This write-up will teach you how to view Japanese characters
(kanji, kana) in E2, or anywhere else on the Web. If you're lucky,
you will only need to read one paragraph. If you're not, you'll have to
read the whole thing. This write-up may also help you for other
languages.
Try reading a write-up which contains Japanese characters, such as Building Blocks of Japanese Names or (if you want to play with encodings)
Japanese Character Encoding Formats.
If the Japanese characters are displayed correctly, then select View->Character Set->Japanese (auto-select) in
Netscape (that's View->Encoding->Japanese (auto-select) in
Internet Explorer). If the characters are now ok, that's
great. If not, proceed with Check that the Japanese fonts are
installed.
Check that the Japanese fonts are installed
Under Windows, go to your
C:\WINNT\fonts (or
C:\WINDOWS\fonts, or something like that) directory, and look for
one of the following popular Japanese font files in that directory:
msmincho.ttf (Ms Mincho)
msgothic.ttf (MS Gothic)
uwjmg3.ttf (from Union Way)
If one of these files exist, continue with Configuring your
browser. If not, go to Installing Japanese
fonts.
Under Unix/Linux, try the following command:
xlsfonts | grep jis
Hopefully, it will print the names of Japanese fonts installed on your
system. If it does print something, proceed with Configuring your
browser. If not, I'm afraid you need to go to Installing
Japanese fonts.
Configuring your browser
With Internet Explorer 5.5 (your mileage may vary with other
versions), select Tools->Internet Options->Fonts, then "Japanese"
in the "Language script" box. The dialog box below should let you select
the Japanese fonts you have on your system.
With Netscape 4.7 (your mileage may vary with other versions),
select Edit->Appearances/Fonts, then Japanese in the "Encoding"
dialog box, and choose your preferred Japanese font as the variable and
fixed width fonts.
With Emacs and XEmacs, it's a little more difficult. See the inline
documentation, or the resources listed at the bottom of this write-up.
Installing Japanese fonts
Windows
Here are three popular Japanese fonts. If the URL are broken at the
time of your reading, of if you don't want to use their installer programs,
just enter the .ttf file names in Google, and chances are you'll
find them in many places. In my opinion, MsGothic is the most readable on
a computer screen, but others are more beautiful, so make your own
choice.
msgothic.ttf http://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/ie3lpkja.exe
msmincho.ttf http://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/JpnSupp.exe
uwjmg3.ttf http://www.unionway.com/uwjmg3.htm
Note that the installer for uwjmg3 installs the font in its own
directory, so you will need to move the .ttf file to the standard
C:\WINNT\fonts or C:\WINDOWS\fonts directory.
For your information, installing a font really means copying a .ttf file
in the fonts\ directory. Then you can use the font immediately in
your browser or your editor (Word).
Unix/Linux
First try installing them from your Unix or Linux distribution (I
suppose that most Linux distributions have Japanese fonts nowadays). For
example, have a look at the xfonts-intl-* packages if you are
using Debian.
If it is not possible or you don't trust your Linux distribution
installer program, you may download Japanese fonts directly from the Emacs
Intlfonts package. This package can be found at
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/gnu/intlfonts. Go to the subdirectories
and only fetch what you need, because the whole package is huge and
unnecessary unless you speak all the languages in the world.
More information:
Craig Oda's excellent "Linux-nihongo" document on
http://www.tlug.gr.jp/craigoda/writings/linux-nihongo/linux-nihongo.html.
My own document (in French) about Japanese and Linux (particularly
Emacs's excellent international support) at
http://www.thbz.org/japonais/chapitres/book1.html.