Expert: Amy - 2/26/2004

Question
Hello Amy
I am unable to display the chinese fonts in adobe illustrator (in fact, even photoshop couldn't) but I have all the chinese fonts installed and can use it on MS Words and other programs, even JASC Paint Shop Pro can use it. But not Adobe products. Can you teach me how to fix this? Or I actually need to buy the Chinese version for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to get this to work? waiting to hear your advice, thanks!
gus

Answer
Hi gus,

You didn't say what platform or versions you are using, so I'll have to guess you are on a PC.  In general, unicode fonts don't work in Illustrator at this time.

Supposedly, this has been solved in AI CS with its new text engine.... no matter which language version you buy.

I do not work on a Mac, so I can't help you if you do but I do know a kludgey work-around for using the basic Windows Chinese fonts in AI and PhotoShop on the PC.

You need Photoshop 6 or 7 or Indesign 2 and AI v8 or later for this to work.

First, you need to have the proper Chinese input method editors (IME) installed on your Windows machine. They are only included with Windows 2000 but you can download them and install them if you have earlier versions of Windows. They will install some basic Chinese character sets, which I think you have to use in order for this to work.  The one that I used in my test to get this to work was MingLui. When properly installed, you'll see a Language menu item displayed in your task bar. You probably already know all this.

The download site for the GlobalIME:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=803a623e-c311-4591-a593...

Also be sure that the CMAP files for AI 10 are installed by running the AI installer and using Custom Install.  There, check "CMAP files" and install.

Use the Chinese IME soft keyboard on your task bar to enter your Chinese text into a Microsoft Word document (because Word supports the IME).

You will be able to copy and paste your IME-inputted Chinese characters from Word into either Photoshop 6 or 7 or Indesign 2 and THEN copy the text again from there and paste into Illustrator.

IMPORTANT: IN BOTH PHOTOSHOP/INDESIGN AND ILLUSTRATOR, MAKE SURE YOU CLICK ON THE DOCUMENT USING YOUR TYPE TOOL AND SELECT THE APPROPRIATE CHINESE UNICODE FONT FROM THE FONT LIST BEFORE YOU PASTE OR THIS WILL NOT WORK!

Now if you have a Mac or you don't have the versions of the software you need, I advise going to the Forums at Adobe.com and telling them exactly what system and versions you do have - someone out there will have a workaround for you. If you aren't registered, you'll need to, but it's free.

http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/main.html


Good luck!
Amy