Re: [Gimp-developer] Gimp Texttool Native Language

[Jehan Pagès <jehan marmottard gmail com>]

Hi,

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 10:12 PM, Partha Bagchi <partha1b gmail com> wrote:
> Well, would you tell what you mean by "you must type  红房子" and then,
> select a font with support for this character set"?
>
> You can see in the image that I selected a font and selected "use
> selected font".
>
> Does this not imply that if my keyboard is inputting a specific series
> of 2-byte characters, Gimp should display those characters? In other
> words, if the keyboard is mapped to specific character set, should it
> not be displaying those characters?
>
> So, it's not obvious to me. :(

Just to make things clearer, because I know that typing in foreign
languages can be very blurry until you happen to do so. There are
several points:

1/ GIMP does not remap your keyboard. So for languages which just need
a remapping (like many European languages, which usually have just a
few additional characters to ASCII and just need these additional
characters to be mapped as Alternative "Alt" and/or "Shift"
characters), you still have to either remap your keyboard yourself in
whatever operating system you use, or set up a "Compose" key (which
allows to artificially create characters out of 2 otherwise
potentially unrelated characters. For instance, each time I want to
have the € symbol, I have to type <compose>c=).

2/ GIMP does not embed an input method. For more complicated/vast
languages, which have much more characters than what keys are
available on your keyboard (or because it would make things too
messy), users have to set up "input methods" over the normal keyboard
mapping. This is an intermediary software, running in background,
which grabs the keyboard and transform the input into other
characters, given language specific rules (there is not a "standard"
method, each language has its own input rules, and sometimes even,
there are different input rules for a single language, to be chosen
from, depending on user preferences).

You'd use such a software when you type in Japanese, Chinese or Korean
for instance (and others, but these are the only ones I know for
sure). And yes, people in these countries *all* have an alternative
input method software installed (these are installed by default in
proprietary operating systems, when sold in these countries), because
that never comes out of the box. Operating systems have clearly been
originally built by and for Western people (you can already see so
when you see keyboards all around the world).

As a conclusion: you should search how to write in the target language
given your operating system (tip: on Linux, look for "ibus", this is
the currently recommended software for alternative input methods;
other OSes, I don't know) in a "generic" way. When you'll be able to
write in some alternative language in *any* program, then you'll be
able in GIMP too. GIMP is not particular on this area.
Other solution if you just work with other people able to write in
these languages and you just want to integrate their texts in your
image: ask them to write it, and copy-paste (because setting up your
system to write in Chinese for instance does not mean you will be
actually able to write what you want, if you don't know Chinese at all
as a language. Because then you'll never be able to understand how
their input method works to achieve your goal). It's simpler. ;-)

Have fun!

Jehan

> Thanks,
> Partha
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 10:21 AM, jEsuSdA 8) <listas jesusda com> wrote:
> > El 26/09/14 a las 15:18, Partha Bagchi escribió:
> > > I am trying to figure out how to type in languages other than
> > > English.However, even if I select "Use Selected Font", I still don't
> > > see the native language and text still comes out in English.
> > >
> > > Here is a screenshot.
> > >
> > > http://www.partha.com/temp/official-gimp-texttool.png
> > >
> > > Is there something I am missing?
> >
> > Forgive me if I tell you anything is obvious to you, but I see you typed
> > "This is a text" so, "This is a text" is what Gimp shows.
> >
> > If you want to type anything in other language, I think you must type " 红房子"
> > and then, select a font with support for this chararacter set.
> >
> > In other words, the language is not defined by the typefont itself, the
> > typefont could have or not support for one language or other, but the
> > language is defined for the words you type.
> >
> > I Repeat: May be I'm wrong and I'm tell you something that you know yet,
> > then forgive me. But I think you typed "This is a text" on english, so,
> > maybe this message could help you.
> >
> > Tell me if this helps you or I'm telling nonsense things! ;)
> >
> >
> > Salu2 de jEsuSdA 8)
> >
> >
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