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aquazula

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2012
10
0
I have an iMac and i can't read some chinese and japanese characters in some files. It can be online or in a file (mp3, txt, doc, etc) sometimes it could be the whole file or just parts of it, the latter don't makes a lot of sense.. because i can read some parts (either they are in japanese or chinese) and then the rest is like ÎáÒàπt£¨€ï€ì€â€“€œ£©... i read that for windows one has to get an encoder or sth, but what about mac?
 
I have an iMac and i can't read some chinese and japanese characters in some files. It can be online or in a file (mp3, txt, doc, etc) sometimes it could be the whole file or just parts of it, the latter don't makes a lot of sense.. because i can read some parts (either they are in japanese or chinese) and then the rest is like ÎáÒàπt£¨€ï€ì€â€“€œ£©... i read that for windows one has to get an encoder or sth, but what about mac?

Go to a Japanese and a Chinese site, can you see all on those characters on both sites.
If one of these shows unreadable text there is a font missing or not installed or a corrupt font.
 
i took a photo so u can see how i see the files

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y26slj7bl09ctpx/Captura de pantalla 2012-12-17 a las 23.30.23.png


Does this work? -> 日本語
If so, are you able to attach a problematic file?

i can see it :(.. i'll upload a problematic file and provide the website where i'm also having problems

file:https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdsm7odbof8f44k/Vol-1 那家伙是优雅的大恶徒.txt

website: http://book.sfacg.com/Novel/2237/5137/97783/


Go to a Japanese and a Chinese site, can you see all on those characters on both sites.
If one of these shows unreadable text there is a font missing or not installed or a corrupt font.
mmm maybe its an unreadable font.. i'll try by changing some fonts and see.. but if its a corrupt font... would it work to change them?
 
i took a photo so u can see how i see the files

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y26slj7bl09ctpx/Captura de pantalla 2012-12-17 a las 23.30.23.png




i can see it :(.. i'll upload a problematic file and provide the website where i'm also having problems

file:https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdsm7odbof8f44k/Vol-1 那家伙是优雅的大恶徒.txt

website: http://book.sfacg.com/Novel/2237/5137/97783/



mmm maybe its an unreadable font.. i'll try by changing some fonts and see.. but if its a corrupt font... would it work to change them?

You could try to validate fonts in Fontbook, if there are any errors it will show you.
 
how do i use fontbook? (i had never used it before :confused: ) i opened it but i don't know what to do

Screenshot below.

You should have all fonts on the left and select all fonts on the right, then click Validate Fonts.
 

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Screenshot below.

You should have all fonts on the left and select all fonts on the right, then click Validate Fonts.

woow fontbook found 21 problematic fonts... however they were trully unexpected ones, such as arial black, georgia, comic sans, trebuchet, etc..

what can one do with these problematic fonts? the fonts in the files i can't see the characters don't say which font they are... (in the text application) and if they are in word they have a chinese/japanese (whichever the case) type of font that were not encluded in the validation from fontbook...
 
woow fontbook found 21 problematic fonts... however they were trully unexpected ones, such as arial black, georgia, comic sans, trebuchet, etc..

what can one do with these problematic fonts? the fonts in the files i can't see the characters don't say which font they are... (in the text application) and if they are in word they have a chinese/japanese (whichever the case) type of font that were not encluded in the validation from fontbook...

How many fonts do you have?

Fonts are in:

/Library/Fonts
/System/Library/Fonts
~/Home/Library/Fonts

The System fonts should normally be OK.

Check if you have double fonts in the

/Library/Fonts
~/Home/Library/Fonts

~/Home is the same as /Users/yourname/Library/Fonts
 
I don't think it's an issue with your computer; I'm having the exact same issue with the site and linked file. The text file seems to be using a strange encoding as I can't open it with any of the standard encodings. The site also seems to be problematic; the HTML specifies UTF-8 encoding but I have the same rendering issues even if I set the encoding manually. I tried all of the Chinese ones too, for good measure.
 
The text file encoding is Chinese GB 18030.

You can see this by opening the text file in Safari (Just drag the file onto the Safari dock icon) and changing the text encoding to Chinese (GB 18030). This is a good way of finding the encoding of any text file.

You can try converting from the Chinese GB 18030 text encoding into something more Mac friendly with this software (free). Look under "Other" for the GB 18030 encoding.

http://free.abracode.com/cyclone/

For the Japanese tags to display normally when you add them to iTunes, I have found using this software to work well (not free).

http://www.macqim.com/wordpress/?page_id=482

As for the website, I am not sure what's wrong but I think the text on the site is messed up. If you "View source" you can see the character code for the funny bits, maybe you can get somewhere with that info?
 
How many fonts do you have?
Fonts are in:
/Library/Fonts
/System/Library/Fonts
~/Home/Library/Fonts
The System fonts should normally be OK.
Check if you have double fonts in the
/Library/Fonts
~/Home/Library/Fonts
~/Home is the same as /Users/yourname/Library/Fonts

mmm funny i found 3 folders in the library: Fonts, FontCollections, and Fonts Disabled. And the only one that contains sty is the FontCollection one. It seems to be have Bridge Collection files.



