Re: How to type in Chinese?

[张启德(Zhang Qide) <kenifanying@gmail.com>]

Hi Peter,

Welcome to learn Chinese!

2015-05-18 23:37 GMT+08:00 Peter van Summeren <peter_van_summeren@hotmail.com>:
> Hello,
> I would like to type Chinese in Debian Jessie, Cinnamon, for LibreOffice,
> TexShop, for my lessons Chinese.
> In windows, MacOS, I can point to an icon, a window pops up, I can choose
> "pinyin".
> After that: when I type "shi", a window pops up with all the possibilities
> to choose from.
>
> How can I arrange that in my type of Debian?
> Is there a script?

I think the easiest way to type Chinese is to install ibus as a input
method framework.

1) You need some east Asian fonts installed if you want to type Chinese

apt-cache search fonts-wqy      # WenQuanYi fonts(文泉驿字体)
apt-cache search fonts-arphic   # Kaiti & Songti fonts( 文鼎宋体，楷体）
apt-cache search xfonts-intl-chinese # xfonts

There are some other opensource CJK fonts not included in repository
eg: Adobe Source Han Sans etc.

2) Install ibus-pinyin or ibus-libpinyin if you prefer using pinyin input method

apt-get install ibus-pinyin  # for ibus-pinyin, old but work well

apt-get install ibus-libpinyin # for ibus-libpinyin , newer, see
https://github.com/libpinyin/libpinyin

3) Install ibus-wubi if you know about wubi

apt-get install ibus-table-wubi

4）I prefer ibus-rime,

apt-get install ibus-rime

5) don't forget to install ibus-gtk (or ibus-qt4) and im-config

apt-get install ibus-gtk im-config or apt-get install ibus-qt4 im-config

6)  you need to enable ibus. Sorry， I don't know how to do under Cinnamon.

For GNOME, you need run im-config to choose ibus as default input
method, then run ibus-setup
to add pinyin or wubi or rime. add  input source for Chinese via
Preferences -> Regional and Language

Finally, logout and login again, you can activate ibus via super+space
and change between English and
Chinese via Shift key.

Fcitx is anthoer popular input method framework.

It's not recommend to use scim, thoungh it's still work.

> Because, when I read all the web sites about this subject,  I get lost.
> It is exhaustive, but too difficult.
> Please help me with specific and automatic what-to-do.
> Peter

Regards,
Zhang Qide