Japanese text in layout editor gets scrambled

Michele

Hi,

In ver. 26.1 when inserting a text box, if we write something in Japanese, the text becomes scrambled (question marks and other symbols).

We tried changing the font and script to some that support Japanese but nothing changed.

Other parts of the software as the layer names, are correctly displayed in Japanese.

Please advice.

Best regards

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

Are you using the English or Japanese version of Global Mapper?

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

I just tried this in the latest 26.1.2 daily build (English) and Japanese text seems to work for me in a text element:

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

Michele

Hi,

I am using the English version of 26.1.2 (daily build of the same day I wrote the post) and I tried again but I again got question marks instead of Japanese text. Is there maybe some font I should install separately? I tried with ms gothic that usually supports Japanese with Japanese script.

Best regards

bmg_mike

I tried MS Gothic and that worked for me as well. I do notice that I have the Japanese language pack installed on my machine. Do you have that installed?

It is odd that it just isn't showing for the MLE text element for you but is showing elsewhere, but maybe the language pack updates some fonts.

My original screenshot from the earlier message was using Times New Roman.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

Michele

Thanks for the advice.

I checked and I have the language pack installed.

I should have specified that we are based in Japan so the OS has Japanese as default.

After some experimenting I found out that, if I change the administrative locale to an English one, the text elements get displayed correctly but I get scrambled text for other parts that are written in Japanese.

Is it possible to fix it for the Japanese locale so everyone else can keep working with normal settings?

Best regards and thanks in advance.

bmg_mike

HI Michele,

Oh that is interesting. Can you perhaps try installing the native Japanese version of GM from https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/global-mapper-daily-builds.php and see if that works better with the Japanese locale settings? You should be able to install it alongside the English version.

There must be some incompatibility with the English version and a Japanese locale that we haven't been able to test yet.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

Michele

Dear Mike,

I tried installing the JP version and it solves this problem. Thank you for the follow-up.

It would be awesome to be able to use the English version without JP text scrambling, is there any way to fix it?

Best regards

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

I have created a bug in our system (GM-19883) to try and solve this. It will likely require us to get a Japanese Windows install to reproduce it so that we could find the issue.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

If you go to the 'Language for non-Unicode programs' on the Administrative tab of the Region settings, what does it show for you?

I wonder if you change it and check the box to 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8' if that makes a difference in the English version. It shouldn't as the English version should convert everything to UTF-8 , but maybe there is something weird going on and I do see one potential change I could make in the code for the text element.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

One more thing, it's possible there is something specific in the Japanese string that you are trying to display that is causing the issue. Can you provide that Japanese text string so I can see if that causes the failure on my machine?

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

Michele

Dear Mike,

I was trying with just simple strings like たくさん so nothing special there.

I tried few things:

1. Changing the locale to English with the "Beta" checked, worked for strings that were written in ver. 26.1 but not for the ones that were already there from ver 25 or older. This doesn't change if the "Beta" check was removed.
2. Same thing with Japanese locale but it also scrambles the new strings.

For the moment I had everyone install the Japanese version in parallel so they can output layouts normally but some of us are so used to the English version (we all can read Japanese but we used the English version for many years) that we would very much prefer having the English version able to handle JP text elements.

Thank you for your patience and thank you in advance for any solution you can provide.

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

For the data from v25 or older that doesn't show properly in 26.1, what does the Label/Attribute Language (Code Page) setting show for the data layer, or is this text from a previously saved Map Layout template?

For English GM, the default code page changed from the system code page (likely Japanese in your case) to UTF-8, so it could be there is some text that needs to be interpreted differently.

If you have a text layout with Japanese text saved to a workspace in GM 25.x or earlier and can provide that, I think I can get that handled correctly in GM 26.1.x English.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

Michele

Dear Mike,

It is indeed a layout file we created in v25. Please find it attached.

Best regards

land used map Landscape.zip

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

I was able to add support for specifying the code page that a map template file is in in 26.1.x. It will probably be next week before a new 26.1.x daily build with the change can be pushed up.

Now your map template looks like below in my local build:

I'll let you know when the new English build of GM is available.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru

bmg_mike

Hi Michele,

The GM 26.1.3 daily build at https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/global-mapper-daily-builds.php should be updated on Monday with my latest changes that should fix your language issue with old map templates. They might also fix the issues with Japanese text elements in MLE in GM English on Japanese Windows, although that's not possible for me to test directly.

Thanks,

Mike

Global Mapper Guru