How to get JIS (Japanese) web pages to display romaji (Roman) instead.

[Kevin Fishburne]

I'm in the process of relearning katakana and hiragana, but for now
would like to be able to view Japanese web sites in romaji. I've
searched high and low and have found nothing.

Is it possible to copy and modify an existing JIS character set (I'm
running Windows XP Pro), then manually replace each Japanese character
with its Roman equivalent? I'll hand draw a font if necessary.

The problem I've run into while attempting this is that I can't find
where the character sets are stored, or the fonts they contain.
They're not in C:\WINDOWS\FONTS or anywhere else as far as I can see,
although they do show up in Character Mapper (though uneditable).

Any alternative solution, or answers to my proposal, are greatly
appreciated.

[Michael Cash]

Post by Kevin Fishburne
I'm in the process of relearning katakana and hiragana, but for now
would like to be able to view Japanese web sites in romaji. I've
searched high and low and have found nothing.
Is it possible to copy and modify an existing JIS character set (I'm
running Windows XP Pro), then manually replace each Japanese character
with its Roman equivalent? I'll hand draw a font if necessary.

Excuse me for asking, but wouldn't it be quicker to just relearn
katakana and hiragana?

And anyway, what do you plan on doing about the kanji? You're not
likely to derive much meaning from a site where you can only read the
kana (or the romanized equivalent thereof).

Post by Kevin Fishburne
The problem I've run into while attempting this is that I can't find
where the character sets are stored, or the fonts they contain.
They're not in C:\WINDOWS\FONTS or anywhere else as far as I can see,
although they do show up in Character Mapper (though uneditable).
Any alternative solution, or answers to my proposal, are greatly
appreciated.

You knew this was coming....

Relearn the kana.





--

Michael Cash



"There was a time, Mr. Cash, when I believed you must be the most useless
thing in the world. But that was before I read a Microsoft help file."

Prof. Ernest T. Bass
Mount Pilot College


http://www.sunfield.ne.jp/~mike/

[Kevin Fishburne]

Post by Michael Cash
Excuse me for asking, but wouldn't it be quicker to just relearn
katakana and hiragana?

That is what I'm doing. See the first line of my post.

Post by Michael Cash
And anyway, what do you plan on doing about the kanji? You're not
likely to derive much meaning from a site where you can only read the
kana (or the romanized equivalent thereof).

In high school I translated about 100 phone-book style pages of a
Japanese anime/video game catalog by comparing the kana to a
kana/romaji chart, which was how I learned kana. I simply wanted to
order items out of it, and was smart enough to realize that
"dorakiyura" and "fuainaru fuantashi" was "Dracula" and "Final
Fantasy". The catalog was mostly katakana, slightly less hiragana, and
significantly less kanji. So are many of the Japanese sites I've
visited. I'm not trying to read Japanese e-books or anything, I just
want to find rare old items online that I can't find anywhere else.

Thanks anyway.

[Jim Breen]

Post by Kevin Fishburne
I'm in the process of relearning katakana and hiragana, but for now
would like to be able to view Japanese web sites in romaji. I've
searched high and low and have found nothing.

I'm not surprised. Virtually no Japanese web sites are in romaji.

Post by Kevin Fishburne
Is it possible to copy and modify an existing JIS character set (I'm
running Windows XP Pro), then manually replace each Japanese character
with its Roman equivalent? I'll hand draw a font if necessary.

No. The character U751f for example is pronounced SEI, SHOU, I, U, UMERE,
HA, KI, NAMA, NA and MU depending on context. Most characters have at
least two pronunciations.

Post by Kevin Fishburne
The problem I've run into while attempting this is that I can't find
where the character sets are stored, or the fonts they contain.
They're not in C:\WINDOWS\FONTS or anywhere else as far as I can see,
although they do show up in Character Mapper (though uneditable).

That's where they'd be. Haven't you got msarial.ttf or something like that.
Anyway, the task can't be done that way.

Post by Kevin Fishburne
Any alternative solution, or answers to my proposal, are greatly
appreciated.

Apart from the obvious, such as learning to read *real* Japanese, you could
get a program like kakasi and use it as a front-end to convert text to
romaji.

A better solution is to learn kana, and use a mediator site such as
rikai.com to help you read the kanji.

[Tobias Diedrich]

Post by Kevin Fishburne
Any alternative solution, or answers to my proposal, are greatly
appreciated.

You could try this program:
http://www.h.shuttle.de/mitch/japana.en.html

I never tried it myself though and don't know if you will be able to get
it to work on windows. (The older version without the libkakasi
dependancy should work)

[Makoto Taniguchi]

Don't you mean How DO YOU instead of How to? anyways, what you are
asking is impossible. Please use your conscience.

[Kevin Gowen]

Post by Makoto Taniguchi
Don't you mean How DO YOU instead of How to? anyways, what you are
asking is impossible. Please use your conscience.

Go away. No one wants to hear from a hater of the Kinai culture.

[Makoto Taniguchi]

Post by Kevin Gowen

Post by Makoto Taniguchi
Don't you mean How DO YOU instead of How to? anyways, what you are
asking is impossible. Please use your conscience.

Go away. No one wants to hear from a hater of the Kinai culture.

I don't even know what the hell Kinai is.

[Kevin Gowen]

Post by Makoto Taniguchi

Post by Kevin Gowen

Post by Makoto Taniguchi
Don't you mean How DO YOU instead of How to? anyways, what you are
asking is impossible. Please use your conscience.

Go away. No one wants to hear from a hater of the Kinai culture.

I don't even know what the hell Kinai is.

That sort of ignorance very often fuels hate.