Chinese on Linux

sebire

October 11, 2010, 09:22 PM posted in General Discussion

Is anyone here a Linux user? I'm completely new to the OS (Mint 9), and the Chinese fonts look abysmal in Opera and Firefox. Also, I am not sure how to set up a decent IME. Any tips?

hamshank

October 12, 2010, 12:56 AM

I had the same problem with Ubuntu 10.04....The font's always seemed to be a bit blocky.

I tried almost everything both I and Mr Google could think of but I just couldn't seem to get complex characters in a readable state on my linux partition.

Sorry that is not much help but I will be interested to hear if anyone else has the answer?

peterning11

October 12, 2010, 06:24 AM

Hi sebire, did you install any Chinese language pack for your Linux OS?

Hi Peter, I have installed some language packs. It appears to render the fonts in the browser, it's just that in Opera, it uses a cursive font that is harder to read, and in Firefox it just renders horribly. I haven't figured out how to use the iBus IME either, which is currently just a mystery. I guess Linux isn't quite ready to go mainstream yet!

hamshank

I think there is a Chinese version of RED HAT linux called Red Flag linux (it's been a while, so I don't know if it is still active)...If you Chinese is up to scratch it might be worth looking on their website and forums to see what packages and browser they use to make the experience worthwhile, then just install those on your mint OS.

sebire

Hi Hamshank. I have found a partial solution in Firefox. I had to grab STSong (simplified Chinese font) from my old mac and convert it to TrueType and stick it in /.font, then enter Firefox's about:config screen. Then in font.name.sans-serif.zh-CN and font.name.serif.zh-CN I forced it to use STSong rather than the default value. I find that STSong renders much nicer than the default fonts that come with the distro.

Unfortunately, it appears that ChinesePod ignores those settings, but it makes Wikipedia look much nicer. I just need to work out how to get it to appear blacker.

I wish I can get it to work in Chromium, because I think I prefer it to Firefox.

sebire

Hamshank, speaking of Chromium, I fixed it in that browser too. I had to stick in a local.conf file into /etc/fonts.

I had initially tried the instructions here:

http://gideontsang.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/chinese-fonts-in-linux-blur-when-antialias-is-true/

and was trying to change the point size from 18 where it switches off antialiasing to 10. However, that didn't work. But I modified

< family >serif< /family>

< prefer>

and similarly for san-serif, and stuck in the line:

< family >STSong < /family>

which then I believe forces it to pick STSong as a default font.

It works for me. I can't guarantee this won't break anything else, but hey. In Chromium, CPod's chinese looks better (but the English fonts look awful).

Hope that helps, anyway.

hamshank

Hey sebire, thanks for the tips. I will give it a go on my linux partition at some point. It sounds like Chinese pod is overiding your settings. I think there should be an option to force all sites to use your font regardless but I am not sure where it is off the top of my head.