HOWTO view Chinese in Desktop Browsers

Dutch version available. For mobile devices check the smartphone page.
IMPORTANT, make sure you have Chinese fonts installed.

Adjust the encoding of your browser

The three most common encodings for Chinese websites are Big5, GB2312 and UTF-8. (More information can be found in the encoding section). If you you want to view a Chinese webpage and the characters aren't displayed the way they should be, then try changing the encoding of the webpage. For Traditional characters the Big5 encoding is the most frequent, for Simplified characters the GB encoding is the most frequent. See below for more detailed instructions.

• Google Chrome (based on Google Chrome Version 18 to 31)
  Go to top right hand corner icon > Tools > Encoding
  You can choose from Unicode (UTF-8), Chinese Traditional (GB5), Chinese Simplified (GB18030)


• Internet Explorer (based on Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5.5)
  View > Coding > > more > (or right click > Coding > more > )
  You can choose from : Chinese (Traditional)(Big5), Chinese (Simplified) (GB2312) and Chinese (Simplified)(HZ). Unicode (UTF-8)
  The best option for encoding is 'Automatic selection' this option you can enable by going to 'Coding' in the menu 'View'.
  If you don't have Chinese language support installed read my howto install Chinese language support in Windows-page.


• Internet Explorer 9
  Right click anywhere on the page and choose encoding
  
  If you often read pages in Chinese you can add Chinese to the language preferences.
  Click on the top right hand icon > Internet Options > At the bottom of the pop-up screen under Appearance choose Languages > click Add
  
  As multi-lingual domain names are a fact, it is good to have URLS send as UTF-8.
  Click on the top right hand icon > Internet Options > Advanced -tab> > Under International tick Send UTF-8 URLs
  


• Konqueror (based on Konqueror 3.1.2)
  View > Set Encoding >
  Chinese Simplified (GB18030), Chinese Simplified (GB2312), Chinese Simplified (GBK), Chinese Traditional (Big5), Unicode (utf8)


• Mozilla (based on Mozilla 1.4b)
  View> > Character Coding > More > East Asian > .
  For Chinese you can choose out of : Chinese Simplified (GB2312), Chinese Simplified (GBK), Chinese Simplified (GB18030), Chinese Simplified (HZ), Chinese Simplified (ISO-2022-CN), Chinese Traditional (Big5), Chinese Traditional (Big5-HKSCS), Chinese Traditional (EUC-TW)


• Mozilla Firefox (based on Firefox 11)
  Click on the left top Firefox menu > Web Developer > Character Encodig
  You can choose for Auto-Detect > Chinese or More Encodings > East Asian
  
  If you often read pages in Chinese you can add Chinese to the language preferences.
  Click on the left top Firefox menu > Options > Options > Content tab > in Languages click Choose button > Select the language and click the Add button
  


• Netscape (based on Netscape Communicator 4.7, for Netscape 6 and higher see Mozilla)
  View > Character Coding >
  You can choose frm : Traditional Chinese (Big5)
  You can enable the autodetect function als followed :
  View > Character Coding > Auto-Detect > Chinese
  If you still get little squares then you have to set your font display right. Go to the menu 'Edit' and choose at the bottom for 'Preferences'. In the left column click on 'Fonts' in the submenu 'Appearance' and then in the right column choose in 'Fonts for' for 'Traditional Chinese'. Then you select for each item a font that can handle Chinese characters i.e. MS Song or MingLiu. If you haven't got any fonts that can display Chinese characters, download them here. If this didn't bring any help, do the same but instead of 'Traditional Chinese (Big5)' for 'Chinese Simplified (GB2312)'.


• Opera (based on Opera 7.11)
  View > Encoding > Chinese >
  You can choose from : Automatic Detection, Big5 (Traditional), Big5-HKSCS (Traditional), EUC-TW (Traditional), GBK/GB2312 (Simplified), GB18030 (Simplified), HZ-GB2312 (Simplified), ISO-2022-CN.


• Opera (based on Opera 11.62)
  Click on the top left Opera menu > Page > Encoding > Chinese
  
  If you often read pages in Chinese you can add Chinese to the language preferences.
  Click on the top left Opera menu > Settings > Preferences (Ctrl+F12) > General tab > click Details button > click Add button > scroll all the way down

Using software

• Install a CJK-enabler program like Richwin, Twinbridge or NJ Star. If you want to view of type Chinese open the program. If the characters you wished to see didn't display correctly, try to change the encoding of the program.
  Other vendors are : Unionway, Dr.Eye, Wenlin
• Install the Microsoft IME (Input Method Editor), this can be done using Microsoft WindowsUpdate or by downloading the IME from this page at Microsoft.

Online tools

There are some online tools available

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You need unicode fonts, a 4+ browser and Acrobat reader to fully explore and enjoy this webpage. (if necessary you can download Asian fontpacks for Adobe Acrobat reader)


My dissertation Hello Chinese! got published in 2002. It's a practical reference guide for using Chinese on the computer. More info


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