Re: [tlug] acroread/ggv and japanese pdfs

[Matt Gushee <mgushee@example.com>]

On Thu, Oct 24, 2002 at 04:52:24PM +0900, Ulrich Plate wrote:
> Ryan Shaw wrote:
> 
> > is it possible to view japanese pdfs on 
> > linux? i have ggv and acroread + japanese 
> > lang kit installed, and neither of them
> > can display japanese pdfs, due to a failure 
> > to substitute fonts.

Have you tried several PDF files from different sources, or is this
observation based on one experience? It may very well depend on what
fonts the creators of the document used. If they stick with standard
Mincho & Gothic, and maybe a little Marumoji here and there, you should
be okay. But if they used, say, not-truly-standard fonts that Japanese
Windows users usually have--and didn't embed them in the document--that
could account for your troubles.

> That's a complete description of what I have installed, too, and it does
> work for me. Ghostview can't, Acroread can (with it's own language kit,
> not without it) display Japanese PDF files.
> 
> Don't ask me why it works, though...

Yes, this stuff can be extremely mysterious. I tried for months to get
Ghostscript doing Japanese, with no success. I could neither display nor
print anything in Japanese. Then I upgraded my Debian boxes from Potato
to Woody, and the new version of Ghostscript, and it all started working
with no special effort on my part. I wish I could tell you what patches
the Debian project used to make this happen, but I don't know
yet--though I hope to find out eventually.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee@example.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)