Chinese Fonts On Z

[xjqian]

Anybody find good sources to install Chinese fonts on Z (preferably the 6K)? And how it works.

two specific programs I hope to use with the fonts:

ZBEDic  chinses-english dictionary
QPZidian

Any success story?

[xjqian]

Found some good resources of Chinese Z forums. I already solved my Chinese fonts problem. Basically replace the default helvetica with efont. You can link helvetica to efont or rename the efont to helvetica then replace the original. Either way, take care of the font name in the conf file of some program by your own. Chinese website, like sina.com.cn in Opera works fine.

PalmIsLife:   Link

Palm User Message Board (PUMB):   Link

34run:   Link

cis92:   Link

twZUG:   Link

Hi!PDA:   Link

[panyo]

I already solved my Chinese fonts problem. Basically replace the default helvetica with efont. You can link helvetica to efont or rename the efont to helvetica then replace the original.

Where do you get efont (and how do you instal it if it is not an ipk)? I installed the unicode font in the Open Zaurus feed, but not sure what the name of that font is that (for example)  murphytalk.conf would need.

[xjqian]

I already solved my Chinese fonts problem. Basically replace the default helvetica with efont. You can link helvetica to efont or rename the efont to helvetica then replace the original.

Where do you get efont (and how do you instal it if it is not an ipk)? I installed the unicode font in the Open Zaurus feed, but not sure what the name of that font is that (for example)  murphytalk.conf would need.

efonts are in the feeds of zaurus.cis92.net

lots of articles covered the Howtos in the links I provided above. Just found one comprehensive tutorial  Linkii

[xjqian]

Updates:
both Ch-En and En-Ch Zbedict dictionary works beautifully for me now.

QPZidian is requried to be installed in the internal memory (wastes >1M) and be displayed in the magnified mode for 6K. Chinese fonts looks ugly and drops words often. With Zbedict, I don't need it anymore.

[choonhow]

Hi all,

i need your help.

i am facing this situation whereby the chinese fonts (using the efonts) displayed a lot of squares if i only link efonts to certain helvetica fonts.

but if i replace the whole default helvetica fonts with efont, i can have a more complete chinese fonts (which means that i t can display more chinese characters). the concern for me now is if i replace all the default helvetica fonts with efont, the font displayed on the all the programs becomes too small and there will be no bold character.

therefore, i would prefer to retain the current set of default helvetica font and only replace parts of the default helvetica font with efont. in doing so, the chinese characters displayed were not so complete, there were a lot of squares instead of chinese characters.

please advise if there is any way i can retain parts of the default helvetica font and yet display a more complete set of chinese character.

any help is appreciated and many thx in advance.

cheers

[panyo]

I already solved my Chinese fonts problem. Basically replace the default helvetica with efont. You can link helvetica to efont or rename the efont to helvetica then replace the original.

Where do you get efont (and how do you instal it if it is not an ipk)? I installed the unicode font in the Open Zaurus feed, but not sure what the name of that font is that (for example)  murphytalk.conf would need.

efonts are in the feeds of zaurus.cis92.net

lots of articles covered the Howtos in the links I provided above. Just found one comprehensive tutorial  Linkii

 Xjqian,
Shie Shie ni, danshe wo bu can zhongwen. Wo yao learn Chinese, and I am hoping that
getting an input method and a good dictionary might help. Qpzidian  
was great for me, especialy since it gave pinyin along with the characters.  

If I can get input working into vim, then maybe I can get wo tai tai using the Zaurus too, so I will
not get as much criticism for spending too much time on my toy.

I'll have a look at the sites through a translation site since now I know the feed and fonts exist there, so thanks.

[xjqian]

if there is any way i can retain parts of the default helvetica font and yet display a more complete set of chinese character.

The quick answer is Yes, in theory, but practically not that easy.

I'm also the kind of person prefer the minimum invasive operation. Actually, I was trying what you described, replacing only the helvetica_xxx_50_t10.qpf with the corresponding efont, keeping the rest intact. I got the exact same problem you encounted

By a quick search I fond helvetica exists in couple of conf, .so, and even lib files for different applications. I believe there're places where fonts are defined for the desktop and default setting programs also.  

The brute force approach of deleting all the default helvetica fonts works because zaurus has the feature of falling back to the nearest font size if the defined fonts are non-exsistent. And it just ensures everybody uses the given efont.

In theory, if you know where the fonts are defined, simply hack it to efont or the symbolic link of efont will do the trick. Unfortunately, Sharp didn't map them all out for us and they do use fonts other than helvetica_xxx_50_t10.qpf pretty frequently.

