Most warning signs are invisible until the file comes back wrong. Here's what to check before you hand over a manuscript.
Written by Ata Rafi, Founder and Chief Formatter at Format Fix, from years spent fixing manuscripts other vendors got wrong.
Get A Free Quote InsteadA bad hire doesn't usually look bad upfront — it looks like a normal quote and a reasonable timeline.
A polished quote, a fast turnaround promise, and a friendly sales conversation — none of which tell you anything about actual Arabic-script competence.
How the vendor answers specific technical questions — portfolio, licensing, cost reasoning, rejection handling, and tashkeel competence — covered below.
This list comes from the vendor side of the industry, not a generic hiring checklist — the same questions any serious Arabic formatter should be able to answer without hesitation.
Generic mockups, stock Arabic text, or a portfolio with no actual finished manuscripts is a red flag on its own. See the portfolio for what real proof of work looks like — finished, published projects, not sample templates.
A formatter who can't say whether a font is licensed for commercial or embedded use is a licensing risk waiting to surface after publication. See Arabic Font Selection & Licensing for what that answer should actually sound like.
A vendor who quotes a flat per-page rate without being able to explain why Arabic-script work costs more than English formatting likely hasn't priced the real complexity of the manuscript. See What Affects Arabic Book Typesetting Cost.
An honest formatter has language for how rejections get diagnosed and fixed. One who claims a perfect record either hasn't handled enough real KDP or print submissions to have hit the common failure points, or isn't being straight about it. See Common Arabic eBook Formatting Mistakes That Get Rejected by KDP.
A formatter who talks about diacritics only in terms of spacing or appearance, with no awareness that a misplaced mark can change grammatical meaning, isn't equipped for Quranic or diacritic-sensitive text. See Why Tashkeel Placement Errors Change the Meaning of Your Text.
A formatter confident in their work will usually format a short paid sample before taking on a full manuscript. Refusing any test section at all, even a small paid one, is worth asking about directly — along with who specifically will handle your file. See FormatFix vs. Offshore Typesetting Mills for why that question matters.
See DIY vs. Professional Arabic Typesetting for the full redo-cost comparison.
Hiring out Arabic formatting for the first time and unsure what questions actually matter.
Evaluating a new formatter after a previous project didn't go well.
Vetting more carefully the second time after a rejected file, a licensing surprise, or a meaning-level error.
Want a straight answer on a manuscript before you commit to anyone? See how quotes work at Format Fix.
No real Arabic-script portfolio. A formatter without actual finished manuscripts to show — only mockups or stock text — hasn't demonstrated they can do the work.
Yes — finished, delivered or published projects, not generic templates. A portfolio of real work is one of the clearest signs a vendor can actually handle Arabic-script complexity.
A font used without the correct commercial or embedding license can create a legal or distribution problem discovered after the book is already published. A qualified formatter should be able to speak to this directly.
Yes — an honest formatter has a process for diagnosing and fixing rejections. A claim of a perfect record usually means limited real submission experience, not flawless work.
Yes — a misplaced or dropped diacritic can change grammatical meaning, not just appearance. A formatter who treats tashkeel as purely visual isn't equipped for Quranic or diacritic-sensitive text.
Ask to see real finished work, confirm font licensing, ask what actually drives their cost, how they handle a rejection, how they handle tashkeel, and whether they'll do a small paid test section first.
