Product Image Translation for Marketplaces

Quick answer — Product image translation re-renders the text baked into your images — spec callouts, size charts, warnings — for each marketplace. The trap is layout: German and Russian expand, Arabic reverses, and a tight English design breaks in all three.

Vitra.ai Universe generates, adapts and translates the whole set.

The words the exporter cannot see

A product feed carries title, bullets, attributes. It does not carry the text in your images, so a fully translated listing can still show a shopper a size chart in English. That is the gap. And it is usually the part of the page carrying the numbers.

Warnings, spec callouts, size and fit charts, "what's in the box" graphics, certification marks — all pixels, all invisible to the translation workflow that handled the copy.

What expansion does to a layout

Arabic is the one that needs a decision rather than a resize. Mirroring the layout is usually right — the reading order moves — but a product photograph inside that layout should not flip, or you have shown a left-handed version of the product.

Do it as a re-render, not a retype

The distinction decides the cost.

Retyping means a designer opens each file, replaces the text, fixes the reflow and exports.

Re-rendering means the text is still a layer, so image translation swaps the string and lays it out again — and thirty markets is a batch rather than a project.

Design with room for it. Anything laid out tightly around English will need a redesign at +30%, so the honest fix is a layout that has slack in it from the start.

Consistency across the catalogue

The same feature appears in twenty images across a range, and it should be called the same thing in all of them. A translation memory holds the approved term so the twenty-first image does not invent a twenty-first phrasing. Per-channel sizes come afterwards. Once the language version exists, image personalization throws the marketplace, social and email crops from it rather than starting again per placement.

One caution worth stating plainly. Regulatory text on packaging shots — warnings, ingredients, certifications — is not a translation exercise you should improvise, because the destination market usually specifies the wording.

Once a language version exists it still needs every channel shape, which is bulk resizing.

FAQ

Why do translated listings still show English images? Because product feeds carry titles, bullets and attributes but not the text inside images. Size charts, callouts and warnings are pixels, so a workflow that translated all the copy leaves them untouched.

How much do layouts need to grow for other languages? German commonly runs about 30% longer than English with long compound words, French and Spanish around 20%, Russian around 15%. Chinese and Japanese run shorter. Design with slack rather than shrinking type later.

Should product images be mirrored for Arabic? The layout usually should, because reading order moves right to left. The product photograph inside it should not, or shoppers see a reversed version of the item they are buying.

What is the difference between retyping and re-rendering image text? Retyping needs a designer per file. Re-rendering keeps the text as a layer so the string is swapped and laid out again automatically, which turns thirty markets into a batch instead of a project.