Since the non-bold sized font never bothers me, actually I found it's nicer than the default, I deleted all the default helvetica except for the two big sets 360 and 480. To be really miminum invasive, and I do think it is possilbe,  provided you have time you can use try-n-err to tweak things to your taste.

If you're just griping about the general small font size, the simple solution is link the efonts one step down, etc ln -s efont_140 with helvetica_120.

Hope it helps

[xjqian]

I am hoping that getting an input method and a good dictionary might help. Qpzidian was great for me, especialy since it gave pinyin along with the characters.

Nice to know you're a Chinese learner. WoW, admirable courage  

Sorry I dismissed Qpzidian in my wish list above. It is true Qpzidian is better-suited for Chinese learners than Zbedic. It's acutally written for that purpose. And for your 5500, the display won't be an issue

I played with it for a while and indeed found a better font solution for Qpzidian. It looks nice and I'm gonna keep it despite the grudge about the sacrifice of 3M internal flash.

ok let's start the journey with chinese keyboard. There's are actually two free candidates
1 Murphytalk 0.0.3 in the other thread in here. This is the intuitive pinying input, and most of the mainland china usr prefer this.
2 Ckeyboard 1.0.5 Here. The 仓颌 ChengJei，注音 Phonetic， and Boshiamy (whatever that is) is mostly popular among Taiwen usrs. The Ckeyboard come with it's own font: taipei, which is not as pretty as efonts. Nor does it support simplified chinese for obvious reason.

I have both keyboard installed and both work perfectly. When I launch Qpzidian I got
taipei.png
, which is kind of ugly.  Even worse, it drops the simplified chinese character, which give me a clue the Qpzidian must be using the taipei font.

then I deleted those taipei fonts and

Code: [Select]

ln -s [my efont dir]/efont_100_50_t10.qpf /opt/QtPalmtop/lib/fonts/taipei_100_50_t10.qpfwell, qpzidian only need the 100 size font, however Ckeyboard do come with both 100 and 120 sizes. To play safe with Ckeyboard, link the 120 size as well, if you want to.

efonts handles both simplified and traditional chinese characters nicely
efont_chinse.png
efont_english.png tip: don't type your english words in capital letters. it confuses qpzidian and will freeze Z for a while.
efont_pinyin.png

I happen to have a 宋体simsun_100_50_t10.qpf at hand. It also handles both sim/tradit chinese well, if not better.

simsun.png

in my 6K the nonmagnified qpzidian looks like this
qpzidian_nonmagnified.png

btw, Ckeyboard takes both simsun and efont w/o complaint. In my humble opinion, they look much better than taipei font in Ckeyboard
Ckeyboard_simsun.png

sample images are in the zip file

[xjqian]

The chinese-english zbedic dictionary zhen_0.9.0 do give pinyin along with characters as well. Might be helpful to you as well.

[choonhow]

Hi xjqian,

thank you for your detailed reply.

that means i am left with two choices now:

1. to change the font sizes of each and every programs that i am going to use it for reading/writing chinese characters to those fonts sizes that are linked to the efonts. this is to retain the system's default helvetica fonts, am i correct to say that?

2.  to delete all the system's default  helvetica fonts and replace them with efonts, but this will not have bold characters.

i had chosen method number 1 as i would like to retain all the default font display. i am now off to configure each and every program that i am going to use to display chinese character.

pardon my ignorance, do you have any websites that have a good range of chinese ebooks? I cant seem to find to any.

thanks for your help.

cheers

choonhow

[xjqian]

1. to change the font sizes of each and every programs that i am going to use it for reading/writing chinese characters to those fonts sizes that are linked to the efonts. this is to retain the system's default helvetica fonts, am i correct to say that?

You're right. A good place to start is /home/zaurus/Settings. Most of the .conf files are there, but not all. Your idea really turned me on. So I restored the default helvetica and get the symbolic link for efont ready. Here we go

Worked (easy ones)
1.Murphytalk
/home/zaurus/Settings/murphytalk.conf
2.CKeyboard
/opt/QtPalmtop/lib/fonts/taipei_xxx_50_t10.qpf
3.Opera
/home/zaurus/.opera/opera.ini  at the end Font.name
10. qpesearch
/home/zaurus/Settings/qpesearch.conf

(and of course, those your have the option to choose fonts)
4.OpieReader
5.JustReader
6.Advanced TextEditor
7.Zbedic
8.QPZiDian relies on taipei_100_50_t10.qpf
9.QPDF2  (although it says "menu font", it works well for some documents)
11. Gutenbrowser
12. Handcom (Word, Sheet)   (format->font)

Haven't found solution yet
1. Desktop fonts
(those stock app, some are at high profile for my daily uses)
2.PIM (Calendar, Address, Todo, Email, default TextEditor{I use it to sync the notes in my outlook})
3. Handcom Presenter
4. ZEditor
5. Tree!Explorer Qt, Advanced file manager, stock file manager

pardon my ignorance, do you have any websites that have a good range of chinese ebooks? I cant seem to find to any.

