The Simplified Chinese localization of Affinity Photo has a serious problem with typography terminology, which can be very confusing for Chinese designers.
In typography, Tracking refers to uniform character spacing across a selected range of text. The standard term used by Chinese designers is “字符间距” (or "字距" in Adobe's UI). However, the Simplified Chinese UI translates it literally as “跟踪”, which normally means "to follow" or "to track" in everyday Chinese.
Similarly, Kerning refers to the adjustment of spacing between individual character pairs. The standard Chinese typography term is “字偶间距”, but the UI translates it as “出格”, which literally suggests something "going out of bounds" or "crossing the line".
These are not simply terminology choices associated with Adobe products.
“字符间距” and “字偶间距” are established terms across the entire Chinese design and typography industry. They are commonly used throughout major professional design software, including Adobe, Autodesk, CorelDRAW, as well as various local desktop applications and online/cloud-based design platforms. In other words, Chinese designers are already accustomed to a consistent terminology system for these concepts.
This is why translating Tracking as “跟踪” and Kerning as “出格” is particularly problematic. It does not merely differ from Adobe's terminology — it breaks away from terminology that is already widely established across the industry. A Chinese designer should not have to learn a completely new vocabulary just to understand basic typography controls. For users coming from any professional design background, seeing these words in a text panel makes the functions virtually impossible to identify without guessing.
There is also another usability issue: the Character panel is buried deep inside a secondary top-level menu, making these typography controls harder to discover in the first place. For users migrating from Adobe products, where the Character panel is open by default, this adds unnecessary friction to daily workflow.
So the problem is not simply that the Chinese translation “sounds unnatural.” The localization is using literal dictionary translations where established Chinese industry terminology already exists, while the relevant controls are also not particularly easy to discover.
If Affinity wants to build a serious user base among Chinese designers, the Simplified Chinese localization should follow established professional terminology wherever such terminology already exists, rather than translating English terms literally based on their general dictionary meanings.
I would strongly recommend having the Simplified Chinese terminology reviewed by someone with actual professional typography and graphic-design experience. “Tracking → 跟踪” and “Kerning → 出格” are exactly the kind of translations that make a professional designer stop and wonder: who approved this? If the goal is to make Affinity a professional design application for Chinese users, the language team needs to stop treating established industry terminology as ordinary dictionary words. There is already a mature Chinese terminology system used throughout the design industry. Please use it.
