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How to view and browse Chinese web pages on Microsoft Windows

In many cases all it needs to view Chinese web pages correctly without any extra programs is a font with Chinese characters and some simple configurations to web browsers:

1. Download Bitstream Cyberbit TrueType Unicode font, Cyberbit.ZIP (6.1MB) (or some other Chinese font)
2. Unzip the downloaded file to a directory of your choice

3. Install the unzipped font file cyberbit.ttf:

   Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Fonts
   File -> Install New Font... ->
   [Select the folder where cyberbit.ttf was unzipped] -> [Select Bitstream Cyberbit (TrueType) from a List of Fonts] -> OK

4. Make the font settings in your web browser(s):

   • Netscape 7.0 (see the picture) and Mozilla 0.9.x (see the picture)

     Both Netscape 7.0 and Mozilla 0.9.x find suitable fonts automatically. One can, however, fine-tune font settings pretty much like in Netscape Communicator 4.7 described below.

   • Netscape 4.75 (see the picture)

     Edit -> Preferences... -> Fonts ->
     For the Encoding [Simplified Chinese]
     Variable Width Font [Bitstream Cyberbit]
     Fixed Width Font [Bitstream Cyberbit]
     -> OK
     

     Edit -> Preferences... -> Fonts ->
     For the Encoding [Traditional Chinese]
     Variable Width Font [Bitstream Cyberbit]
     Fixed Width Font [Bitstream Cyberbit]
     -> OK
     

     Edit -> Preferences... -> Fonts ->
     For the Encoding [Unicode]
     Variable Width Font [Bitstream Cyberbit]
     Fixed Width Font [Bitstream Cyberbit]
     -> OK
     

     Don't try to do all these steps at once without hitting OK!

   • Opera 7.0 (see the picture)

     Prior to version 6.0 it was not possible to configure Opera to handle Chinese fonts. Now this browser finds all available Chinese fonts automatically. If it's necessary to adjust these settings, they can be located at:

     File -> Preferences... -> Fonts and Colors -> International Fonts...
     Writing System -> Chinese Simplified
     Writing System -> Chinese Traditional
     -> OK
     

   • K-Meleon 0.6

     K-Meleon finds the font automatically, but it needs needs a separate language pack to be installed. I haven't figured out how to change these settings.

   • Amaya 5.2

     Sorry, Amaya cannot be configured to view multiple languages.

   • Microsoft Internet Explorer

     MSIE finds available fonts automatically. Explorer users can also download fonts from Windows Update. To fine-tune font settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 (see the picture) the following procedure can be used:

     Tools -> Internet Options... -> Fonts -> Chinese Simplified

     and

     Tools -> Internet Options... -> Fonts -> Chinese Traditional

5. Test it!
   • Simplified Chinese in GB2312 test page
   • Traditional Chinese in Big 5 test page
   • Simplified and Traditional Chinese in Unicode test page
   • Pinyin characters in GB2312 test page
   • Pinyin characters in Unicode test page
   • All-In-One Page CEDICT Chinese-English Dictionaries in Simplified Chinese and in Traditional Chinese.

Users of older Windows systems (95 and 98) are also advised to update their core fonts if there are troubles with certain Pinyin characters.

It is probably necessary to make Chinese characters to appear slightly bigger than latin characters. This can be done permanently, defining a bigger font size in the font configuration explained above, or temporarily using browser's features. In Netscape the font size can be temporarily increased using View -> Increase Font, and in Mozilla with View -> Text Size ->.

To make it easier to choose the most appealing font, there is a small review of GB fonts mentioned above in HTML and PDF format.

There is also a separate document dealing with some issues related to publishing web pages in Chinese.

If some characters are missing from the printed output, please take a look at Printing Chinese web pages document.

I need your feedback to keep this page up-to-date. Please send me email if you find inaccuracies or outdated information from this page.