How QCDS Chooses a Signer's Language

QCDS resolves participant-facing language when an email or signer experience is actually needed. For a Contact-backed signer, a corrected language preference can therefore affect later messages and signer-page loads without rewriting the immutable Request evidence.

Current Language Precedence

QCDS uses this order:

  1. Current Contact preferred language, when the participant is linked to a saved Contact and that preference matches an installed QCDS language.
  2. Current workspace Default frontend language.
  3. Current global QCDS frontend language, which falls back to Joomla's site language when no QCDS-specific global value is saved.
  4. en-GB as the final fallback.

An external participant with no saved Contact begins at the workspace default because there is no Contact preference to consult.

The Frozen Language Is Historical Evidence

When a Request is sent, QCDS records the participant language/locale that applied at that time. That value remains useful as historical evidence, but it does not permanently override later corrections to the Contact or workspace default.

This is intentional. If you correct a Contact's preferred language after sending, later participant-facing emails and signer-page loads can use the corrected current preference while the original Request still retains what was true at send time.

Only Installed QCDS Languages Are Eligible

Language tags are normalized against the QCDS runtime language set. An unsupported or missing value does not create an arbitrary locale; QCDS continues down the supported fallback chain.

Where to Change the Defaults

Senders can change the workspace Default frontend language under QCDS → Settings. Administrators control the global QCDS frontend language. A Contact's preferred language takes precedence over both when that Contact is the signer.

Language Choice Does Not Rewrite Transaction Content

Resolving a signer language selects QCDS interface text and recipient-facing translated derivatives. It does not mutate the original Request title, source PDF, frozen creator-authored source, signer values, or historical evidence.

Community Discussion

Want to compare workflows, share practical tips, or discuss how you use this QCDS feature? Visit the QC Digital Signature Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific issues, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.