead of breaking under complexity.
🧩 Internationalization vs. Localization
It’s easy to confuse the two. Here’s the difference:
⚙️ Common i18n Tasks
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Enabling multilingual content support in code and CMS
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Making UI text dynamic and translatable (no hard-coded text!)
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Supporting different date, time, and number formats
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Designing layouts to support text expansion/contraction
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Handling character encoding (e.g., UTF-8 for global character sets)
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Structuring files so visuals and language-specific elements are flexible
🚧 What Happens When You Skip i18n?
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Translation delays and rework
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Broken user interfaces
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Garbled or missing characters
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Poor user experience in non-English markets
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Reputational damage or compliance risks
✨ Best Practices for Internationalization
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Plan early – i18n should be part of your initial development or content creation process.
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Work with engineers – Collaboration between developers and content teams is key.
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Use dynamic text – Avoid hard-coded strings and ensure easy extraction for translation.
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Think modular – Design components that adapt easily to different markets.
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Test in multiple languages – Run QA for languages with different scripts and directions.
🚀 Ready to Scale Your Content Internationally?
Internationalization may sound technical—but it’s one of the most valuable investments you can make for global readiness.
Done right, it sets the stage for seamless localization and accurate translation.
đź”— Up Next in the GILT Series:
🔹 Localization vs. Translation: Making Global Content Feel Local »
🔹 Go back to: What Is GILT? A Practical Guide »
🤝 Need Help with i18n?
Targem’s engineering and language teams can help you internationalize your content, code, and design—so you can go global with confidence.
👉 Email us or Schedule a 15-minute call to start the conversation. Let’s get your questions answered.
