Internationalization

Internationalization - Java Fonts and Input Methods

Here is some information that will hopefully be of some help to people setting up fonts and input methods in Java so they can type and display in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, and others that may or may not work in Java out of the box (it depends on your operating system).

FONTS - Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, 2003

• A quick way to get started is to install the ARIALUNI.TTF font found on a Microsoft Office CD. You can also find this font (and others) on other Microsoft CDs by using this link: Fonts and products.
• Once you have your font installed use the ScheduleWorld Tools->Settings dialog to change the font.

FONTS - Linux (RedHat 8 or Greater) - Java 5

• Java 5 works well but it can be trickier than 1.4.2. The Java 5 font setup doesn't need the appendedfontpath hack needed by 1.4.2. You'll notice that the jre/lib/font.properties file is gone and replaced with many different fontconfig.* files.
• The tricky part is that under some circumstances you can verify your new TrueType fonts are visible (via xlsfonts) but they aren't available to your Java 5 application (running fc-list is a good quick test). Restarting xfs or your Java application may not help.
• The problem is that the new "sharing" feature of Java 5 seems to keep the font list in a shared area that never gets updated even though you install new fonts. For example, if you have Tomcat running in the background before you install new TrueType fonts the Tomcat Java 5 shared memory area will contain the old font list forever and new Java 5 applications will always share that old font list. When you reboot you ensure the Java shared area gets cleaned and your new TrueType fonts will be seen the next time you start your Java application.

FONTS - Linux (RedHat 8 or Greater) - Java 1.4.2

• Fonts work in Linux if you are using Java 1.4.2 If You are using an earlier version of Java we can't help you <grin>, and kindly suggest you download and install version 1.5.0_02 (or newer) from here: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.html.
• Add this single line to your existing (Java 1.4.2) jre/lib/font.properties file:

appendedfontpath=/yourhomedir/.fonts

• Copy your TrueType font into /yourhomedir/.fonts directory.
• Once your have modified your font.properties file and your font is installed restart ScheduleWorld and select Tools->Settings dialog to change the font.
• If you are running a non-RedHat compatible distribution of Linux and have found that additional steps need to be taken to make fonts work please email support@ScheduleWorld.com so we can include the information here.

INPUT METHODS - Specific to Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, 2003

• Enable the Windows input method. Please let us know if any version of Windows can not do this. An example (with pictures) of enabling Windows 2000 native input methods can be found here: http://elvire.scheibling.free.fr/perso/goweb/jpinput/
• Start ScheduleWorld, and select the InputMethod from the Windows system menu (upper left corner) and selecting "Select Input Method".
• NOTE: You may want to use the pure Java input method if you are having difficulty with the native Input Method provided by Microsoft.

INPUT METHODS - Pure Java for Linux, Mac OS/X, Solaris, Windows

• Download and install the InputMethodHotKey.jar into your jre/lib/ext directory (found here: http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/InputMethod/inputmethod.html).
• Run the InputMethodHotKey.jar (java -jar InputMethodHotKey.jar), select a hot-key, and click OK. You must select a hot-key or you will not be able to select input methods.
• Copy the pure Java input method of your choice into your jre/lib/ext directory. All of the pure Java input methods we could find are in the next section.
• Start ScheduleWorld and use your hot-key inside of a Java component that accepts text to select your input method.
• Win32 note: Windows seems to ignore the hot-key for some reason. Perhaps it is because you can access the pure-Java InputMethods from the system menu. If you don't see the "Select Input Method" option just underneath "Close" in your system menu then you didn't copy the input method's jar file into the correct jre/lib/ext directory.

INPUT METHODS - Pure Java Input Method Resources

• NEW: The Chinese input methods below do not work perfectly unless you modify font.properties. Since this is no longer necessary with Java 1.4 I have modified the traditional PinYin w/tones to work without modifying font.properties. Please use it instead: downloads/zh_TW_tonepy.jar. When the author of the InputMethods accepts my changes I will stop providing this particular version. Also, here is a snapshot of using this Input Method to enter a test Chinese message: swingSightings/shi4yan4a.png
• JGIM (120 different languages/alphabets) http://sourceforge.net/projects/jgim/
• Chinese (many types): http://users.erols.com/eepeter/chinesecomputing/programming/java.html
• Japanese: http://elvire.scheibling.free.fr/perso/goweb/jpinput/
• Vietnamese: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vietime/
• Brahmi: http://sourceforge.net/projects/brahmi/
• Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Thai: jre/lib/im. Note that jre/lib/im is created when you install Java. The places to check would be similar to:
• Windows: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.4.2\lib\im
• Unix: /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2/jre/lib/im

INPUT METHODS - Helpful Sun Web Pages

• How to install and use input methods: http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/InputMethod/inputmethod.html
• Java input methods: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/imf/
• Input methods that are natively supported by operating system: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/intl/locale.doc.html

Generic Language True Type Font Resources

If you own any Microsoft product, you already own some TrueType fonts that may work for you. Here is a link that shows which Microsoft product ships with which fonts: (click "Fonts and products") http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/font.asp?FID=24&FNAME=Arial%20Unicode%20MS&FVER=0.84

Chinese True Type Font Resources

An introduction to Chinese/Japanese fonts with some links to free and commercial fonts can be found here: http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/fonts.html

Apparently the SimSun font is a good Chinese font.

Another possibility that contains some ill-shaped fonts is the Bitstream CyberCJK font. Bitstream no longer offers this font but you can still find it (and its license) here: http://sunsite.compapp.dcu.ie/pub/netscape/communicator/extras/fonts/windows/

Japanese True Type Font Resources

Found on the Microsoft Office 2000 CD, these two fonts support European and Japanese characters.

• MS Mincho (Msmincho.ttf)
• MS UI Gothic (Msuigoth.ttf)

Korean True Type Font Resources

Found on the Microsoft Office 2000 CD, these two fonts support European and Japanese characters.

• Batang (Batang.ttf)
• BatangChe (BatangCh.ttf)

Commercial True Type Font Resources

If you do not have the required TrueType font and can not find a suitable free font you may want to consider the companies listed in the "Sponsored Links" section of this google search.

Links To Internet Font Sites

Fonts resources - directory of Fonts related websites.

An alternative is to spend some time searching with google. If you find some good information please pass it along so we can post it here. support@ScheduleWorld.com