text on website in HINDI: problem!

Mirjam · Jun 3rd, 2003, 03:09

We just finished translating the text of our website into Hindi, and I uploaded a testpage. But when I try to open the page, Internet Explorer gives the message: cannot find the page, please check the spelling etc. But the spelling was absolutely correct. Is this because of the Hindi font I used?

Here is where the page should be, but you'll probably get an error message. The font I used is called Amar.

Or can you see the Hindi text?

It was such a lot of work translating the text, does anyone know what I should do about this problem?

Thanks! Mirjam

maree · Jun 3rd, 2003, 03:17

No error message but also no Hindi text.... it looks more like Polish or something

Midnite Toker · Jun 3rd, 2003, 03:26

Maree - you need the Hindi font set installed before your browser renders the text correctly.

Mirjam - I got to the page without error, but I'm not sure how it will look with someone who has Hindi fonts available, as I have "automatic font download" disabled in all my browsers. (I read less Vietnamese and Thai these days.)

Is this Amar font the most common one used on Hindi-enabled computers? If not, the browser will render it to the nearest font set, which we hope is not Dx$hTcQq3e))

indiamike · Jun 3rd, 2003, 05:27

Embedding fonts is something that has never really taken off and unless the user has that font installed they will not see it.

A couple of suggestions, if your not going to change you text a whole lot just make a gif image in photoshop of the text. It will render in nicely and the size won't be that large.

You could also use Flash, though some hate it, and embed the font in it with that.

Mike

neoncarrot · Jun 3rd, 2003, 06:04

I got the page OK; but as Maree says it comes up as something garbled in Roman script, even though I have several Hindi fonts enabled. Looking at the source view of the code, I think maybe the problem is that you havent specified the "character encoding" that says the page language is Hindi, so it is being rendered in Roman script. I think (but dont know for sure) that you need something like <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> at the very top of the code in the document. In this case, the //EN at the nd tells that the page is in English so the browser will pick the corect font family and render it properly. However I have no idea what the code would be for Hindi.

Tomi · Jun 3rd, 2003, 06:21

I agree with all the above, but I still would not despair and give up on the Hindi font.

I looked at the source code too and thought I detected that the language is supposed to be EN-US, and only the font was Amar.

neoncarrot · Jun 3rd, 2003, 06:30

A quick look at www.w3c.org suggests that HI is (unsurprisingly) the language code for Hindi. try adding the following line to your page, right at the beginning of the code and see if it works.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//HI">

indiamike · Jun 3rd, 2003, 07:02

To make it easy I had suggested the gif/flash technique not realizing that the font was a true type font.

If you want to get technical you would create a style sheet and link to it embedding the font.

You would need to use Microsoft's WEFT embedding tool to do this.
It will create the style sheet and modify the html page to display it properly.

I have Weft installed but haven't used it for about three years now so it's hard to give any advice on it.

Neocarrot's tip will only identify to the search engines or the browser what language the page is in but not which font to use.

Hope this helps some more.

Mike

Mirjam · Jun 3rd, 2003, 13:30

Thank you all very much for the replies. I will try your suggestions and let you know if it works!

Mirjam

Jun 3rd, 2003, 03:09	#1
Mirjam Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 147	text on website in HINDI: problem! We just finished translating the text of our website into Hindi, and I uploaded a testpage. But when I try to open the page, Internet Explorer gives the message: cannot find the page, please check the spelling etc. But the spelling was absolutely correct. Is this because of the Hindi font I used? Here is where the page should be, but you'll probably get an error message. The font I used is called Amar. Or can you see the Hindi text? It was such a lot of work translating the text, does anyone know what I should do about this problem? Thanks! Mirjam

Jun 3rd, 2003, 03:26	#3
Midnite Toker absconding member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Vienna, Austria Posts: 509	Maree - you need the Hindi font set installed before your browser renders the text correctly. Mirjam - I got to the page without error, but I'm not sure how it will look with someone who has Hindi fonts available, as I have "automatic font download" disabled in all my browsers. (I read less Vietnamese and Thai these days.) Is this Amar font the most common one used on Hindi-enabled computers? If not, the browser will render it to the nearest font set, which we hope is not Dx$hTcQq3e)) __________________ travel tips, blog, downloads, panorama photos, online security, tokes: the tokezone

Jun 3rd, 2003, 06:04	#5
neoncarrot Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Manali, India Posts: 84	I got the page OK; but as Maree says it comes up as something garbled in Roman script, even though I have several Hindi fonts enabled. Looking at the source view of the code, I think maybe the problem is that you havent specified the "character encoding" that says the page language is Hindi, so it is being rendered in Roman script. I think (but dont know for sure) that you need something like <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> at the very top of the code in the document. In this case, the //EN at the nd tells that the page is in English so the browser will pick the corect font family and render it properly. However I have no idea what the code would be for Hindi. __________________ Photo galleries, essays, travel tips and India statistics at: Neoncarrot India travelog

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Jun 3rd, 2003, 03:17	#2
maree Maha Guru Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: New Zealander in Bangkok Posts: 850	No error message but also no Hindi text.... it looks more like Polish or something

Jun 3rd, 2003, 05:27	#4
indiamike Retired Admin Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: New Joisey for now Posts: 1,759	Embedding fonts is something that has never really taken off and unless the user has that font installed they will not see it. A couple of suggestions, if your not going to change you text a whole lot just make a gif image in photoshop of the text. It will render in nicely and the size won't be that large. You could also use Flash, though some hate it, and embed the font in it with that. Mike

Jun 3rd, 2003, 06:21	#6
Tomi Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Cambridge, MA, USA Posts: 448	I agree with all the above, but I still would not despair and give up on the Hindi font. I looked at the source code too and thought I detected that the language is supposed to be EN-US, and only the font was Amar.

Jun 3rd, 2003, 06:30	#7
neoncarrot Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Manali, India Posts: 84	A quick look at www.w3c.org suggests that HI is (unsurprisingly) the language code for Hindi. try adding the following line to your page, right at the beginning of the code and see if it works. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//HI">

Jun 3rd, 2003, 07:02	#8
indiamike Retired Admin Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: New Joisey for now Posts: 1,759	To make it easy I had suggested the gif/flash technique not realizing that the font was a true type font. If you want to get technical you would create a style sheet and link to it embedding the font. You would need to use Microsoft's WEFT embedding tool to do this. It will create the style sheet and modify the html page to display it properly. I have Weft installed but haven't used it for about three years now so it's hard to give any advice on it. Neocarrot's tip will only identify to the search engines or the browser what language the page is in but not which font to use. Hope this helps some more. Mike

Jun 3rd, 2003, 13:30	#9
Mirjam Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 147	Thank you all very much for the replies. I will try your suggestions and let you know if it works! Mirjam