Re: [tlug] CJK Printing with Fixed Width Font

[jep200404 <jep200404@example.com>]

Stephen wrote:

> jep200404 writes:
> 
>  > How can I print plain text with mixed CJK/European characters
>  > with a "fixed width"[1]? 
> 
> Use a collection of bitmap fonts of appropriate sizes.

As behind X's curtain? Since the rendering was correct in some 
GUI programs, that makes sense. I'm partial to small fonts when 
printing, so that might be feasible. 

> Otherwise, you can't, AFAIK. 

Bugger. 

I was hoping that somebody had already invented this wheel. 

> If you want to get exact fixed width, you will need to wrap 
> it in page justification code (TeX, Postscript, SVG come to mind). 

I'm confused. 

I'm not interested in any justification if 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justification_(typesetting)
is the kind of justification you meant. 
The fixed width I want is of characters, not pages. 
That's mainly so that columns of text line up. 
Here's some test text for that: 

English       中文      にほんご     한국어    
Rice Cooker   电饭煲    すいはんき   전기밥솥  
Rice          稻        イネ/米      벼/쌀     

> Or you could design your own font.

I could do that, but hope to avoid taking on such task. 
If I did it, it would likely be derived from other fonts, 
just squishing/stretching them to all be the same width 
(or twice that width).