Chinese + Japanese in OSX

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
My wife uses our macs under OS 9.1 to write stuff in Chinese and Japanese using the Apple Language Kits you can install. We'll be getting a laptop soon with OSX and had a couple of questions: are there language kits in OSX, and if so, are they improved in any way?



Also, now that you can use PC fonts in OSX, does that mean that the huge numbers of PC double-byte Chinese and Japanese fonts will be available to us to spice up our pages?



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    adam11adam11 Posts: 163member
    Arbernaut, I have not played with the Chinese side yet, but here are a few comments on the japanese side. As background to the following, i speak and use japanese, my wife is japanese and speaks english, and both my children are bilingual too. All of us use both English and japanese programs and environments on our Macs.



    I have 2 g4s, - a dul 500 dVdram and a 867 superdrive, both running OS X.1.1, both run classic at start up:



    On the Dual 500 I run english at system level, but as with OS 9 i am able to run native japanese programes, and also input Japanesse into english programs . I have found that there are less progrms that have dificulty displaying the japanese fonts. Kotoeri input system is still not as good as the new Atok14 which is avialable for both OS9 and X. it works brilliantly and i find that it is much more intuitive about Kanji (character) selection.



    On the 867 I am running the system level in japanese and have absolutely no problems runnign fully English programs in this environment. Once again, i upgraded to Atok14 as the input and intuitiveness is better.



    On both systems you can scroll through different keyboard input using the old Apple/spacebar combination without any problem. Changing the System level language is also easy via the (very easy to use) system preferances pane. You make your original selections when you set up though.



    OS 9 programs seem to run better in classic under OS x.1.1 than they did in OS 9 - go figure. I even have a 8 year old version Japanese version of macwrite2 running which runs OK.



    I use OS X.1.1 disc supplied IE5 for browising and it renders language pages better than netscape ever did, and i use the OS x Mail application which also is very smooth for japanese (shame it is not much of an email app yet) -. I am trying to get my hands on MS Office v.X which I am hoping will have better multi language support - On balance i think I will go with entourage if there are no language problems. I have both English and japanese versions of Appleworks 6.2 for OS x , so that I can work in it with Menubars and dialogues in japanese or English depending on the requirement, but both handle Japanese input seamlessly. The English version, however, supports saving as a Word doc which the japanese versin does not yet.



    As for the appearance, the OS X japanese fonts are FANTASTIC - much much bbetter than the OS 9 osaka etc, and the OS X aqua/quartz systems seem to render them beautiffly.



    I am yet to open a document fromt eh PC or internet world in japanese which the new font set could not manage. I will have a dig around on the chinese side and let you know.



    let me know if you have any more questions...

    cheers

    Adam
  • Reply 2 of 4
    dvddvd Posts: 45member
    how do u acually type in chinese in OS 9, there is like no tutorials or is it u have to know lots of chinese to do it.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    [quote]Originally posted by Arbernaut:

    <strong>My wife uses our macs under OS 9.1 to write stuff in Chinese and Japanese using the Apple Language Kits you can install. We'll be getting a laptop soon with OSX and had a couple of questions: are there language kits in OSX, and if so, are they improved in any way?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    One of the best improvements of OS X over the Language Kits is that the system font for OS X is a Unicode font (Lucida Grande, I believe). That means that you can name files and folders in different scripts and have it be readable, instead of looking like garbage. Finder window title bars and dialog boxes also handle different languages without a hitch.



    Also, I prefer OmniWeb to IE for surfing Japanese sites: fonts are rendered properly in the title bar, and the Quartz graphic engine looks way better than the OS9-style antialiasing that IE uses.



    All in all, working in different languages is pretty much seamless in OS X. I think you'll be pleased.



    [ 11-24-2001: Message edited by: chromos ]</p>
  • Reply 4 of 4
    My wife and kids and I also form a bilingual family. My wife is Japanese and the kids speak much better Japanese than I do. We all use both OS 9 and OS X on our various Macs.



    OS 9 with the JLK seems to run smoother than using OS 9-J.



    I bought a Quicksilver 867 in Japan so it came with OS 9-J installed. I will soon install the English OS 9 over this. I have found one or two programs that have problems running in the J version of Mac OS 9.



    In OS X when you install it you have the option to select various language kits. I think most of them are turned on by default. Japanese is an available option. You just need the standard installer disc which is sold worldwide.



    OS X support for different language scripts is great. If you want to change the script for a document you can change the input method much like in OS 9. However, you can also go to system prefs and choose the language for the interface. Log out and back in for this to take effect. Now all the menus are in the language you chose. Really slick.



    I agree with the previous poster. The supplied Kotoeri for Japanese input is adequate for light use but everyone I know who uses the Mac intensively will install Atok or EGbridge.



    [Correction about OS X installer:

    I just installed 10.1 from a newly purchased install package. This one does include Korea and Chinese (traditional and simplified).]



    [ 11-26-2001: Message edited by: neutrino23 ]</p>
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