I18

I18 is a nonstandard shorthand sometimes encountered when referring to internationalization in software development. In most contexts, the term is written as i18n or I18n, derived by taking the first and last letters of "internationalization" and inserting the number of omitted letters between them. While I18n is seen more often, I18 is not widely recognized and can be confusing.

Internationalization is the practice of designing software so it can be localized for different languages and regions without engineering changes. Key activities include externalizing user-visible strings into separate resource files, ensuring Unicode support, and designing interfaces that accommodate different text lengths, scripts, and directions. Locale-aware components cover date and number formatting, currencies, pluralization rules, and culturally appropriate content. Tools and standards such as CLDR (Unicode Common Locale Data Repository), ICU libraries, gettext, and framework-specific resource systems support these tasks. Development teams often pair i18n with a later localization (l10n) effort to tailor content to a target locale.

Challenges in i18n include bidirectional text, script variations, and complex plural forms; testing across languages can reveal truncation and UI layout issues. I18n is an ongoing process across the software lifecycle, influencing design decisions, data models, and deployment. While the term I18n is widely used among developers, i18n remains the preferred standard in many contexts; I18 without the final 'n' is rare and may be ambiguous.