Text Expansion

Text expansion is the increase in character count when translating from one language to another. German is ~30% longer than English, while Japanese is often shorter but visually denser.

Text expansion describes how a translated string grows or shrinks compared to its source language. German, Russian, and Finnish typically expand 20-35% over English. French expands 15-25%. Japanese and Chinese often shrink in character count but increase in visual density. For app store screenshots and UI, ignoring text expansion causes truncated text, broken layouts, and lost conversion.

Why It Matters

Every screenshot designed in English will break at least one locale if text expansion is not planned for. Tight headline boxes that fit "Save time" will not fit "Speichern Sie Ihre Zeit" in German. Buttons that fit "Start" will not fit "Comenzar" in Spanish without overflow.

Example

A productivity app uses a 200-pixel wide button labeled "Get Pro" in English. The Spanish translation "Obtener Pro" needs 240 pixels. The Polish "Uzyskaj Pro" needs 260 pixels. Without planning, the button text overflows in 30% of locales.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which languages expand the most over English?

German (+30-35%), Finnish (+35-40%), Russian (+20-30%), and Polish (+25%) are the worst offenders. Short strings expand more in percentage terms than long ones.

Does Japanese have text expansion?

Japanese typically uses fewer characters than English (around half), but each character is 2x visually wider. Net visual space is similar, but density is much higher.

How do I plan for text expansion in screenshots?

Reserve at least 30% extra horizontal and vertical space for the worst-case locale. Use our text expansion calculator to estimate the growth for any string before you commit to a layout.

Learn More

Related Terms

RTL (Right-to-Left)

RTL refers to languages that read from right to left, like Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu. Apps targeting RTL markets must mirror their entire UI layout, not just translate text.

Locale Code

A locale code is a short identifier (like en-US, de-DE, ja) that tells the App Store or Google Play Console which market and language a piece of content belongs to. Apple and Google use slightly different formats.

ASO (App Store Optimization)

ASO is the process of optimizing an app store listing to rank higher in search and convert more downloads. It covers keywords, screenshots, ratings, and retention signals.

Ship better App Store screenshots

Shotlingo handles screenshot localization for 40+ languages in minutes. Free to try.

Try Shotlingo free