polish font on web page?

[bowler]

I have very basic knowledge of html. I can do a simple web page, link
pictures and organize, etc. just using the text program. I want to help
a friend who is Polish do a page but I don't even know the principle of
getting these fonts on his computer so he can type in his language. he
doesn't have Polish font in Microsoft word either. I looked on the web
and found programs that show various foreign language keyboards and
sell programs but I'm afraid I just don't get the basic idea of where
to start. If it's something extremely complicated I would try to find
individual help. How hard can it be? Poland is full of people who write
in Polish! Can anybody give me some pointers?
Thanks!

 

[Toby Inkster]

I have very basic knowledge of html. I can do a simple web page, link
pictures and organize, etc. just using the text program. I want to help
a friend who is Polish do a page but I don't even know the principle of
getting these fonts on his computer so he can type in his language. he
doesn't have Polish font in Microsoft word either.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Polish font". Polish uses the same
set of characters as most other Western languages, like English, but has a
few characters with diacritics:

Ä„Ä… Ćć Ęę ÅÅ‚ Ńń Óó Śś Źź Żż

Most common fonts (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica, etc) include
these characters.

Actually inputting these characters is another matter. If there is a lot
of text to be typed up, make sure you enable Polish keyboard input in your
operating system settings. When enabled, you should be able to use the
AltGr key to input these characters. For example:

AltGr + Shift + C = Ć
AltGr + N = Å„

and so on.

If there are only a few words here and there, then you may be able to get
away with copying and pasting the characters from, for example, this
message.

The important thing to get right when creating pages in Polish is to make
sure you save the files with the correct character set -- this should be
an option available in whatever program you're using to make the pages.
You should choose either "UTF-8" or "ISO 8859-2". "UTF-16" and "ISO
8859-16" are also options, but less well-supported by browsers.

Of the two character sets I've recommended, ISO 8859-2 is the best
supported, but it lacks the Euro sign, and should only really be used for
Central and Eastern European languages that use the Latin alphabet. UTF-8
has a Euro sign and allows you to easily mix Polish with other languages
(e.g. Japanese) on the same page. UTF-8 is not quite as well-supported in
some older software, but overall I would recommend it above ISO 8859-2.

Whichever you choose though, be consistant; and make sure your server is
properly configured to serve the pages with the correct character set in
the HTTP header. This is important, and if you don't understand it you
should ask your hosting company for help.

 

[Nikita the Spider]

I have very basic knowledge of html. I can do a simple web page, link
pictures and organize, etc. just using the text program. I want to help
a friend who is Polish do a page but I don't even know the principle of
getting these fonts on his computer so he can type in his language. he
doesn't have Polish font in Microsoft word either. I looked on the web
and found programs that show various foreign language keyboards and
sell programs but I'm afraid I just don't get the basic idea of where
to start. If it's something extremely complicated I would try to find
individual help. How hard can it be? Poland is full of people who write
in Polish! Can anybody give me some pointers?

Hi bowler,
Even stinky old Windows 98 has fonts that display the Polish alphabet,
so fonts are probably not holding you back. The trick is typing them in
on your computer when you lack a Polish keyboard[1]. If you type them
directly as you would any other character using some keyboard magic or
copy & paste them into your documents, you need to be very careful about
encoding issues, as Inkster pointed out in his reply. An alternative is
to use "character entity references". That means you replace each
character that's particular to the Polish alphabet with a numeric
sequence. So you would write the informal greeting "Czesc" (with accents
over the final s and c) in HTML like this:

Cześć my friend!

That allows you to duck the encoding issues but is impractical for
anything but a trivial amount of text.

The "magic numbers" for those entities are described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alphabet

Other than that, I have nothing to add to Inkster's excellent reply.

Good luck!


[1] - I've been told by some Polish friends that there are no
Polish-specific keyboards. They just use European English ones with the
AltGr key and some diacriticals that one doesn't find one American
keyboards. That seemed odd to me, but what do I know?

 

[bluebowling]

I have very basic knowledge of html. I can do a simple web page, link
pictures and organize, etc. just using the text program. I want to help
a friend who is Polish do a page but I don't even know the principle of
getting these fonts on his computer so he can type in his language. he
doesn't have Polish font in Microsoft word either. I looked on the web
and found programs that show various foreign language keyboards and
sell programs but I'm afraid I just don't get the basic idea of where
to start. If it's something extremely complicated I would try to find
individual help. How hard can it be? Poland is full of people who write
in Polish! Can anybody give me some pointers?

Hi bowler,
Even stinky old Windows 98 has fonts that display the Polish alphabet,
so fonts are probably not holding you back. The trick is typing them in
on your computer when you lack a Polish keyboard[1]. If you type them
directly as you would any other character using some keyboard magic or
copy & paste them into your documents, you need to be very careful about
encoding issues, as Inkster pointed out in his reply. An alternative is
to use "character entity references". That means you replace each
character that's particular to the Polish alphabet with a numeric
sequence. So you would write the informal greeting "Czesc" (with accents
over the final s and c) in HTML like this:

Cześć my friend!