Honestly, I don't know any. I assume you don't want plain txt or html version, do you? There're sure ways to convert them to ebooks, but, you know...

edit1: added qpesearch, Gutenbrowser; correct for Handcom word, sheet

[choonhow]

Hi xjqian,

Worked (easy ones)
1.Murphytalk
/home/zaurus/Settings/murphytalk.conf
2.CKeyboard
/opt/QtPalmtop/lib/fonts/taipei_xxx_50.t10.qpf
3.Opera
/home/zaurus/.opera/opera.ini at the end Font.name

this really helps me a lot, cos i am really new to linux and i do not know where the configuration settings are stored.

(and of course, those your have the option to choose fonts)
4.OpieReader
5.JustReader
6.Advanced TextEditor
7.Zbedic
8.QPZiDian
9.QPDF2 (although it says "menu font", it works well for some documents)

I had found that one can just set the font size to either 12,16,24 (those link to efonts) on Zbedic (without editing the .conf file)  and you can see the full set of chinese characters.

Haven't found solution yet
1. Desktop fonts

(those stock app, some are at high profile for my daily uses)
2.PIM (Calendar, Address, Todo, Email, default TextEditor{I use it to sync the notes in my outlook})
3 Hancom (Word, Sheet, Presenter)
4. ZEditor
5. Tree!Explorer Qt, Advanced file manager, stock file manager

I need your advice about the PIM and those programs that are capable of synching to the pc. Can the Sharp sync manager handle the chinese character during the transfer of information from the zaurus to the pc (using the Sharp sync manager)?

Honestly, I don't know any. I assume you don't want plain txt or html version, do you? There're sure ways to convert them to ebooks, but, you know...

I had tried converting some chinese html to ebooks, but to no success (due to my limited knowledge on ebooks conversion).

thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.


cheers

[xjqian]

After couple of trying, here's my finding

( A ) Font meaning
meaning of the numberical value in the second place of the font name
normal               helvetica_xxx_50
italic                   helvetica_xxx_50i
bold                   helvetica_xxx_75
bold+italic          helvetica_xxx_75i
 
( B ) Sys Font
basically system only use two fonts
1.helvetica_180_50_t10: for menus, tabs, settings, etc. This is the font you've seen most of the time.
2.helvetica_180_75_t10: for the fonts on the desktop (e.g. EmbedTerm) and application subject  (e.g. the Chinese site name or page name appears at the top of Opera)
note: Settings->Appearance->Font->use thick fonts        is not selecting bold fonts. I guess it's using graphical methods to doulbe font appearance.

I found replacing the above two with efont_160+use thick fonts fits best for me. Just my taste though.

( C ) PIM
Fonts selection for the stock applications are built into the binary files in /usr/QtPalmtop.rom/*.so. Even su, those files are still read-only. However, the corresponding Font size in the PIM are:
minimum    120
small          140
medium      180
large          240
maximum   360

in short, simply replace the above ( B ) two helvetica files and use medium font size in PIM, and you're all set. Now you've got almost all of the bold/italic fonts at your disposal. The only sacrifice is the normal and bold helvetica_180.

( D ) Practical issues
1. AdvancedFileManager don't recongnize file with chinese name. Use Tree!Explorer Qt or the qpe-FileManager in the install CD.
2. ZEditor and AdvancedTextEditor recognize chinese file name well. The default TextEditor doesn't recognize file with chinese name. However, it reads the chinese words from outlook notes well. None of them have Big5 or GBK decoder built in. So encode your txt file with unicode.
3. opie-reader don't have Big5 or GBK decoder built in either, use JustReader
4. Handcom Presenter won't handle all the fonts well, print your presentation into pdf, preferably embedding your fonts.

now only wish I could get Gaim accept chinese characters or get KMerlin to work.

Hope these info helps

[choonhow]

Hi xjqian,

thanks for all the help (and i mean it really helps). that's quite a lot of information there. i will go try the method you recommend later when i reach back home from work.

cheers