non-latin text in graphics

making multilingual images

[Eric_Jarvis]

I'm trying to make an image that includes text in Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Arabic...I've got a choice of PSP6 or Fireworks2...both seem able to handle text in Russian but not any of the other languages

I've got the system here set up so that just about everything else I ever use is happy displaying any of those languages...I'm trying to cut and paste a single phrase (click here) into either of the image programmes to create a single image using text in many languages

any ideas where the problem might lie...do graphics programs generally handle non-latin characters OK?...is there a form of encoding I have to place the characters iinto first?

I'd rather not settle for screen shots of html pages or any such kludge...because I want the graphic to contain reasonably good looking anti-aliased text...I also need smilar looking text, so "nicking" existing images off the web is as useless as it is unethical

anyone got any ideas?

[mivox]

Very strange... as long as you have a font for each language/character set, I can't imagine why there would be a problem. Just to make sure: you do have the software set to use a language-appropriate font when you cut and paste the phrase into the image editor, right?

Anyone got an idea?

[Eric_Jarvis]

at the moment I'm baffled...the clipboard is handling it fine...but both PSP and Fireworks are losing the text as soon as I try to insert it into an image...I'm now looking for a reference of the codes to input characters directly...just in case that operates differently

[mivox]

Well, I don't think most graphics programs support Unicode encoding... (ie- & #64 ; for @)

Can you select the foreign font in the graphics program's type entry function, and type the foreign text in character by character? The hunting & pecking for the right characters could take a while, but typing it directly into the program should get around whatever cut&paste problems you're having...

[Eric_Jarvis]

looks like that will be the answer...anyone know of a good online reference for the character codes...I'm going to need Chinese, Japanese and Arabic...and just the characters to do "click here" in each language

it ought to be so simple :(

[typophile]

Are you on Windows or Mac?
The reason I ask is that Graphics programs require fonts with an outline file (post script or true type) to generate the shapes of the characters. Windows now has mulitlingual display but I believe that the non latin characters are just bitmaps and not outlines.

[Eric_Jarvis]

Windows is fine...the font is carried all the way to the clipboard in PSP (or Fireworks)...but the graphics programs don't support Unicode and lose it at that point

I've been playing around and have found a java based encoding swapper...so hopefully on monday I can try dropping the characters in directly using GB rather than Unicode

what I really need is a list of the numerical character references though...and not the fscking Unicode one...everyone links to that in english...maybe the Chinese link to some code charts for GB, but I'll never know

[mivox]

Please stop back by and let us know how you finally work it out! I've never had to work with foreign characters, so I'm rather at a loss on this one...

[bill]

I've always found it easier to use a native language OS for Japanese and Chinese text input into graphics, but recently wanted to try doing character entry on one of my English OS machines (Win2K). A lot of times I would simply enter text into MS Paint, then save the text as a bitmap and import it into my graphics soft. Looking for a more flexible alternative, I downloaded the trial version of [url=www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/main.html]PhotoShop Elements[/url], and found I could enter Japanese, Korean, and Chinese text without any difficulty.

[Topcat]

I have come up against this issue today
Eric. Did you resolve ?

[Topcat]

I found this.

Paint Shop Pro uses fonts that are installed in Windows. Paint Shop Pro does not have its own location for storing fonts, it just uses what is available from the Operating System. Paint Shop Pro supports True Type (ttf) and Adobe Type One ( .pfm ) fonts (included with Adobe Type Manager "ATM" ).

Adobe Type Manager (ATM) comes with a set of Type One fonts, all of which we do support. Under Windows 2000, ATM doesn't need to be installed to use the Type One fonts. It is possible to install them the same way True Type fonts are installed. However, under Windows 9x, ATM must be installed in order to have these fonts available.

Paint Shop Pro does support double-byte and bi-directional language font. Double-byte fonts include Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Bi-directional fonts include Arabic and Hebrew. For Paint Shop Pro to support these fonts it must be used within an operating system that is native to that font type. For example: Japanese fonts will not work inside of an American Operating System. It must be used in a Japanese System. The exception to this is with Windows 2000, where you can set up Multiple Language support. You then only need to have the Native Language as the default.

found at :-

[jasc.com...]

TC

[Eric_Jarvis]

thanks Topcat...I hadn't resolved it...but you have solved the problem for me...though I'll have to buy some RAM to make our Win2k workstation capable of handling graphics a little better (or get a copy of win2k for my workstation)