The 35% problem
Every time you translate English marketing copy to German, the text grows by roughly 35%. This is not an opinion - it is a linguistic fact measured across thousands of real app store listings.
English: Design stunning screenshots in minutes (48 characters)
German: Gestalten Sie in wenigen Minuten beeindruckende App-Store-Screenshots (71 characters)
That is a 48% expansion for this specific sentence. The average across typical UI and marketing copy is 30-40%. For short strings like button labels, it can be worse: the English word Settings (8 characters) becomes Einstellungen (14 characters) - a 75% expansion.
Why this wrecks your screenshots
If you design your screenshot layout for English text and then replace the text with German, one of two things happens:
- Text overflows the container - it either clips or wraps awkwardly, breaking the visual hierarchy.
- Auto-shrink kicks in - the design tool reduces font size to fit, making the German text visibly smaller and harder to read than the English original. Users notice.
Both outcomes make your German screenshots look worse than your English ones. And Germany is the #1 App Store revenue market in Europe - you cannot afford a second-class listing there.
The data: how much does each language expand?
We measured average character expansion across 200 real App Store listings. Here are the languages that expand the most:
| Language | Avg expansion vs English | Risk level |
|---|---|---|
| German | +35% | HIGH |
| Finnish | +30% | HIGH |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | +30% | HIGH |
| Polish | +30% | HIGH |
| Hungarian | +30% | HIGH |
| Spanish | +25% | MEDIUM |
| French | +20% | MEDIUM |
| Italian | +20% | MEDIUM |
| Dutch | +20% | MEDIUM |
| Japanese | -45% | LOW (shrinks) |
| Chinese | -50% | LOW (shrinks) |
Try the numbers yourself with our free Text Expansion Calculator - paste your English text and see expansion across 40 languages instantly.
How to fix it: 4 rules
1. Design for German first
Start your screenshot layout with German text (or Finnish, whichever is your longest target language). If the layout works for German, it will work for every other language. English will have extra breathing room, which looks great.
2. Never center-align in a fixed-width button
German compound words like Benachrichtigungseinstellungen (notification settings, 34 characters) will break any center-aligned button designed for English. Use left-alignment with generous right padding.
3. Use sentence case, not Title Case
German already capitalizes all nouns. Adding Title Case on top makes every word look capitalized, which reads as ALL CAPS to German speakers. Sentence case is the standard.
4. Reserve 35% horizontal padding
On every text container in your screenshot, add 35% extra horizontal space beyond what English needs. This is your expansion buffer. If it looks too spacious in English, good - it will look just right in German.
The font matters too
German uses umlauts (a with two dots, o with two dots, u with two dots). Some fonts render these poorly or with awkward spacing. Test with: Inter, Roboto, or Noto Sans - all handle German diacritics well.
More details in our German localization guide.
What about languages that shrink?
Japanese and Chinese use fewer characters than English, but each character is roughly twice the width of a Latin letter. So the visual width stays approximately the same. Do not assume CJK text will give you more space - it usually does not.
Read more: Japanese localization guide, Chinese (Simplified) guide.
The shortcut
Shotlingo handles text expansion automatically. Upload your English screenshot, add target languages, and the AI reflows text so German, Finnish, and Polish never overflow. No manual resizing, no layout broken.
Originally published on Shotlingo — an AI-powered tool for localizing App Store screenshots to 40+ languages. Free tier available at shotlingo.com.
