Japanese fonts on a Western computer

[akatsuka]

Help! I'm trying to do my portfolio and business card in Japanese using a japanese font, but the free fonts that I can download from the internet doesnt seem to work on my computer. (they either come up as boxes or revert back to the standard japanese font on my system, with is Mincho) I'm guessing its because of the encoding? Does anyone have any advice? I dont really want to use the Mincho font as it looks horrid...

Help!

[American Oyaji]

You're using Windows XP? Make sure you have Japanese selected in your Regional and Language settings control panel. The one for non-unicode programs? Also, what program are you using to do this? It might be a problem with the program.

[Doctor Stop]

What:

1. computer
2. OS
3. software

BTW, Mincho is a good business card font.

[akatsuka]

ah, sure, it might help if i told you those things, huh... >_<

I'm using Windows XP, its s Acer computer, and the software I'm using is Adobe InDesign.

Mincho is nice and readable, just wanted to see what other options I had. I wanted something that looked a bit more modern?

I think I have done all the regional and language options in my control panel as I can type japanese, it just doesnt show up in the font I want it to. My Adobe Indesign is an English version, so maybe it doesnt like some foreign fonts?

[Charles]

My Adobe Indesign is an English version, so maybe it doesnt like some foreign fonts?

At least with the Mac version, Adobe shipped some Japanese fonts that get installed with InDesign so they only work in Adobe apps (although there are ways to make them available in all apps). It is my understanding that Adobe does this on Windows versions as well, so that there would always be a baseline set of J fonts that any Adobe app could access regardless of platform.
Illustrator is a better program for making business cards, that's what I use. Illustrator comes with templates for English and Japanese cards, but it is a bit trickier to use than ID.

[TFG]

Yeah, the encoding for non Unicode is probably the culprit.
I use Xp and I can make business cards with Japanese in MS publisher or anything else with no problems.

[GomiGirl]

With free fonts you do get what you pay for. Decent fonts for personal use are not too expensive.

[DrP]

There are thousands of free fonts -- just search for "フォント" on google.co.jp or yahoo.co.jp

[spyder]

As above, search Google for either "フォント" or "Japanese Fonts" and you should be able to find something that will work in conjunction with your IME. If not, PM me and I will give you some links.