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I am trying to translate a word into English. (More details at the end, but please read this first, so that your judgment is not influenced by my bias).

What I am trying to find is a word for this situation:
Say, I have a machine that gives packages of candy. Let's say I can get 10 packs of candy. At the end, the machine will print in the last package "Hello from the candy machine" or whatever. So the initial state is that this printing is done always at the end. Let's call this "Print at the end mode"

But I want another mode, in which I can indicate the machine that I want the message to be printed every 2 packs... or every three packs... or every five packs...

You see, I can customize at will at what point I want my event (the printing) to happen. How can I call this mode?

The word I am trying to translate is the Japanese 任意, which according to dictionary means "at your discretion" "voluntary" "any" "arbitrary" "optional" "discretion" "free will".

I don't think one of this would be appropriate for the problem above.

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    I would go call it a "custom setting", where you select the frequency of printing. The Japanese has some range of meaning, but something like "arbitrary" would happen by chance, which is not your case.
    – user3169
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 5:30

1 Answer 1

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You are talking about the ability to change the settings on the machine at will. This would be called a custom setting or customizable setting. Once you have changed this setting, you would call it a customized setting.* In your example, you may call it a **customizable print setting or something similar.

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  • I am asking the second, Meaning that when i can customize the period in which to print something how can I call this mode. Customized print?
    – KansaiRobot
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 5:36
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    Custom print setting or custom print frequency setting. Something in that area:)
    – Element115
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 5:43
  • should I use "custom" rather than "customized"?
    – KansaiRobot
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 5:48
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    Customized implies it has already been modified. For example: my car audio system is customized. Customizable means it's able to be modified my car audio is **customizable. Custom means it's modified. My car audio system is custom. So if you mean to say "my system is able to be modified, you'd describe your print system as customizable. If you already modified it, you'd call it custom and if you modified in the past, customized. Depends on context:)
    – Element115
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 5:52
  • So, "My printer is customizable", "My printer is able to be customized" "My printer has a custom setting" are some ways to accurately say what you want.
    – Element115
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 5:53

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