Translate manuals & handbooks. Layout-faithful, from InDesign.

The sales launch depends on translation.

Production and shipping take months. Once products arrive, everything must move fast: write the manual, translate it, get it on the shelf. Anyone selling across European retail needs mandatory documentation in every market language, set layout-faithfully, on deadline.

The classic agency route costs 7 to 12 cents per word plus project fees, and each translation takes two weeks. Two weeks while paid stock waits in the warehouse for its manual. Then the invisible work that never appears on an invoice: extract text, paste translations back, fix shifted text frames. Every language, every time.

That is exactly what we built manilo for.

Built for mandatory documentation that must reach the market.

manilo is for teams whose documents are created in InDesign and must go into many languages:

• Manufacturers and importers in retail: manuals, packaging, and safety notices for EU-wide distribution, required by regulation (use case on manilo.ai — currently in German)
• Technical documentation teams in machinery and equipment manufacturing: operating manuals under the Machinery Directive, in all delivery languages (use case on manilo.ai — currently in German)
• Marketing and product teams: catalogues, brochures, and POS material with fixed layouts (use case on manilo.ai — currently in German)

Upload. Review. Ready in a few minutes.

1. Upload your InDesign file. IDML straight from your workflow (File > Export > IDML), up to 100 MB. Scope and cost appear immediately. The preview runs without signing up: you see translated excerpts, word count and price.
2. Choose languages. Up to 49 target languages in one order, including bulk selection. Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek in one run. Glossaries, protected terms, and per-customer instructions supported.
3. Download. Minutes later: finished, editable InDesign files. Paragraph, character, and table styles preserved. Review and approval stay in your usual editorial process.

On the next version you only pay for changed segments thanks to translation memory.

Try it with your own file →

In production: 58,375 words, 23 languages, one job.

A manufacturer with around €700m revenue and EU-wide distribution through major retail chains has translated its manuals with manilo in self-service for two years, now fully through its technical documentation department.

Most recently: 100,000 translated words and 22 projects in one month, up to 27 language variants across three writing systems. What used to take two weeks per translation now takes minutes.

3 cents per word. And three layers of cost control.

Maximum 3 cents per word and target language, net. Unchanged segments from translation memory are not charged again. No setup fees, no project fees, no minimum purchase. For comparison: market rates are typically 7 to 12 cents plus flat fees.

• Cost before you start: Price per job is calculated and shown before translation begins.
• Budget per user: Each user works within a monthly budget; extra spend goes through an approval workflow.
• Invoices you can allocate: At month end, separate invoices per project number and employee, each with its own invoice number, department, and recipient.

To try it: create an account, €50 starter credit, no credit card, pay-per-use without a subscription.

Calculate the price for your document → manilo.ai/preise/

Your files stay in Europe.

Processing on servers in Germany, AI translation via Azure OpenAI in the EU (Sweden data centre), no training on customer data. Uploaded files are deleted after 48 hours at the latest (technically usually after around 24 hours). No transfer to third countries.

Security factsheet (PDF) for your IT team →

manilo and Translate.Wonk

manilo: InDesign documents (manuals, catalogues), self-service on manilo.ai

Translate.Wonk goes further for ongoing enterprise content with custom-trained models, TMS, and API integration on a project basis via wonk.ai. Many customers use both.

Demo or architecture? Use the booking card on the right.