That allows you to duck the encoding issues but is impractical for
anything but a trivial amount of text.

The "magic numbers" for those entities are described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alphabet

Other than that, I have nothing to add to Inkster's excellent reply.

Good luck!


[1] - I've been told by some Polish friends that there are no
Polish-specific keyboards. They just use European English ones with the
AltGr key and some diacriticals that one doesn't find one American
keyboards. That seemed odd to me, but what do I know?

Thank you both for your detailed replies. Something is coming
through the fog but it's still over my head. I will try to look up some
of these concepts and at worst I will take the information to somebody
who will understand it in an instant and give me a lesson on it! I used
to type in French characters using combinations on the keyboard and
that was in Wordperfect!!! So I see that I would be able to cut and
paste individual characters but this man wants to be able to type in
Polish and in English on his computer -- and I want to be able to
upload readable Polish pages. For typing in Polish and English I
understand that somehow you tell your computer that now you are typing
in Polish and then when you're finished you change back to English.
Well, it's late and I have to think about this. I have hope. Thanks
again.

 

[Toby Inkster]

[1] - I've been told by some Polish friends that there are no
Polish-specific keyboards. They just use European English ones with the
AltGr key and some diacriticals that one doesn't find one American
keyboards.

From what I gather, it's a standard US keyboard that is used; albeit
occasionally with different stickers on the keys to show where the extra
characters are.

Early on, Poland wasn't considered a big market for computers, so they
just used imported US computers with US keyboards, with Polish programmers
creating drivers to incorporate their extra characters. Later, several
attempts were made to create standard Polish keyboards, but none of them
caught on.

 

[Nikita the Spider]

[1] - I've been told by some Polish friends that there are no
Polish-specific keyboards. They just use European English ones with the
AltGr key and some diacriticals that one doesn't find one American
keyboards.

From what I gather, it's a standard US keyboard that is used; albeit
occasionally with different stickers on the keys to show where the extra
characters are.

It seems to me that the keyboards I saw there were standard EuroEnglish
ones with AltGr and the grave/acute accent diacriticals, not US
keyboards. I don't ever recall having seen a US keyboard in Europe.
Other than my beloved IBM dreadnought, of course. =)

 

[Nikita the Spider]

Thank you both for your detailed replies. Something is coming
through the fog but it's still over my head. I will try to look up some
of these concepts and at worst I will take the information to somebody
who will understand it in an instant and give me a lesson on it! I used
to type in French characters using combinations on the keyboard and
that was in Wordperfect!!! So I see that I would be able to cut and
paste individual characters but this man wants to be able to type in
Polish and in English on his computer -- and I want to be able to
upload readable Polish pages. For typing in Polish and English I
understand that somehow you tell your computer that now you are typing
in Polish and then when you're finished you change back to English.
Well, it's late and I have to think about this. I have hope. Thanks
again.

Hi Bowler,
If your friend wants to type directly in Polish (a reasonable request!)
then you're going to have to tangle with encodings. It can be a
confusing subject, so hang in there! But you'll get it sorted eventually.

Good luck

 

[dorayme]

<[email protected]
t.rr.com>,

If your friend wants to type directly in Polish (a reasonable request!)
then you're going to have to tangle with encodings. It can be a
confusing subject, so hang in there! But you'll get it sorted eventually.

No one ever seems to want to hear my only Polish joke?

 

[Toby Inkster]

It seems to me that the keyboards I saw there were standard EuroEnglish
ones with AltGr and the grave/acute accent diacriticals, not US
keyboards. I don't ever recall having seen a US keyboard in Europe.

I suppose it depends on where you draw the line between US keyboards and
other keyboards. Polish keyboards have:

Shift + 2 = @
Shift + 3 = #
Shift + ' = "

which is US-enough for me.

 

[Sally Thompson]

<[email protected]
t.rr.com>,


No one ever seems to want to hear my only Polish joke?

Go on then, since it's you and I haven't had enough coffee yet. What is your
only Polish joke?

 

[Nikita the Spider]

I suppose it depends on where you draw the line between US keyboards and
other keyboards. Polish keyboards have:

Shift + 2 = @
Shift + 3 = #
Shift + ' = "

which is US-enough for me.

I've never seen a US keyboard that had AltGr and the grave/acute accent
diacriticals, so that's what I was basing my judgment on. Not only that,
but all of our keyboards all have little American flags on them. =)

Cheers

 

[dorayme]

Go on then, since it's you and I haven't had enough coffee yet. What is your
only Polish joke?

Since I have just had my early morning cup of tea, I will tell
you:

Heard of the Polish parachutist? He missed the earth...

Boom boom!

(Coffe, first thing? Coffee? You sure you are in England, Sally?
I don't go all yanky till later...)

 

[Sally Thompson]

Since I have just had my early morning cup of tea, I will tell
you:

Heard of the Polish parachutist? He missed the earth...

Boom boom!

Groan. Wish I hadn't asked.