Fonts and Other Topics
This chapter contains information on a number of topic that didn't fit in any other chapter. .
Fonts Introduction
Fonts are always an important issue for display programs. In the case of a Japanese program, the issue of fonts becomes even more complicated. JFC uses two actual fonts:
JFC supports bitmapped and TrueType fonts. The standard Japanese fonts (the ones distributed with JFC) are bitmapped. These fonts have the advantage that they are small (compared to most Japanese TrueType fonts), and they can be rendered to the screen very quickly. A bitmapped font is stored as a number of pictures (one for each character). The JFC distribution includes up to three bitmapped fonts:
font name file size font description k16x16.f00 220 KB 16x16 bitmapped kanji font k24x24.f00 561 KB 24x24 bitmapped kanji font k48x48.f00 2,247 KB 48x48 bitmapped kanji font TrueType fonts are not stored as pictures, but rather as instructions for drawing the characters (lines, arcs, fills, etc.). This allows TrueType fonts to be scaled to any size, but makes the font files much bigger. The drawback of this is that on some systems, these fonts render slower, and take up more memory.
Related Topics
Installing Additional Fonts
Installing Additional Bitmapped Fonts
There are a number of other bitmapped fonts that others have constructed that can be used with JFC. Generally, any font that can be used with JWPce or JWP can be used with JFC. (There are even font editors for making your own font.)
To install a new bitmapped font, copy the font file into same directory as JFC is located. JFC will automatically recognize the file as being a font file, if it ends with the extension ".f00" (that is F+zero+zero).
Installing TrueType Fonts
TrueType fonts are installed just like any other Windows font (generally in the system fonts directory). Currently I do not have a TrueType Japanese font that can be distributed with JFC, so if you intend to use such fonts, you must obtain them from some other source.
WARNING! At the time this manual was being written, most Windows CE machines that support TrueType fonts do not correctly indicate the font as supporting Japanese, so you may have to use the Show all fonts option.How to get Japanese TrueType fonts
Due to copyright concerns, at this time, I do not have a TrueType font that I can safely distribute with JFC (I tend to be very strict about these things). I can, however, point out two good sources for TrueType Japanese fonts.
The first source for Japanese TrueType fonts would be Microsoft. Microsoft has made two nice TrueType fonts available in the Japanese support kit for Microsoft Office, and in the Japanese support kit for Internet Explorer. (For Office-97, the Japanese support kit was included on the Office CD. For Office-95, it had to be downloaded from Microsoft's web site. I do not know about Office-2000. The Japanese support kit for Internet Explorer can be downloaded from the Explorer Support Site [http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/ target].)
One other TrueType font (as well as the Microsoft fonts) can be obtained from The Monash Nihongo ftp Archive [http://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/00INDEX.html] (many many thanks to Jim Breen).
Choosing an ASCII Font
The ASCII font can be chosen on the Font page of the Options dialog box (Utilities/Options... or Ctrl+O). The ASCII font control will only allow you to choose an English based TrueType fonts. For the ASCII font, you only choose the font face. JFC will automatically match this font to the same size as the Japanese font begin used both on the screen and when printing.
Related Topics
Choosing a Japanese Display Font
The Japanese display font can be chosen on the Font page of the Options dialog box (Utilities/Options... or Ctrl+O). The current display font should be chosen to provide good readability on your screen. For example, a 10 point font on a typical screen comes out to be about 8x8 pixels, and is completely unreadable. Thus you want to choose the font for readability.
Most people will use the k24x24.f00 font for the display, since this is a flash card program you want a large font.
If you are using a TrueType font for the display, you will need to select the pixel height of the font. This is because TrueType fonts actually contain no fixed height, you will need to choose a display size for the font. Normally we think of font sizes in terms of points or some other unit of length, however JFC uses pixels for the unit of the display font.
