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Joe Pelonio
07-13-2006, 7:13 PM
I have a customer that wants signs with Japanese on them. I've done it in the past for engraving by scanning but this time I need vector. Is there any website or software that can be bought to create Japansese characters? (One that you don't need to speak Japanese to use)
My customer does not speak Japanese either, but is making a presentation to people running a Japanese business.

Don Baer
07-13-2006, 7:22 PM
Joe,
Wander over to the turners foum (we don't bit) and contact a guy named Stu Abblet. He is a Canadian who lives in Japan, runs a liquir store :D . He's married to a japanese lady. Ill bet he can help you out.

Joe Pelonio
07-13-2006, 8:06 PM
Thanks, will do it in the morning. Gotta go, just heard there's a big wreck and the traffic will be nasty going home.

Don Baer
07-13-2006, 8:08 PM
He's usualy online in the morning our time. That afternoon tomarrow their time. Good luck.

Shaddy Dedmore
07-13-2006, 10:55 PM
If you have office, you might try here.
http://www.coscom.co.jp/help2/jpfont/jpfont.html

it tells you where to search at Microsoft.

Shaddy

Oh, you need Office XP apparently, sorry.

Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan
07-13-2006, 11:12 PM
Not sure what you need exactly Joe, but I can help you out with the Japanese thing.

What is a "Vector"....?

PM me or mail me Cheers!

Shaddy Dedmore
07-13-2006, 11:27 PM
Hi Stu, fancy seeing you here.

Raster is like a bit map, where each color is defined pixel by pixel. Vector is lines defined by points (and can be filled).

Most fonts are Vector, so if you have a way to get some fonts to his PC, he'd be good to go.

Corel Draw can convert fonts to Curves so he wouldn't have to actually have the font to see them. But I don't know if you have a program that does that.

Shaddy

PS... The characters might be easy enough to "vectorize" if he had a high quality bitmap, then trace the vector lines around the borders.

Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan
07-14-2006, 6:51 AM
Hi Shaddy, nice to see you!

I have a program called Ulead PhotoImpact, I can use the Japanese fonts to write whatever and then I can save it in an eps format, I wonder it that would work?

I have a TON of Japanese fonts, I could send them to you, but if you don't know how to read or write the Japanese, it might just be pointless..........?

Anyway, contact me if you need this help Joe.

Cheers!

Joe Pelonio
07-14-2006, 8:33 AM
Stu,

Thanks for offering to help. Shaddy explained vector but for what we're
doing the difference is that rastor (dots) is used for printing and engraving, while vector (lines) is used for laser, plotter or cnc router cutting.

In many graphics programs like Corel and Adobe Illustrator text can be saved as eps files and that's would be the vector file that I'd need. If you did this for me I could produce the samples, but if my customer gets the account you would not want to be doing it every time they placed an order. What I'm looking for is a way that I can do it on a regular basis.
Any windows font file (xxxx.ttf) could be installed in my PC and my sign programs could access it and do the Japanese text, but unless I spoke Japanese I wouldn't have any idea what characters to use. It sounds
like what Shaddy suggested might be helpful, perhaps you could take a look at it. I'll do the same.

Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan
07-14-2006, 8:46 AM
Hey Joe, if you are running Windows XP Pro (NOT home) then you can add the multilingual to it, meaning Japanese, but again, you have the problem of the reading etc.

When you input Japanese, they use the Roman letters (ABCs) but then they are converted to the Kanji, and you get multiple choices, so yeah, you have to be able to read some Japanese.

There are translation programs around, but they are only OK, way better than they were a few years ago, but still, they are only good for getting the "gist" of something, IMHO.

let me know if you want the fonts, just PM me and I'll get them to you.

Cheers!

Joe Pelonio
07-14-2006, 10:35 AM
Thanks Stu. I think I'll pass that on to my customer, and tell her that she will need to do the work and just send me the vector file. That way I won't be the one responsible if something translates as an insult or something. She may have to pay a translator to verify everything.

Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan
07-14-2006, 10:50 AM
I think you have made a good decision there Joe! :D

Shaddy Dedmore
07-14-2006, 2:34 PM
I installed the multilingual pack from MS... then went to Google Translate, and used English to Japanese (BETA) and it appeared to translate. I was able to copy the characters into CorelDRAW X3.

No way of verifying translation though.

Not that that gets you anywhere, but I just thought I'd post some results.

Shaddy

Joe Pelonio
07-14-2006, 4:05 PM
Thanks Shaddy, I hope that worked out OK for you. Even then I suppose you'd want someone that speaks Japanese verify it.

Dave Jones
07-14-2006, 4:39 PM
I'd be real cautious of auto translations. Have you ever seen any of the "Engrish" printing on products? That's where Japanese have translated something into English and it just doesn't sound right to real English speakers.

The same can happen in reverse. As an example: I'm an electronic engineer and make equipment used by artists. One of the times I went to Japan it was to set up art made by Norwegian artists at a museum in Tokyo. The Norwegian embassy paid for everything, including business cards for all of us with Japanese on the back. At the opening party I was handing out my cards (which said I was an electronic engineer on the front in English) and at one point an executive from Panasonic said "You understand, this says you are 'construction engineer'". :mad: !!!

After I got back I had a Japanese friend do a new translation for me and now have cards that say what they should.