Same Sentence, but Only the English Overflowed
We build each card-news slide in Korean first, then translate it into Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and English and drop the text into the same design template. Over one month, 8 slides had text clipped past the card edge, almost all of them in English. A 12-character Korean title turns into 31 characters in English, so it was hardly a surprise.
The Cause Was Missing Information in the Prompt
The translation bot was only told to "convey the meaning accurately." It had no idea how big the text box was. The bot did not fail. I simply never told it.
How to Do It
1. Open your card template and count by hand how many characters fit on one line of the title box. Do the same for the subtitle box.
2. Write down a limit for each language. Korean and Chinese take up similar width, while English needs about twice the room.
3. Paste this block at the bottom of your translation prompt.
Translation rules
• Title: Korean 14 chars, Traditional and Simplified Chinese 14 chars, English within 28 chars
• Subtitle: Korean 24 chars, Traditional and Simplified Chinese 24 chars, English within 48 chars
• If over the limit, shorten the meaning to fit
• Append the character count in parentheses at the end, e.g. (English 26 chars)
4. Just scan the numbers in parentheses the bot adds. Ask for a rewrite only on the lines that exceed the limit.
Result
The following month only 1 slide was clipped, and that was because I forgot to set a subtitle limit. Once I added it, the problem nearly vanished. Having the bot write out its own character counts means it does the checking while I only glance at numbers, which was the biggest change.
One-Line Takeaway
Translation is not just matching meaning, it is matching space. Write the size of the box into your prompt.