Web pages that display Chinese characters can do so as graphics
or as text
No special software or Chinese fonts are required if Chinese
characters are in the form of graphics (just like a picture or drawing).
DMCA Web pages are graphic files which does not require special software
to read other than your browser. The disadvantage is larger file
size and longer loading time. A lot of Chinese web pages contain
Chinese as text rather than graphics. To read them, you need to install
fonts and configure your browser. In order to browse through some of the
links related to Chinese language and culture learning that we collect
for you at the end of this page, you will need to download Chinese fonts
and configure your browser as follows.
Configuring your browser to display Chinese text
The two most commonly used character sets are GB (GuoBiao),
used for simplified characters (mainland China); and Big5, used
for traditional characters (Taiwan and Hong Kong). Most popular browsers
such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer can be configured
to display either or both (separate fonts may be needed).
Microsoft Windows: Chinese versions of Windows
are available. However, if you have the English version, then you need
a helper application such as UnionWay
or NJWIN or RichWin
97 for Internet or
Chinese Star
or Twinbridge AsianViewer in order
to display Chinese. Microsoft also provides multilanguage support fonts
for simplified and traditional Chinese (or Japanese, Korean, etc).
You can download MS multilanguage tranditional
Chinese font and simplified
Chinese font here, and follow this
instruction to install it and configure your browser.
Macintosh: You can get the Chinese
Language Kit 2.0 from Apple (or order
it online from Beyond.com). There is also a shareware product for Macintosh
called Elixir.
Unix: You can get Chinese fonts by installing cxterm,
which is a Chinese-enabled version of XTerm. The file is cxterm
5.0.p3.tar.gz (also available here).
