Thursday, September 4, 2008

How to setup fonts for SL Viewer on MAC OS

If you see non-latin characters as small square dots when you use Q-Translator read this paragraph. In fact this issue has nothing to do with Q-Translator but is related to the setup of Second Life Viewer on a Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista PC.

► 22 Languages don't need extra fonts settings
Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finish, French, Gallician, German, Haïtian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Protuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog

Catalan: segona vida - Croatian: drugi život - Czech: druhý život - Danish: andet liv - Dutch: tweede leven - English: second life - Estonian: teine elu - Finnish: toinen elämä - French: seconde vie - Galician: segunda vida - German: zweites Leben - Hungarian: második élet - Indonesian: kedua kehidupan - Italian: una seconda vita - Norwegian: andre liv - Portuguese: segunda vida - Slovak: druhý život - Slovenian: drugo življenje - Spanish: segunda vida - Swedish: andra liv - Tagalog: pangalawang buhay

► All others 20 languages will need extra font installed to correctly beeing displayed.
Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Hindu, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

Albanian: dytë të jetës - Arabic : ةيناثلا ةايحلا - Bulgarian: Втори Живот - Chinese: 第二次生命 - Greek: δεύτερη ζωή - Hebrew: ייח ינש - Hindu: दूसरा जीवन - Ja - anese: 第2の人生 - Korean: 두 번째 인생을 - Latvian: Otrajā dzīves - Lithuanian: antrą gyvenimą - Maltese: tieni ħajja - Polish: drugie życie - Romanian: doua viata - Russian: второй жизнь - Serbian: други живот - Thaï: สองชีวิต - Turkish: ikinci yaşam - Ukrainian: другий життя - Vietnamese: một cuộc sống thứ hai

Default Second Life Viewer Settings


The fonts used to display non-latin characters are setup using with the "FontSansSerifFallback" parameter of your Second Life Viewer. The default value for this parameter is
ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3.otf;ヒラギノ角ゴ ProN W3.otf;AppleGothic.dfont;AppleGothic.ttf;华文细黑.ttf

This indicates to Second Life Windows Viewer what font are needed for showing non-latin characters :
"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3.otf" (Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro W3), primarily for Japanese characters.
"AppleGothic.dfont" (AppleGothic Regular), primarily for Korean characters.
"华文细黑.ttf" (STXihei), primarily for simplified Chinese characters.

With these default parameters you will get:

► 3 Languages that will display correctly: Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Chinese: 第二次生命 - Japanese: 第2の人生 - Korean: 두 번째 인생을

► 7 Languages that will display correctly but with some glitch for some accentued characters: Albanian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Romanian, Turkish
Albanian: dytë të jetës - Latvian: Otrajā dzīves - Lithuanian: antrą gyvenimą - Maltese: tieni ħajja - Polish: drugie życie - Romanian: doua viata - Turkish: ikinci yaşam

► 5 Languages that will display correctly but badly (characters are very large and hard to read) : Bulgarian, Greek, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian
Bulgarian: Втори Живот - Greek: δεύτερη ζωή - Russian: второй жизнь - Serbian: други живот - Ukrainian: другий життя

► 5 Languages that still don't display: Arabic, Hebrew, Hindu, Thai, Vietnamese
Arabic : ةيناثلا ةايحلا - Hebrew: ייח ינש - Hindu: दूसरा जीवन - Thaï: สองชีวิต - Vietnamese: một cuộc sống thứ hai

The Only Way to get all Things Right : ArialUni.TTF



The solution to see all the languages correctly is to use ArialUni.ttf font instead of MS Gothic, Gulim & SimHei
Unfortunately this font is copyrighted by Microsoft and only shiped with Microsoft Office.

► Where to get ArialUni.ttf
If you have Microsoft Office installed on your machine go to next chapter.

Otherwise you cannot directly download it from Microsoft site
Arial Unicode MS (ArialUni.ttf)
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=24
There is a only a link to buy the font to an external site.

but you can still use Google with "Download ArialUni.ttf" to find extra sources.
Site 1
Site 2

► Change your Second Life Settings
If you install ArialUni.ttf on your Windows, you will need to change default value of the "FontSansSerifFallback" of your Second Life Viewer.

You can change this using the "Advanced" menu of your Second Life Viewer.
If you don't have this menu use the Ctrl + Alt + D to show it

Select Debug Settings
Select the "FontSansSerifFallback" parameter

and replace the default value
ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3.otf;ヒラギノ角ゴ ProN W3.otf;AppleGothic.dfont;AppleGothic.ttf;华文细黑.ttf

with
ArialUni.ttf;ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3.otf;ヒラギノ角ゴ ProN W3.otf;AppleGothic.ttf;华文细黑.ttf

Logout/Login for the changes to take effect.
You should see all languages correctly now.

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