Japanese Text With LaTeX!

November 23rd, 2008 Pekk

Okay when I did this I was really only looking for Japanese. The simplest way to do this (and I’m on a MacX machine using TeXShop) was to use XaLaTeX, and use the fontspec and xunicode packages.

I found a PDF file online that was actually just like a tex input file, but in pdf format (probably so that the fonts would be visible without any encoding issues).

First thing it said you need are these two lines:


%!TEX TS-program = xelatex
%!TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode


The first one is to force TeXShop to use XaLaTeX, and the second is to force it to save the tex files in utf-8 format.

Somewhere after the document class we add the following


\usepackage{fontspec,xunicode}
\defaultfontfeatures{Mapping=tex-text} %% !!IMPORTANT!! This preserves out fancy tex text like ` for left quote -- for en dashes, etc.
\newfontfamily{\J}[Scale=0.85]{Osaka} %%this is our macro for changing to japanese font mode, enclode all jp text with {\J Whatever}


The scaling on the japanese text is totally optional, personally i kind of like it without, but i have noticed that the Osaka font is more bold.
Now we can apply the japanese text anywhere in our document:


Word. {\J ????????? ???????}


Since I’m so sure the encoding on that got clobbered (I don’t know why though, this blog used to be UTF-8 Friendly…) I’ve included a sample file. So check the Japanese Text in TeX Example out. Make sure your browser is set to UTF-8, or just right-click Save (Link, Target) As… Check out the resulting Japanese Text in TeX Example PDF File.

The basic idea of the technique is just to switch fonts to a system font that will have japanese character support Osaka is one of them. Mac users can check the Font Book application to scour for more.

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Jammin At Home

September 1st, 2007 Pekk

Yeah I haven’t posted much lately, which I’m discovering is a pretty terrible choice. So I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been doing.

I joined a new band that my friend’s brother is running, at the moment the band is called Stuntman, which is a name despised by my friend and I but the other two members seem to be proud of it. Either way a name’s just a name, it’s not that important even though I’d prefer a different name; what we are is what counts, not what we’re called.

I originally joined as a replacement drummer, since the original drummer (another friend of mine) wasn’t really showing up to practice (or something like that, I don’t know the intimate details of the situation). So now I’ve rejoined (?) as the bassist (-_-) I don’t like playing the bass all too much but I want to see where this goes and maybe it’ll be fun once I get used to playing the bass (I don’t really play the bass that often and I’m not really that good at it, I’m much better at the guitar, piano, and drums). In any case, this new position as bassist and backup vocalist should bring me up to par on my bass skills, to say the least.

I’m also planning on running my other band still. With my two cousins and my friend Lou, who plays guitar in the Stuntman band. He’ll also be playing the drums in my band, where I am happily situated with my guitar playing fun, off-beat and upbeat ska rhythms while singing lead vocals aside my cousin Andrew who is playing the trumpet. My other cousin Drew will be playing on the bass guitar using walking bass lines that really help drive the rhythm behind this Jamaican-originating music.

To help my well-roundedness in sense of music and instruments I’ve decided to take on a new challenge (this is actually from yesterday, Aug 31).  I decided to learn how to play the song Deadbolt by Thrice. It’s a very fast song that’s actually very easy to play despite its complex sound. I’m considering transforming this into a ska song somehow, though it will be very tricky since the two genres are total opposites.

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Beach Trip!

August 3rd, 2007 Pekk

Alright so today I was woken up by my cell phone… 3 consecutive calls. I finally gathered up the strength to pull myself out of bed (or stumble, fall, and cry out in pain… depending on how you want to look at it really). Yeah. So I jumped out of bed and staggered listless— I… mean… I ran over to my phone to take a look and investigate this disturbance. I flipped up the phone (yes it’s one of those clam-shell phones, not the candybar shick-flip transformer wannabe types) and I read, “2 missed calls” both from my friend Wes.

Well really I knew it was him before I opened it from the distinctive ringtone, but there was another call in between his two and after Wesley’s second call I figured that fate, God, Jesus, or whomever it may concern decided it was time to me to wake up. (Damn them!)

In any case, I returned his call and he asked if I wanted to go to the beach… Now, my sister had just got back in the night before from Portugal and I didn’t get to see her yet, and she did buy me a very spiffy hat; I wanted to thank her at the very least. I thought, “Maybe I should spend some time with my sister…” then I told Wes, “Alright I’ll be at your house in a few minutes.”

I walked into the next room where I saw my sister getting ready, I dunno what she was doing… Throwing some junk in her bag coming her hair, blah blah. So she saw me and asked me about the hat. I told her that I thought it was “real sharp” and I liked it. Then I asked her what she was doing today (I thought, “Alright. Let’s invite her to the beach and see what she says”) Turns out she was going to the beach (wtf?)

“What beach,” I asked.

“Smith’s Point,” she replied.

“Oh! Me too!” So basically we decided to meet up there. I went to Wes’s house and then we took his car to the beach…. sort of… heh heh heh… Note to self: Smith’s Point is East of where I live… Not… West… So after driving for about 10-12 exits in the total opposite direction from where we were supposed to be we decided to use Wes’s phone to find directions to Smith’s Point and that’s when we realized, hey it’s exit 68 … And we’re at exit 52… And we started at exit 62… WHOOPS

So then we turned around and got there okay. I got brutally slaughtered by the waves a couple of times, my body’s still bobbing back and forth periodically like I’m jumping over the ocean or something. People must think I’m crazy. I mean really crazy, cause I’m pretty crazy but not crazy crazy. Am I?

In any case, when I got back home I realized I was kinda red and then I thought… “Hmm… I guess I do get sunburn after all!” Well, as soon as this red cools to brown… I’m gonna be one hot ham. Ooooh! I love hot ham!

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Pekk’s Blog Begins!

August 2nd, 2007 Pekk

Hello, friends!

Welcome to Pekk’s Blog! I’ve set up this WordPress blog today to measure my progress of… Well… Everything! Here I will post some information about me, what I do, and display some of my creative talents, as well. (Wowwie, wow, wow!)

Since I will posting my efforts on most of my side projects, I’ve created some categories, so check them out. — but you might want to wait until there’s actually posts in them

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