Tip: Remember that you can choose different fonts and sizes for the display of kana, kanji, and meanings. This can be very helpful on devices with limited display size.Related Topics
JWPce
JWPce is a freeware Japanese Word Processor for Windows. JFC is largely built on the code developed for JWPce, and is designed to work with JWPce. In particular, JFC can use the dictionary files, font files, kanji info files, and the user's color-kanji file.
If you have JWPce then you should consider installing JFC in the same directory (it really was designed to be this way). This will allow JFC to use the files you already have, instead of having to have two copies of these files.
JWPce can also be used to generate the flash card files necessary for JFC to work. This can also be done with any Japanese word processor or text editor that can store data in either UTF-8 or EUC encoding.
Related Topics
Charcter Information
You can get detailed information about any character by using the Character Information feature. This feature is designed primarily to provide information about kanji, but it can also display information about kana and ASCII characters.
Right clicking (or alt left clicking [or tapping]) on a character can access the character information feature. You can generally also get character information by double clicking on the character.
So much information is contained in the Character Information dialog box that it requires more than one dialog box to display it all. Exactly how the Character Information data is displayed depends on the machine. For Windows, two dialog boxes are used; for HPCs, two dialog boxes are also used (different than the Windows dialog boxes); and for PPCs, three dialog boxes are used. The examples here are taken from Windows, but the basic configuration is similar for Windows CE.
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Sample of the Character Information dialog boxes.These dialog boxes contains the following information:
Large Kanji This is a large image of the character. If you have installed only the default 16x16 font the image quality will be poor, but if you install any of the higher resolution fonts, the image quality can be very good. (For Windows CE PPC machines, clicking on the image of the kanji in the upper left corner of the dialog box will open a dialog box containing a bigger view of the kanji.) Type Indicates the basic character type. JIS Code The JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) code for the character, followed by the EUC (Extended UNIX Code) value, and finally the ASCII characters that the JIS code would be displayed as. (Can be used if you are reading JIS data files looking for a character using an ASCII editor [something programmers might have to do].) Shift-JIS Shift-JIS code for the character. Unicode UNICODE code for the character. Strokes Number of strokes in the character. Bushu The character's bushu (radical) number and character as used in Nelson's "New Japanese-English Character Dictionary." If classical bushu is different than that used by Nelson, the classical bushu number will be shown in parentheses after the Nelson bushu. In such cases, the classical bushu character will also be shown to the right of the Nelson bushu. Grade School Grade in which Japanese children learn the character (just for fun). Nelson This entry contains two values. The first entry (if present) is the character index in "The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary", edited by Andrew Nelson. The second entry (if present), is the character index in "The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary", edited by John Haig. (At the time of writing, this is the most recent version of the Nelson dictionary, and contains the most comprehensive coverage of the JIS character set.) Halpern This entry contains two values. The first entry is the character index number in "The New Japanese-English Character Dictionary", edited by Jack Halpern. The second entry is the SKIP code for the character, from the same dictionary. System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP) is a scheme for the classification and rapid retrieval of kanji characters on the basis of geometrical patterns. Jack Halpern developed this system. (SKIP is protected by copyright, copyleft and patent laws. The commercial utilization of SKIP in any form is strictly forbidden without the written permission of Jack Halpern, the copyright holder [jhalpern@cc.win.or.jp].) Span This entry contains two values. The first entry (if present) is the character index in "Japanese Character Dictionary", edited by Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky. The second entry (if present) is the character index number in "Kanji & Kana" by Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky. Four Corners This is the character index in the Four Corners system of kanji organization invented by Wang Chen. (There may be two of these indexes due to ambiguities in classifying Japanese characters). Morohashi This entry contains two values. Both of these values are the index of the character in the Daikanwajiten by Morohashi. The first entry is the first