I don't think it's an issue with your computer; I'm having the exact same issue with the site and linked file. The text file seems to be using a strange encoding as I can't open it with any of the standard encodings. The site also seems to be problematic; the HTML specifies UTF-8 encoding but I have the same rendering issues even if I set the encoding manually. I tried all of the Chinese ones too, for good measure.
Oh! well if the site is the problematic one, there's nothing we can do about it XD… maybe i'll text the website and tell them or sth… thanks though :D!



The text file encoding is Chinese GB 18030.

You can see this by opening the text file in Safari (Just drag the file onto the Safari dock icon) and changing the text encoding to Chinese (GB 18030). This is a good way of finding the encoding of any text file.

You can try converting from the Chinese GB 18030 text encoding into something more Mac friendly with this software (free). Look under "Other" for the GB 18030 encoding.

http://free.abracode.com/cyclone/

For the Japanese tags to display normally when you add them to iTunes, I have found using this software to work well (not free).

http://www.macqim.com/wordpress/?page_id=482
As for the website, I am not sure what's wrong but I think the text on the site is messed up. If you "View source" you can see the character code for the funny bits, maybe you can get somewhere with that info?

I'm not sure what u meant with dragging it to Safari and changing the text encoding to chinese (GB 18030). But i downloaded the Cyclone application you recommended. Randomly chose the characteristics of the file that the program asks:
Input Text Encoding: Other
Output text encoding: Unicode

It converted the file and now I can see the whole file's content :)!

However, you think it was ok to use these preferences or you would recommend others?

As for the website, i tried to view it with different codes and none of them work for those characters i can't see. I think that Nermal is right and the website has the problem this time :confused: i'll try telling them :)
 
The text file encoding is Chinese GB 18030.

You can see this by opening the text file in Safari (Just drag the file onto the Safari dock icon) and changing the text encoding to Chinese (GB 18030). This is a good way of finding the encoding of any text file.

I was sure that I'd tried that last night and that t hadn't worked, but maybe I didn't get that far down the list. It's working for me in both Safari and TextEdit when using the GB 18030 encoding.
 
I'm not sure what u meant with dragging it to Safari and changing the text encoding to chinese (GB 18030). But i downloaded the Cyclone application you recommended. Randomly chose the characteristics of the file that the program asks:
Input Text Encoding: Other
Output text encoding: Unicode

It converted the file and now I can see the whole file's content :)!

However, you think it was ok to use these preferences or you would recommend others?

As for the website, i tried to view it with different codes and none of them work for those characters i can't see. I think that Nermal is right and the website has the problem this time :confused: i'll try telling them :)

That's great Cyclone worked. Unicode should be fine. You can always fiddle with it later if you need to.

About dragging the file onto the Safari icon - I guess you already know how to drag files around by clicking and holding, well if you drag a file onto an app icon and let go the file will open in that app. This works wherever the app icon is (in the dock, on your desktop, or in Finder). Try it. Once you have opened the text file in Safari in this way change the encoding from "View" -> "Text Encoding" -> "Chinese (GB 18030)" in the menu bar.
 
That's great Cyclone worked. Unicode should be fine. You can always fiddle with it later if you need to.

About dragging the file onto the Safari icon - I guess you already know how to drag files around by clicking and holding, well if you drag a file onto an app icon and let go the file will open in that app. This works wherever the app icon is (in the dock, on your desktop, or in Finder). Try it. Once you have opened the text file in Safari in this way change the encoding from "View" -> "Text Encoding" -> "Chinese (GB 18030)" in the menu bar.


Oh! now i understand! i did it and it worked marvelously :D!! either with safari or cyclone
THANKS A LOT!!!
 
Oh! now i understand! i did it and it worked marvelously :D!! either with safari or cyclone
THANKS A LOT!!!

You're welcome :)

There is another way to do this too.

Right-click on the text file, look for "Open With" in the menu, and it should list all the apps that will open that file type. Click on the one you want to open your file in. Works with any file!
 
Hello guys!

It's been a long time, but I hope we can revive this thread. Cyclone doesn't work in the newest Mac IOS and I'm facing some new challenges regarding these garbage characters that keep coming in different files :(.

For example, I've got a lot of mp3, zips and folders with garbage characters that are supposed to be in Japanese.

Like this: ~ó\ñÒì¡ìTÉhÉâÉ}CDÅuäÎåØÇ»ÉtÉâÉOÇ…Ç≤íçà”Ç!Åv

I can't find any way to decode it, I can't even find out which coding are these characters so I can use some online decoders (like this one: https://2cyr.com/decode/?lang=en)

Any ideas? T_T
 
Hello guys!

It's been a long time, but I hope we can revive this thread. Cyclone doesn't work in the newest Mac IOS and I'm facing some new challenges regarding these garbage characters that keep coming in different files :(.

For example, I've got a lot of mp3, zips and folders with garbage characters that are supposed to be in Japanese.

Like this: ~ó\ñÒì¡ìTÉhÉâÉ}CDÅuäÎåØÇ»ÉtÉâÉOÇ…Ç≤íçà”Ç!Åv

I can't find any way to decode it, I can't even find out which coding are these characters so I can use some online decoders (like this one: https://2cyr.com/decode/?lang=en)

Any ideas? T_T

I'm seeing them as 8-bit characters as you've posted them. You can verify this by selecting a single character and copy-pasting it into the Edit > Emoji & Symbols search box, where it gives you its Unicode value. I'm assuming they were 16-bit characters on the originating system, whatever that was.
 
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