Asian Characters (Chinese, Japanese, etc.) not available

[SteveMu]

Screenshot on my N4

Well, most things said in the title and the screenshot. 

Back story:

I'm going to visit Japan in July this year and for some reason Google Maps is not available offline for Japan. I discovered OSM and I like it very much since there is way more stuff displayed than in Google Maps. So maybe I can find some special locations :D 

Is it possible to enable Asian characters in the App? I can view and use them outside of Osmand without any problem. 

Thanks!

[Dan]

The first thing to check is the setting for "Use English names in maps", found in Osmand Settings, General. If it is unchecked, native language should be displayed.
But looking at your screenshot, I suspect that your Nexus4 does not have a Japanese or East Asian font set installed. The empty rectangular boxes displayed instead of the Japanese characters indicate that Osmand is trying to display the Japanese, but your phone does not have the correct font.

You can check if the fonts are installed by going to:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_for_Android  and click on "Check". It will display a list of languages, and show which ones your phone is correctly displaying.

If your phone does not have a Japanese font, the solution can be very complicated, and beyond my ability to help. Maybe others could help you with it.

Dan

On Friday, May 23, 2014 4:23:00 PM UTC-6, SteveMu wrote:

[SteveMu]

Hi! Thank you for your answer!

I tried the wiki page and my phone has Japanese fonts installed. (by the way, I wrote "I can view and use them outside of Osmand without any problem". 

It's really only in the app. 

Also "Use English names in maps" is unchecked. 

Is your phone able to display the Japanese characters? Or is it really just problem for me?

[Dan]

Hi Steve,

I thought about this, then it dawned on me that the screen shot you sent is not an OsmAnd rendered map; it is a Mapnik tile. I checked the current Mapnik tiles that are being used for Japan and found that they look the same as your screenshot. Below zoom level 7, Japan has correct characters, zoom 7 and above only the English is correct. Japanese just shows the rectangular box. Looks like there is some problem with the Mapnik tiles in Asia now; they were fine last year.

Mapnik tiles are used to display at lower zoom levels, to view a country or province. They are not generally used for local areas. For that you need to download the Osmand map of Japan. The maps are available as .zip files at:  http://download.osmand.net/rawindexes/  or you can get them directly on your phone at Settings-->Data Management-->"Click here to Download"  The Japan file is 753MB, so you may want to do it over WiFi to save data usage.

Hope this helps, any more questions feel free to ask,
Dan

[Dan]

You can also download the "World Basemap", it will give you a much better map at lower zoom levels, plus major roads and cities for the entire world.(same download instructions as above).
I am going to Japan in October; just downloaded the Japan OsmAnd map and it looks fine. Japanese characters showing up correctly.

Dan

[SteveMu]

First, let me thank you for your nice answers! You helped me out A LOT. 

Second, I have two questions left, if this is no problem.

- Is it better to just download some maps in OsmAnd? I want to occupy the space on my device only if I have to. (like visiting a foreign country)

- I'm not able to just show OSM without downloading it. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I find "Mapnik", "CycleMap", "OSM French", and so on. Am I doing something wrong?

Also nice to meet another Japan fan :-) Is it your first visit? 

[Dan]

Usually I just keep the map of my city/province on my phone, and one other province I visit often. Then I download what I need when going on a trip. After the trip, just delete the map no longer needed; so it is not taking up too much phone storage.

Yes, to be useful, you need to download the OSM maps. Have you downloaded the map for your home area? Try it out so you get used to using OsmAnd before you travel.
If you do not download the map, you will only be able to see the Mapnik tiles or the World Basemap. The Mapnik tiles are just static images, not useful for routing, saving favorites, doing searches for restaurants, attractions, hotels, etc.

Second visit to Japan.