entry (if present) is the character index in the full Daikanwajiten. The second entry (if present) is the character index in the forms of volume and index within the volume. Pin Yin Pinyin of each kanji, i.e., the (Mandarin or Beijing) Chinese romanization. (Depending on the version of kanjinfo.dat installed, you may not have access to PinYin, see below). Korean The romanized Korean reading for the kanji. The readings are in the (Republic of Korea) Ministry of Education style of romanization. (Depending on the version of kanjinfo.dat installed, you may not have access to Korean, see below). meanings (In list box) The common meanings associated with this kanji. on-yomi (In list box) Chinese readings for the character. kun-yomi (In list box) Japanese readings for the character. nanori (In list box) Name readings (Depending on the version of kanjinfo.dat installed, you may not have access to nanori, see below). Frequency Frequency of use ranking compiled by Jack Halpern based of statistics published by The National Language Research Institute (Tokyo). The frequency is a number from 1 to 2,135 that expresses the relative frequency of occurrence of a character in modern Japanese. Henshall The character index in the "A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters" by Kenneth G. Henshall. Gakken The character index in the Gakken Kanji Dictionary ("A New Dictionary of Kanji Usage"). Some of the numbers relate to the list at the back of the book, jouyou kanji not contained in the dictionary, and various historical tables at the end. Heisig The character index in the "Remembering the Kanji" by James Heisig. O'Neill The character index in the "Japanese Names", by P.G. O'Neill. Cross-Reff These are cross-reference section includes various character references that don't fit in a standard category. The major cross-references take three forms. First is a reference to a specific character. These are indicates by JIS0208 or JIS0212, indicating references into one of the JIS character sets. (JFC can display JIS0208 characters, but not JIS0212 characters.) Second is a cross-reference to a SKIP code. These are generally common character mis-classifications. In this case JFC indicates the type of skip error. Third is a cross-reference to a dictionary entry. All of these entries are to either the "The New Japanese-English Character Dictionary" edited by Jack Halpern, or the "The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary", edited by John Haig. In the on-yomi and kun-yomi readings fields some characters have special meanings. The "-" character is used to indicate that the kanji is used as a suffix or prefix. The characters "(" and ")" are used to indicate okurigana (part of the word written in kana).
The meanings, on-yomi, kun-yomi, and nanori are all displayed in a single list box. Normally, each section of the list box has a title (in the title color). Additionally, the readings are displayed one per line. If you wish to view more of the list at one time you can disable the titles (Show Titles check box on the Misc page of the Options dialog box, Utilities/Options..., or Ctrl+O). If you elect not to show the titles you can still identify most of the information, because the meanings are in English, the on-yomi are in katakana, but both the kun-yomi and nanori are in hiragana. Using the Compressed check box on the Misc page of the Options dialog box, you can also change the display format for the readings. In Compressed format commas separate individual readings and thus many more readings can be shown (see below).
Left image is fully expanded and the right is fully compressed.This dialog box also contains buttons that allow you to get information about the first character on the clipboard, or insert selected data from the list box into your file.
Data presented in the Character Information dialog is displayed in such a way that it can be selected and copied onto the clipboard (except for PPC systems). This can be useful if you want to include say the Halpern index number for a kanji in some text.
Alternate kanjinfo.dat Files
The data file containing the information about kanji characters is called kanjinfo.dat. There are currently three different versions of this file. The information displayed by the Character Information dialog depends on the version of the data file you have installed. The smallest version of the kanjinfo.dat was designed primarily for Windows CE and contains primarily the base set of information and the normal (on and kun) readings. The medium version of the file adds all of the dictionary references and kanji lookup information. The largest version adds pinyin, Korean, and nanori readings.
You can change the version of kanjinfo.dat by simply replacing the file. JFC will automatically adjust to the version of kanjinfo.dat you have installed.
Technical Tip: The kanjinfo.dat files are generated by processing Jim Breen's KANJIDIC file with the kinfo.exe utility. If you are competent with computer programming, you can download the JWPce utilities (jwpceutl.zip from my web site), and generate a kanjinfo.dat file with just the information you want.
Next Chapter: Support