Font size and length of texts

I have noticed that some texts in translations don't fit inside the required space, which is understandable since some languages have tendency to create longer words (German, Finnish, Hungarian, etc.). We've had requests to use smaller text size with these languages, so I am creating this topic to discuss it. Before you start requesting smaller font in your language, let me point out a few things that should be kept in mind:
1. Font can be shrunk only to some degree. From my tests, I would say that 80% of normal size is limit. Some texts are already hard to read on lower resolutions and shrinking them even further would make it unreadable for some people.
2. Rephrasing translation to fit inside its area should pre preferred to changing text size. Sometimes, using some short instead of a full word can help a lot. One thing that comes to my mind is "Speed" which in German is currently translated as "Geschwindigkeit" and overflows space allocated for it in HUD due to its length, even after I shrunk German language font to 80% of its original size.
3. In most situations, translation that is "close enough" and fits is better than "perfect" that doesn't fit. The only exception I can think of right now is word "mass", which should be translated carefully, because word "weight" has no meaning in space (you can only talk about "weight" when there is gravity affecting an object).
With that said, any requests for text size change should be mentioned here. Unfortunately, since these changes will be applied only after an update, it may take some time before you see them in game. Same goes for any changes made to texts on GetLocalization project. Sometimes you can use original text in English to get an idea of space your translation can take up.

 

As rule of thumb, you should downsize any latin based language (French, Italian, Spanish...) as their use of articles and imbeded information make for longer sentences. Certainly, downsize the spanish font.

 

Could you make the huds etc. textboxes wider?
This would have minimum negative impact on English version, and it would really help other, longer languages. For example, in Finnish version, ''remaining fuel'' is translated to ''jäljellä oleva polttoaine'' and because the English hud is fairly tight it doesn't really fit.

 

I don't know if this is still in discussion, but for your expamle 'Geschwindigkeit': you could change it to "Tempo". It sounds a bit weird because it's a handkerchief brand at the same time, but it's much shorter.

 

Idee from Sir Solo with rename Geschwindigkeit to Tempo is perfect

 

German language:

Smaller font please, if not already requested. Or variable text-boxes!