Style & Tone of Voice

Acronyms

Alignment

Character Limitation

Character names

Foreign Dialogue

Italics

Multiple speakers

Reminders

I.14. Line Limitation

• Maximum two lines.

I.15. Numbers

• Horizontal subtitles
  • Single-digit numbers should be written using full-width alphanumeric characters
  • Double-digit and higher numbers should be written using half-width characters
• Numerical punctuation should be written in the following format
  • For decimal points, use half-width period for horizontal, and half-width nakaguro for vertical:
    • (e.g. 1.5 should be:１.５ in horizontal, and１･５ in vertical)
  • For decimal separators, do not use a comma. Numbers up to 4 digits should be written without a comma. Numbers bigger than 4 digits should use Japanese characters:
    • 1,500 should be 1500 in horizontal and １５００ in vertical
    • 12,345 should be １万2345 in horizontal and １万２３４５ in vertical
• Do not convert currency

For instance, for $1 USD, instead of converting it to 108 Japanese yen (current conversion rate), generally it can be translated literally into Japanese as 1米ドル (1 American dollar).

• Currency symbols should be localized (e.g. ドル, ユーロ)
• Dates:
  • Convert dates to Japanese layout (Year/Month/Day, e.g. 2008年12月31日)
  • Abbreviated years are acceptable if abbreviated in the original language
• Time: 12-hour clock and 24-hour clock time are both acceptable as long as it is consistent throughout the program (unless plot-pertinent)
• Convert temperature, height, weight, etc. to the metric system, unless it's plot pertinent to remain in the imperial system