For many indigenous languages, you may run into some initial problems when trying to read it on-line. In almost all cases, there is a quick and easy fix which will let you see the language properly.
Sometimes when your trying to read a non-English web page, or someone’s e-mail message, instead of seeing the language on screen, you get a bunch of empty boxes or illegible garbage.
Whenever you see empty boxes instead of letters, this is your computer’s way of telling you that either:
Both situations are easy to fix, and should not be a cause for concern.
First of all, What does Unicode mean? Put briefly, Unicode is a catalogue of the characters (letters, symbols, hieroglyphs, etc.) used in almost all of the world’s languages—modern and ancient. Each character is catalogued consistently, so that no matter which font you wish to use, the letter Q will always show up as the letter Q. In the past, many languages’ writing systems had yet to be included in Unicode, so people had to make irregular ad-hoc fonts for their specific language needs, for example, replacing the letter V with Ł (or some such). Of course, this leads to problems if I don’t have the same font you used, or if I want to read something in a different language using that same irregular font. To solve this problem once and for all, the Unicode catalogue was conceived and developed.
So how does this help with the empty boxes problem? When you see those empty boxes, it’s your computer’s way of telling you that the characters you want to read are not recognisable by the font you’re currently reading. Web designers should try their best to make your computer choose the appropriate Unicode font, but in some cases, you may have to do a bit of work.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) restricts web designers in designating fonts for some languages: especially those using a non-Roman alphabet, like syllabics or Cherokee.
Generally speaking, modern browsers other than Microsoft’s IE manage other language’s writing systems better. The latest versions of Opera, Firefox, Camino, Safari should all understand the web-designer’s font designations.
Nevertheless, there are occasions when you will see empty boxes in the middle of text. Usually this indicates that your computer is lacking a Unicode font which contains the characters needed for your language. In this case, downloading and installing a Languagegeek font should solve the problem for any Native language. You may have to experiment with your browser’s font settings to fine tune how certain languages look on-screen. Each browser has a Fonts section of their Preferences or Options menu. In your browser’s preferences, be on the look-out for Content, Appearance or Fonts tabs. Then look for Advanced or International buttons, or drop down menus for different language scripts.
For the truly adventurous and CSS-savvy, many browsers allow you to add custom style sheets.
Another common problem is when, instead of seeing the Native language, you get a seemingly random bunch of accented letters and punctuation. If you’re reading a page on the internet or reading an e-mail, there are two likely causes for the trouble.