unicode text doesn't show right

[mmx]

i posted this issue at the forum, those expert there suggest me to ask the developer,
here's the detail http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1076
here's the screen shot of wrong rendering of unicode text
http://www.freewebs.com/swhtam/YA/UnicodeChar.jpg
and after the discussion on forum, i further my research on the issue, i found that install of a different mingliu font i got from the web help a bit, the original character did fixed, but as i try more character, the same thing happen.
If i uninstall the mingliu font totally, the text on inkscape doesn't render at all, so i think the issue is the type of font that matters.
Since mingliu font is supposed to be standard, at least commonly used, may be you guys please advise me the place to get the right mingliu font that will works.
Thanks a lot

[sas (sas-sas)]

I suspect it's being rendered without hinting. For most fonts that wouldn't make much difference, but I've heard that MingLiU is one of those fonts that (ab)use the hinting system to completely rearrange the character, and therefore don't render at all correctly without hinting.

But I don't know why you should be seeing it without hinting. It works OK for me (on Windows XP). What platform are you on?

[mmx (swhtam)]

Thanks for your replay, I don't know much about hinting, so please tell me what to do next to get it right, my os is Windows xp home oem version.

[sas (sas-sas)]

Having looked at this a bit more, I'm sure that hinting is the problem. But I can't tell you how to get it working, as I don't know why it isn't working. It probably has something to do with the fact that FreeType's bytecode interpreter is disabled by default (because of Apple's patents). But, as I said, it works for me, and I don't know what could be different about your setup.

[Rygle (rygle)]

Could be the version of the dll libraries that help Inkscape with fonts.

@mmx - Are you using the standard 0.46, or a development version? If you're not, you should try a development version from http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?C=M;O=D

Go for the latest ones, as the library files have changed recently. Report back if you have any better results.

[mmx (swhtam)]

ok, i tried what Rygle suggest and installed the latest development version, unfortunately, the situation doesn't improve, i tend to think it is due to the font i installed on the pc, my xp is an english version, so mingliu is not native, i got to download it somewhere from the web, so it might be different from you guys got.

currently my way of getting around this problem by trial and error is to install the chinese font from this reputable unicode font site, http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/CJKUnifonts/Download
whenever i use unicode font, i key in the code, and use the font select to change it to the new chinese font i installed. Then not only i got all the problem fixed, i got more choice on the font style.

may be you guy are using english window xp too, just wonder where you could download the mingliu to get yours text render ok, i tried ms download, but no result, please tell me if you know any mingliu font that's work.

[sas (sas-sas)]

I'm using an English version of Windows XP too. You shouldn't need to download MingLiU from the web, as it's included as standard in Windows XP, though you may need to install it first (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages -> Install files for East Asian languages).

[sas (sas-sas)]

Marking as Confirmed, as I can now reproduce this. The character that I tested with before (U+798F, which you mentioned as being a problem in your post on InkscapeForum.com) still works OK, but everything else I've tried is messed up.

[mmx (swhtam)]

FYI, if you go to control panel, regional & language options, languages tab, install files for east asian languages, without any chineses fonts in the font folder under control panel, inkscape will work as expected. I guess it use a something like a unicode library in IE, but if there is chinese font(s) installed, the installed font to Inkscape has the priority, that's where the problem arise, cause these chinese fonts are from varies source, no uniform standard.
If you put the following unicode in an html, you will see the 3 characters look exactly alike on inkscape in a normal case
&#31119 ;&#31103 ; &#22781 ; (space added to ensure showing)
If you install chinese font(s), the result will be different, the first stroke on the top left of the left word clearly show they're different.

[Beluga (buovjaga)]

If this is still a problem, test case would be cool