reading chinese on 602pro

[UchihaNaru]

Hi I'm looking to replace my spoilt e book reader and I'm considering pocketbook for its apparent compatibility with chinese (amongst other languages). However, I have come across posts where people have bought the pocketbook and couldn't read files in chinese.

As such, is it alright if any good souls with 602 pro just test out a file for me, and hopefully gimme a screen shot of how it looks like?

Thanks alot~~!!

[preempalver]

TXT file with standard Fbreader
font used: cyberbit.ttf
coding: automatic (GBK?)

cyberbit.ttf is not provided with the pocketbook but it can be easily found.

even Big5 coding is supported, provided the right font. I hope this helps.

[jshzh]

Please note that pocketbook does not support titles in Chinese, meaning you have to change Chinese file names to English in order to identify them in folders. I asked their program developers many times on different forums but nothing comes out after 3 months. They added Arabic support but not Chinese. Guess they don't have plan to attract Chinese users...

I bought it because I needed the Russian dictionary support. Otherwise I would have bought Kindle for cheaper price and the screen. If you use it primarily for reading Chinese, think twice how much pain there is to translate all titles into English and rename all the files.

[UchihaNaru]

@preempalver, that's very nice, thanks! Just want to know if the pages are in sequence or issit random pages as the content don't seem to flow. Sorry for being noob, but what is FBreader?

@jshzh, no chinese title is indeed a hassle if I have to change all the titles to english. If there are no other better alternatives I might just have to settle.

[preempalver]

first two screens are in sequence, the third actually is a random page.
Pocketbook comes with different programs for different file types, Fbreader it's the default one for text files, among others.
the problem is indeed the file names, unless they add Chinese language support into the kernel you'll need to rename the file.
also please note that dictionary does not support chinese characters, maybe due to the font used by the application.

[atango]

I am not 100% sure whether this will work for Chinese font, but I did some trick on my Korean fonts and force PB902 to recognize Korean file names. Here is how I did it.

1. Select three Chinese(Korean for my case) TTF fonts which is normal, bold, and extra bold(you can still use bold) fonts and copy it to some directory.

2. Google and Download "fontforge" from web (it is open source font editor), I used it in Linux, which is fairly easy. There are versions for both mac and ms-windows, too.

3. In linux, open file with fontforge and select 'Element' in the menu, open 'Font info', then select "TTF names". You can see lists of family and ID names.

4. For normal and bold fonts, replace two of the lists of "English(US)", Family' and 'Preferred Family', from original font name to "Liberation Sans".
For extra-bold font change them to "Myriad Pro".

5. In the top menu, select 'File' then 'Generate Fonts' then save each file with name;
LiberationSans.ttf (normal), LiberationSans-Bold.ttf (Bold), MyriadPro-BlackCond.ttf (Extra-Bold).

6. Copy them into /system/fonts in your PB pro. Now PB will use these fonts instead of the system font.

I can use Korean menu, file name and even Eng-Korean dictionary. Only thing I miss is Korean Keyboard.

[paola]

if you check this message, you'll see the new alpha verison of the 2.1.0 firmware for the X03 devices; and from the Russian forum it looks like there is support for Chinese as interface language!

[preempalver]

Originally Posted by atango

I am not 100% sure whether this will work for Chinese font, but I did some trick on my Korean fonts and force PB902 to recognize Korean file names. Here is how I did it.
[...]
I can use Korean menu, file name and even Eng-Korean dictionary. Only thing I miss is Korean Keyboard.

Really interesting! It means that the dictionary application uses the installed LiberationSans.ttf by design...

How did you get the korean menu? you created the file by yourself? I'm asking because I have only english and italian on my PB603

[atango]

Originally Posted by preempalver

Really interesting! It means that the dictionary application uses the installed LiberationSans.ttf by design...

How did you get the korean menu? you created the file by yourself? I'm asking because I have only english and italian on my PB603

Oops sorry, that was my mistake, I didn't mean Korean menu. Only Korean file names and contents in Korean fonts.

[preempalver]

@atango: Would you like to make a try? I'm curious about this possibility.
Here attached there are two files for english language, en.txt for the menu and EN.kbd for the keyboard.

you can rename it kr.txt and translate the menu in Korean, and change the keyboard as well.
then place the menu file in:
/system/language
and the keyboard file in:
/system/language/keyboard

that should add Korean language to your choices, and maybe keyboard.

[atango]

Originally Posted by preempalver

@atango: Would you like to make a try? I'm curious about this possibility.
Here attached there are two files for english language, en.txt for the menu and EN.kbd for the keyboard.

you can rename it kr.txt and translate the menu in Korean, and change the keyboard as well.
then place the menu file in:
/system/language
and the keyboard file in:
/system/language/keyboard

that should add Korean language to your choices, and maybe keyboard.

I already tried kbd file but it didn't work. Korean input method should be installed in the system for Korean keyboard to work in PB.

I haven't tried Korean menu yet, it consumes too much time to translate it, but I will try later if I can have enough time.

Thanks

[preempalver]

Don't laugh at me I did a "proof of concept" using google translator from English to Chinese...

These are the results.

[J.C.]

Not bad mate, cheers.

[atango]

Thanks to preempalver, I changed a few lines in en.txt in Korean and put it in the /system/language as new name kr.txt.

It works fine with my Korean (fake) system fonts.