character encoding issues

Not for 'how-to' coding questions but PHP theory instead, this forum is here for those of us who wish to learn about design aspects of programming with PHP.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
crazytopu
Forum Contributor
Posts: 259
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2003 12:43 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

character encoding issues

Post by crazytopu »

Guys,

I just didnot know where to post this question since it sounds like an off topic. But I just thought I'd ask you for some help/direction.

You know I am trying to figure out how sites that use character like korean or chinese - how does it work. In Bengali, like this site http://www.prothom-alo.org they use embedded font object since people who access this site dont have the same font on their machine.

For bengali language, windows xp has very limited support but vista is coming with greater support. But without having any support is it possible to create a site in bengali that will be vewiable to public without having the same font installed and at the same time that will over come some of the present limitations such as no searching is possible now. Also, if you copy and paste something from the site into some program its all giberish.

Any idea what would be a starting point?

Best.
matthijs
DevNet Master
Posts: 3360
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:57 pm

Post by matthijs »

User avatar
John Cartwright
Site Admin
Posts: 11470
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:10 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by John Cartwright »

[url=http://forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?t=30037]Forum Rules[/url] Section 1.1 wrote:2. Use descriptive subjects when you start a new thread. Vague titles such as "Help!", "Why?" are misleading and keep you from receiving an answer to your question.
I've already taken the liberty of changing the title for you.
crazytopu
Forum Contributor
Posts: 259
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2003 12:43 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Post by crazytopu »

Thanks Jcart, I surely will remember this when I post again.

Thanks for the link, I am reading them.
User avatar
Ambush Commander
DevNet Master
Posts: 3698
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:29 pm
Location: New Jersey, US

Post by Ambush Commander »

Note that you are also dealing with the issue of people not having the appropriate fonts on their machines to view the text. Here's what I say: if they don't have the font, they probably have no business wanting to read the text.

Internet Explorer has troubles font-mixing, so you may want to set this to Unicode text:

Code: Select all

.Unicode {
        font-family: Code2000, "TITUS Cyberbit Basic", "Doulos SIL", "Chrysanthi Unicode", "Bitstream Cyberbit", "Bitstream CyberBase", Thryomanes, Gentium, GentiumAlt, "Lucida Grande", "Arial Unicode MS", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Lucida Sans Unicode";
        font-family /**/:inherit;
}
... or use the standard font for your native language.

I'll be writing about this in the UTF-8 doc soon.
crazytopu
Forum Contributor
Posts: 259
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2003 12:43 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Post by crazytopu »

Well, it's not that. They do want to be able to read and want to have the font but since their OS doesnot have it they are kinda stuck. Only a few people are working to fix this problem so research and development going kinda slow . And sites in Bengali are just coming out. Therefore, there is no standard way of doing it yet.

Thanks for your tips.
crazytopu
Forum Contributor
Posts: 259
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2003 12:43 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Post by crazytopu »

Alright, got a much appropriate link:

here
User avatar
Ambush Commander
DevNet Master
Posts: 3698
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:29 pm
Location: New Jersey, US

Post by Ambush Commander »

Aha. It's slightly generic (could easily apply to any obscure language), but glad to see you found a good resource for it.
Post Reply