# Who has experience with generating chinese characters on a computer (Macintosh OS X)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243 "2009-03-12T19:29:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/1 "2009-03-12T19:29:33Z")
Here is the situation I am running into. I am going to be writing letters to government officials in Beijing, China. I have been given the addresses in chinese characters, in several forms: a) A .PNG (graphics) file that I could use to print on a label b) In an Adobe Acrobat .PDF file, as text in a transcription using Latin alphabet (I assume a Pinyin transcription) c) In the Adobe Acrobat .PDF file, as text using chinese characters The text in c) and in a) (the .PDF and the .PNG) are identical (at least to my untrained eye). The text in a) is guaranteed to be correct; therefore I assume that the text in c) is displaying correctly in the .PDF. So, since I have chinese fonts installed on my Macintosh, I copy and paste the text from c) into a new Unicode text document, selecting a font that has Unicode chinese characters. Problem: When I copy and paste to the Unicode text document, about half of the characters show correctly, but the other half don’t (they show with the glyph representing an unknown character). My guess is that my Unicode font doesn’t include those characters, or else the .PDF file is not using a Unicode character set? I tried looking inside my Unicode font using a “character map”-type program to find the missing chinese characters, but it is very tedious since I know nothing about chinese. My questions: 1. Is there an easy way to find out what the Unicode number would be for a chinese character? 2. Does anyone know what font .PDF files use for chinese characters? 3. Is there an easy way to find out what the chinese characters are that correspond to a pinyin transcription of a Chinese word? Keep in mind that some of these words are probably place names or person’s names, that wouldn’t be found in a dictionary. For example, I would like a website where I type in “Beijing” or “Jingsheng” or something like that, and the site will show me the chinese characters that correspond to that pinyin transcription. This might at least give me a clue. Whatever the site would show me, I can compare to my .PNG file to verify correctness. And if the site shows me something correct, I am hoping I could copy and paste the chinese characters into my Unicode text file. ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/2 "2009-03-12T19:50:36Z")
copy/paste the characters in here, and I’ll tell you. mwahahahahahahahaha ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/3 "2009-03-12T23:32:21Z")
Is that a serious offer? I can’t tell because of the diabolical laughter. If I showed you a chinese character, would you be able to tell me what Unicode number it corresponds to? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/4 "2009-03-13T06:21:38Z")
When I need to do something with Chinese characters, I usually go to [www.mandarintools.com](http://www.mandarintools.com) and use the tools there. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/5 "2009-03-13T13:40:31Z")
I’ve seen similar problems on PCs. In those cases the PDF had the fonts embedded. You need to find out what font is being used and install that on your Mac. How you do that, I leave to the Mac experts. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/6 "2009-03-13T16:01:45Z")
Thank you Monty. I had found that site before I posted, but I didn’t see any tool there that would help me in my situation. Quartz: I’m sure that the .PDF has the fonts embedded. This would not be a Mac question, more of an Adobe question - how can you tell the names of the fonts embedded in a .PDF document? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/7 "2009-03-13T16:18:16Z")
On a PC, it’s File | Properties | Fonts tab. ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-experience-with-generating-chinese-characters-on-a-computer-macintosh-os-x/489243/8 "2009-03-13T16:22:37Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Is that a serious offer? I can’t tell because of the diabolical laughter. If I showed you a chinese character, would you be able to tell me what Unicode number it corresponds to? No, because to copy/paste it would require you have the correct unicode. You might actually wanna take a screenshot, and have some doper post the correct hanzi for it.