Has anyone found a reliable method to represent embossed seals, filing stamps, and handwritten marginal initials without images when preparing a certified legal translation for court? I’m translating a 27-page, line-numbered purchase agreement in memoQ 10.1 for a New York Supreme Court submission and want to maintain evidentiary clarity while safeguarding confidentiality — client consent for general discussion only, no source text shared.
I treat seals/stamps like stage directions: insert a concise bracketed note with location and line span, give it an ID, and add a one‑page legend mapping S1/S2 to their spots; e.g., “[Embossed seal — round, "County Clerk"; p. 3 margin, lines 14–16]”. In memoQ 10.1 you can protect those notes with a Regex Tagger (e.g., wrap in {{.}}) so they pass through unchanged; if the NY clerk balks at inline notes, move them to numbered footnotes keyed to the line numbers.
For NY Supreme I’ve had good results adding a one-line translator’s note up front and using inline [SEAL‑01] refs that map to a final “seal register” with page:line, position, and physical traits (e.g., blind emboss, about 38 mm, upper-right margin, lines 12–15). @greg88’s legend idea is solid; I’d also include size/ink to head off challenges, and if the clerk dislikes brackets, move the refs to footnotes.