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kylekwan

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May 22, 2003, 11:28:20 AM5/22/03
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hi,

would like some assist whether InDesign 2.0 english version can support chinese characters.

If yes, how can i do it?

thank you...

kylekwan

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May 23, 2003, 4:04:35 AM5/23/03
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sorry...

is there any ID user that uses chinese..?

thank you..

Harron K. Appleman

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May 23, 2003, 11:47:28 PM5/23/03
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Kyle,

The answer to your original question is yes.

Try doing a search within this forum using the key phrase "japanese or chinese or cjk." You should turn up a lot of pertinent information.

=-= Harron =-=

matt young

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May 24, 2003, 3:31:06 PM5/24/03
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Under English Windows XP, yes it works. You just need to do the input in another application and copy and paste into InDesign. That's the short answer. I don't know about other OSes.

I've search this forum and elsewhere to find what works and so far it's not very clear for me.

I read in this forum that InDesign does not make use of Windows' input method. That's why you need to import Chinese text. But I have seen direct chinese input work inside InDesign running in English XP! Can someone explain how this is possible because I sure would like to be able to do this.

InDesign lacks vertical text support. Both Photoshop and Illustrator have it and those are not page layout programs. Can someone in the know tell us if this feature will be in 3.0?

And then the fonts. Under MS Word, every kind of fonts no matter what their encoding work just fine. And Word display the font names in Chinese (Illustrator does this, too). As far as I can tell, InDesign can make use of BIG5 encoded font. The wrong characters show up if the font is GB encoded. I'm totally clueless on how font and encode work. I thought everything end up in Unicode. Why does encoding matter? So can someone unravel the mystery here or point to a place where I can find out how thing work?

Thanks!

kylekwan

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May 26, 2003, 9:30:07 AM5/26/03
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i'm using the IME of Windows XP to input chinese character.. and as Matt said... "InDesign can't recognise"...

btw, what kinda chinese software that i can use to input chinese character into InDesign? From what software should i input from?

could anyone assist me pls.. thanks..!

Ian A. Wright

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May 26, 2003, 10:28:00 PM5/26/03
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Kyle:

Although InDesign is based on Unicode, the western version of the app does not support Asian double-byte fonts. According to Adobe, there's a Japanese version of InDesign 2: <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/languages.html>

kylekwan

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May 26, 2003, 11:49:24 PM5/26/03
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oh.. thanks Ian...
btw.. how can i contact adobe technical team... i do sent them a mail bout my prob.. but no reply...

thank you very much.

Ian A. Wright

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May 27, 2003, 9:49:56 PM5/27/03
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Kyle:

Call Adobe Customer Service at 800-675-2320. They might be able to direct your call or give you some direction. I don't work for Adobe so I can't help, sorry.

kylekwan

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May 27, 2003, 10:15:24 PM5/27/03
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thanks..... i'll call and look for their help. :)

Henk Zeelenberg

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May 28, 2003, 6:36:34 AM5/28/03
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A Chinese plug-in to InDesign might be on the way.

<http://www.asiasoft.com/details_ICICM2S.html> gives an indication of this, but I have not seen additional information or experience of this add-on.

Kalavinka

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May 29, 2003, 1:48:09 AM5/29/03
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Kyle,

Actually, the previous post references Mainland short-form character capabilities on the Mac.

If you're related market is HK, Taiwan, etc., here's the Chinese Traditional capability (already available) for the Windows platform (from the same site):
<http://www.asiasoft.com/details_ICICW2C.html>

Product: Traditional Chinese Extension for Adobe InDesign 2 - InChinese Win Big5

Platform: Windows

Description: Traditional Chinese Extenstion for English InDesign 2.0.1. Windows version. Big5 encoding.(Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinese communities in USA)

Now you can input Traditional Chinese in Adobe InDesign 2.0.1 English version.

Features:

1 CD
1 USB hardware key
Manuals in Word or PDF files.(Chinese only)
English and Traditiona Chinese user interface available
Requirements:

CPU: Pentium 233 or higher
OS: English Win 2000, XP or Traditional Chinese Win 98SE, ME, 2000, XP
RAM: 64MB. HD: 100MB
English InDesign 2.0.1Windows version
USB Port
CD-ROM
Product Code: ICICW2C

Retail Price: $420.00

Hope this helps,
Mitra

____________
Dharmamitra
Kalavinka Press

kylekwan

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May 29, 2003, 11:01:11 PM5/29/03
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thank you very much.. it's a solution!

was just curious why Indesign was not programme to have versatile input languange .... I'm can't really write chinese but somehow i'm dealing with chinese client where i need to design layout with chinese character. So i need to have chinese character input.

buying a plug-in... well.. it certainly helps but would increase the cost. i hope that InDesign would been as versatile like quark where it can input chinese and other type of character. I hope the R & D team would give attention to this.

thank you.
(if anyone have their own suggestion and opinion, can you pls write here as well)

Kalavinka

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May 30, 2003, 12:39:55 AM5/30/03
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Kyle,

If you don't want to spend that kind of money on a plug-in perhaps only good for a few more months till ID 3 comes out, consider authoring it in TwinBridge Chinese Partner Version 6, (Recently upgraded to XP compatibility, demo download available). It's only $179, much cheaper than the $800 I had to pay for one of their first releases 10 years ago.

TwinBridge (Unicode-compatible, with 10 input methods) adds Chinese, Japanese, and Korean input capability to most Windows apps, including Word from 97 on and also PhotoShop. Not sure about Illustrator. At minimum, you should be able to cut and paste and "place".

MS Word 2003 beta is available for only $20 (seems to work well... I've got it installed on my laptop.) It gives you the XML export capability. If you've got sophisticated formatting on the Chinese text, it may or may not import better as XML.

