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I am learning Japanese and I have a problem with the default font used by Ubuntu. I would like to learn the standard kanji writing and not a fancy or smart way of writing them...

I already had a similar problem before with the 12.04. I was able to solve it with the solution in this post: Showing the correct font in Japanese, i.e., installing the package ttf-vlgothic.

Since I upgrade to the 14.04, I noticed again that some characters are not correct, but it is not as obvious as before. The solution presented before (sudo apt-get install ttf-vlgothic) does not work anymore because ttf-vlgothic was removed from the sources of the 14.04 (why?)... Apparently, Ubuntu 14.04 uses fonts-vlgothic by default, but some new characters are wrongly written. For example, the kanji 究 is supposed to be written with its 5th stroke being "square" as it is shown in http://jiten.go-kanken.com/kanji/272.html, but by default in Ubuntu the 5th stroke is straight, a little like the 4th.

Why was ttf-vlgothic removed? Is it a bug? And also, ttf-vlgothic should be used by default, as it is the one corresponding to the current standard in Japan. (Should I report a bug?)

Anyway, does someone have a solution? Thanks!

Edit: what I said about fonts-vlgothic is wrong, I removed this package and replaced it with a standard font, and I still have the problem, so it's another package/font???

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I think I've found right answer.

Easiest way to show Japanese fonts under Ubuntu 14.04 is:

  1. Copy 69-language-selector-ja-jp.conf to your ~/.fonts.conf or ~/.config/font-manager/local.conf.

That's it. Easy, isn't it? ;)

Detailed expressions are below:

First, there are mechanisms to show Japanese fonts including vlgothic fonts under /etc/fonts/conf.d/ (or /etc/fonts/conf.avail/). Those are written in 65-fonts-xxx.conf files. However those mechanisms are only available in Japanese environment. For example, you can see following lines in those configuration files. This restricts it.

<test name="lang" compare="contains">
  <string>ja</string>
</test>

On the other hand, similar mechanisms for Chinese fonts are available in 69-language-selector-xxx files. Those mechanisms are not checking language environment, so those are available whenever. I don't know why there is no 69-language-selector-ja-jp.conf in Ubuntu 14, but it is a reason why Chinese fonts are shown under English environment.

You can remove above language checks from 65-fonts-xxx.conf files to show Japanese fonts if you want. Or, you can modify only your configuration file like described at the top.

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  • I tried, it's working well, thanks a lot ! Sorry, I cannot vote, I don't have enough reputation... Btw, some other kanjis that i had problems with : 究 乗 降 語 換 違 雑 誌
    – Jitsumi
    Dec 23, 2014 at 13:27
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    Hon but I think it's also changing the police of some applications (skype for example) no??
    – Jitsumi
    Dec 23, 2014 at 13:36
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I'm having the same problem here. Ubuntu 14.04 shows Chinese fonts over Japanese fonts by default, English language environment.

You can fix this by following steps, but this modifies your entire environment into Japanese. It means the name of applications, folders, etc. are written in Japanese.

  1. System Setting -> Language Support
  2. Insttall/Remove Languages -> check Japanese -> Apply
  3. System Setting -> User Account -> Select Japanese as your Language

I'd like to change only fonts, but I don't know how to do it unfortunately.

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  • Thank you, i will use this in the worst case, but yeah, I would like to change only the default font for japanese and keep my syste in english
    – Jitsumi
    Oct 16, 2014 at 2:29

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