Whenever you want to implement formatted data and multilingual support based on region or locale, you will eventually encounter the terms i18n and l10n. Sometimes, you may also see terms like G11n or Globalization. In this article, I’ll explain the definitions and differences between these terms.

G11n or Globalization

This term comes into play when a company wants to expand its market beyond its local area and enter a global market. In short, globalization is a word used to describe the process of integrating i18n and l10n into your product.

If a business wants to expand its product globally, the first step is globalization. Building a product for the global market is not easy; it requires careful planning and necessary measures to ensure support for all relevant aspects.

L10n or Localization

Localization refers to adapting a product to the culture and language of a specific country or region. Localization includes translating language, formatting numbers, dates, currencies, appearance, feel, and more. Translation plays the main role and is not easy to implement; it is mostly entrusted to professional native translators from that region.

I18n or Internationalization

Internationalization is the process of designing and developing a product so it can be localized for different target markets without engineering dependency. For example, deciding on text encoding in your database with Unicode standards like UTF-8 instead of Latin-1 or Arabic, or storing and displaying timestamps across different time zones.

S13n or Standardization

This term refers to the process of implementing and establishing technical standards based on the consensus of various stakeholders, including companies, users, interest groups, standard organizations, and governments.

More information can be found in the Apple documentation.