I think you have to be dreaming anyway if you think you're going to produce anything without already knowing how to read and write Chinese unless the client already has the text prepared and all you have to do is format it. Even then, it sure sounds dicey.

Hope this helps.

Mitra

________
Dharmamitra
Kalavinka Press

kylekwan

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May 30, 2003, 3:46:58 AM5/30/03
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haha.. thanks for the suggestion.

they provide me with the copy and i have a copy writer sitting besides me. He will coordinate with me. So i must be able to input chinese character so that i can work with him.

i'll look for the twinbridge chinese partner 6.

thank you very much, Dharmamitra...

my e-mail is kyle_...@hotmail.com, pls add me into your mail address... thanks

Max Hodges

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May 31, 2003, 2:36:38 PM5/31/03
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Where can I buy the Japanese version of Indesign? Will version 3.0 of Eng version support Japanese natively?

Ian A. Wright

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May 31, 2003, 8:19:33 PM5/31/03
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Max:

See message #3 in this thread.

Wei Jiang

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Jun 3, 2003, 10:00:19 AM6/3/03
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Dear all who are interested in processing Chinese (any other double-byte languages) on InDesign:

Indeed, InDesign 2.0 supports Chinese, because it has Unicode as its "core" character set.

To input Chinese, you will have to update your ID 2.0 to 2.02. Then you can use any Windows-compatiable Chinese character imput method. My favorite is Microsoft Pinyin, which appears to be most compatible with ID, and which you can search and download from MS website.

If you have ever worried about the Chinese font problem, or even dreamed about the Composite Font feature, here is a little scripting program that may of some help to you:

<http://www.polytrans.org/goodies/id/compositefont.zip>

This is an unsupported freeware.

Kindest regards,

Wei Jiang
Senior Translator, Project Manager
PolyTrans Language Services, Inc.
Global language services that manage the complexities of e-Business
translation and desktop publishing
Heqiao Mansion, Section B, Suite 305B
A8 Guanghua Road, Chaoyang District
Beijing 100026, China
Phone: +86-10-65815310, Fax: +86-10-69517624
Email: jiang w@po ly tr ans . co m.c n
Website: www.poly trans .c om.cn
--------

Ann Zdunczyk

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Jun 5, 2003, 1:11:49 PM6/5/03
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I am using English InDesign 2.0 on XP Professional. I have used this version to do Japanese. It works just fine.

In Control Panel I select Regional and Language Settings. Under this window I change each tab to Japanese and reboot and then I can do Japanese. I have not had the need to do Chinese as of yet but I would do the same process.

maxhodges

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Jun 8, 2003, 4:39:34 PM6/8/03
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Thank you!!! Even Adobe could answer that question.

What I had to do was do to the Regional and Language Settings and set
the Language for Non-Unicode Program to Japanese.

Thank you!
Max Hodges
www.maxconsulting.us


"Ann Zdunczyk" <zdun...@lucent.com> wrote in message news:<1de93...@WebX.la2eafNXanI>...

kylekwan

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Jun 17, 2003, 3:27:24 AM6/17/03
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hi!

just settle it and it works fine. i can type chinese in indesign and illustrator now.

Thank you everyone...

One last questions, where can i buy/get chinese fonts that works with pc and mac..(most preferbly is pc) thanks.... it's really hard to get chinese fonts... I mean where do you usually get those chinese fonts from? cost budget.. hope to get some economical package... thanks

Guy Smiley

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Jun 17, 2003, 12:19:34 PM6/17/03
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re: free Chinese fonts

ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/hanzi

Google is your friend.

Jane Ji

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Jun 18, 2003, 12:02:52 AM6/18/03
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Hehe so glad to see Wei Jiang here, he's really a reliable expert on InDesign.

To Kwan: free fonts on the net don't always work, they often support limited characterset only, and some older versions even conflict with the program itself. This might worth visiting: <http://www.fontasp.com.tw/>
Also, if you read Chinese, www.coolty.net/forum will be a fun place to go.

To Young: to my knowledge, 2000/XP can't support both BIG5 and GB at the same time, although MS Word really solves the encoding problem very well, you sure it can use fonts of different encoding at once? Font attributes were all applied?

matt young

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Jun 18, 2003, 7:57:23 PM6/18/03
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Hi all,

I found out how to use both BIG5 and GB fonts: use Chinese(Taiwan) input method for BIG5 fonts and use Chinese(PRC) input method for GB fonts. The GB font didn't work before for me because I was using Chinese(Taiwan) input method and applying GB font to the text and that resulted wrong characters.

I don't know much about fonts and encoding. When I say BIG5 fonts, I mean the fonts InDesign group together with PMingLiU. GB fonts are the ones InDesign group with SimSun. Looks to me InDesign group fonts together by the codepage present in the font.

How this works make sense because InDesign use Unicode inside. The "right" input mathod get you the Unicode to the portion of characters it define. So Chinese(Taiwan) get you the traditional chinese and BIG5 fonts define glyphs traditional chinese range. The same goes for Chinese(PRC) for GB fonts. My Wild.Ass.Guess. is that font encoding doesn't matter, as long as the font has the character define in the Unicode spot, InDesign will draw that character regardless of what codepage is present in the font.

Someone enlighen me please.

kylekwan

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Jun 18, 2003, 8:14:35 PM6/18/03
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thanks.. it's a good explanation for me...

i'm still quite "Blur" about all the fonts and encoding. Need more info on this coz i'm not going further if i'm stuck on this encoding... :)

Thomas Phinney

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Jun 21, 2003, 4:36:41 PM6/21/03
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Although I have no easy way of checking right now, I strongly suspect Matt's WAG is correct. That would fit with what I know of the InDesign text architecture.

Regards,

T

Thomas Phinney
Fonts Program Mgr.
Adobe Systems

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