Chinese characters display as box with numbers inside

[tooironic]

Hi guys, I think this is the right forum for this kind of question. I'm wondering if anyone has had a problem similar to mine where certain Chinese characters (perhaps particularly uncommon ones?) come up as boxes with numbers inside them? I'm using Firefox on Windows Vista. Interestingly, on IE they come up as just plain boxes. All other characters display no problem. Anyone know how to fix it? I've attached a mini screenshot for clarification. Cheers.

[Hofmann]

It isn't your problem. Nobody can see anything. Not even Unihan.

U+01208A

U+012137

U+01224E

[tooironic]

Oh I see. Well they were entries meant for wiktionary. So I guess they should be deleted...

[Lugubert]

The Unicode is for Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform.

[ChouDoufu]

Those boxes with codes in them are Unicode characters that aren't supported by almost any fonts. Until the Chinese fonts from Windows/Apple/Linux support the full Unicode CJK extensions, few people will be able to see these characters.

zdic.net has a page that has fonts that you can download to see these characters.

http://www.zdic.net/appendix/f18.htm

Those entries shouldn't be deleted from wiktionary. They are historical Chinese characters that aren't currently used in modern Chinese. But who knows: they might be used in the future. After all, a few years ago 囧 was barely used by anyone.

[tooironic]

But are they really Chinese or Cuneiform? I'm confused...

[Lugubert]

When I click the links in Hoffmann's post, cuneiforms are displayed in the "Your Browser" field (I have lots of fonts installed). The U numbers conform to the range allotted to cuneiform.

I'll try the Unifonts (that's the one you mean, right?) from ChouDoufu's link on a computer without cuneiform to see if there's a difference.

[Hofmann]

ChouDoufu, can you see them?

[Lugubert]

Installed Unifonts. No can see.

[ChouDoufu]

I can't see them.

If Lugubert is right about the language, the fonts on that site won't display the Unicode, because it's not in the right range (I'd guess CJK Extended +B)

This site has lots of information on unicode and the related fonts.

http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts.html

search in page for cuneiform. There's one font that might work called "Free Idg Serif"

If that doesn't work, then you will just have to wait until someone creates a font that lets you see those characters!!

[OneEye]

I have fonts on my computer with over 70,000 CJK glyphs (including all of CJK Extensions A and B) and I can't see them. Maybe they are cuneiform.

[Hofmann]

They are historical Chinese characters that aren't currently used in modern Chinese.

I can't see them.

Well, if you can't see them, how do you know that?

Extension B is 20000–2A6DF. These glyphs are out of Chinese ranges. I think somebody just messed up their code or something.