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Typing Burmese on a Windows PC?

  Tags: Burmese | Keyboard | Software
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Juаn
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Colombia
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 Message 1 of 11
11 June 2014 at 3:20am | IP Logged 
I have been trying to install support for Burmese on my Vista 32-bit PC, but so far have been unsuccessful. I have downloaded and installed several Burmese keyboards and fonts, yet when typing I get rectangular squares as in this picture:





And when browsing some text displays but other is not shown correctly:





Is there some trick to getting Burmese script to work properly?
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Doitsujin
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 Message 2 of 11
11 June 2014 at 8:00am | IP Logged 
You're most likely only missing the proper font. Download Babelmap to test the font coverage of the installed system fonts.

(Fonts > Font Analysis Utility > List all fonts that cover this Unicode block > Myanmar)

On my machine the fonts with the best coverage (160 characters) are Myanmar Text and Code2000, and the Burmese Wikipedia page is displayed without boxes.

Code2000 is free, but usually has somewhat ugly glyphs. Myanmar Text (mmrtext.ttf, mmrtextb.ttf) is an official Microsoft Windows 8 font, but I'm sure you can find it elsewhere ...

If you have either of these fonts installed you shouldn't have any display issues.


Edited by Doitsujin on 11 June 2014 at 8:01am
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SomeGuy
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 Message 3 of 11
11 June 2014 at 9:06am | IP Logged 
Read this Link first
in NotePad you have to change the Font to Zawgyi-One or Win Myanmar or which ever Font you will use (click Format then Font change it here )
in Firefox you have to go to Settings/Content -> set Default font to Zawgyi-One or Win Myanmar

And test the Website with different Browser, i often use Chrome for Burmese when its in Unicode.My Teacher told me once she had installed around 20 Fonts and sometimes still sees the Boxes ( on her Vista PC ).


Edited by SomeGuy on 11 June 2014 at 9:07am
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Juаn
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 Message 4 of 11
12 June 2014 at 12:59am | IP Logged 
Thank you for your replies!

I have a question though. Why must I change the font type explicitly in Notepad for it to display the Burmese script? As it is, I am able to input text in Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Devanagari and any other language I have tried without changing the font from "Trebuchet MS". Is there a way to achieve the same with Burmese? Maybe by installing the Windows 8 version of Trebuchet MS?

And yes, Chrome displays Burmese better than Firefox, though not perfectly either.
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Doitsujin
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 Message 5 of 11
12 June 2014 at 8:13am | IP Logged 
Juаn wrote:
I have a question though. Why must I change the font type explicitly in Notepad for it to display the Burmese script? As it is, I am able to input text in Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Devanagari and any other language I have tried without changing the font from "Trebuchet MS".

Since Trebuchet MS does not contain Arabic and Devanagari glyphs, Notepad was most likely programmed to display glyphs not contained in the currently selected font using other installed system fonts. Either these font substitutions are hard-coded in Notepad or you'll need to rebuild the font cache for Notepad to display them. (It works with the Windows 8 version of Notepad.)

Try the following:

1. Install the official MS Burmese font Myanmar Text (mmrtext.ttf, mmrtextb.ttf), if you haven't already done so.

2. Follow these instructions to clear your font cache and reboot your computer.

If Burmese ist still not displayed in Notepad with the default font set to Trebuchet MS, download the free Babelpad Unicode text editor.
Open Babelpad, select Font > Composite Font and you'll never have to change fonts again, unless you're unhappy with Babelpad's default font mappings.
In that case simply select Font > Composite Font Mappings... and choose a different font for each alphabet.

Even if you get Notepad to work, you should definitely check out Babelpad, which is the perfect text editor for polyglots.

BTW, it was only when I edited my reply in Babelpad that I noticed that the "a" in your user name is actually a Russian letter.

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Juаn
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 Message 6 of 11
12 June 2014 at 5:57pm | IP Logged 
Doitsujin wrote:
Since Trebuchet MS does not contain Arabic and Devanagari glyphs, Notepad was most likely programmed to display glyphs not contained in the currently selected font using other installed system fonts. Either these font substitutions are hard-coded in Notepad or you'll need to rebuild the font cache for Notepad to display them. (It works with the Windows 8 version of Notepad.)

Try the following:

1. Install the official MS Burmese font Myanmar Text (mmrtext.ttf, mmrtextb.ttf), if you haven't already done so.

2. Follow these instructions to clear your font cache and reboot your computer.


Thank you very much for your help.

I followed the above instructions and still Notepad doesn't display Burmese text without changing the font type, whereas all other scripts I have tried work without modifying anything. I couldn't get Firefox to display the Wikipedia page correctly either.

I will try BabelPad next. I will see also if I can obtain the Windows 8 version of Notepad to see if it works. I wouldn't install Windows 8 itself however under any circumstances.

Thanks again!
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SomeGuy
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 Message 7 of 11
12 June 2014 at 11:29pm | IP Logged 
I think its normal that you have to change the font in Notepad, but that firefox doesn't show Wikipedia correctly is quite strange!
How does your settings under Font & Colors -> 'Advanced...' look like?
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Juаn
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 Message 8 of 11
13 June 2014 at 1:47am | IP Logged 
SomeGuy wrote:
I think its normal that you have to change the font in Notepad, but that firefox doesn't show Wikipedia correctly is quite strange!
How does your settings under Font & Colors -> 'Advanced...' look like?





I don't think it is normal for Notepad not to display foreign scripts properly, or for that matter Firefox. Both display all scripts other than Burmese without changing any settings. There is something specific to Burmese, which for some reason was not added to Windows Vista. And like Doitsujin said, his Windows 8 version of Notepad displays it correctly. What I would like to find out is, how to make Vista do the same.


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