Courier Email ClientSupport forum for the Courier Email Client.
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Hello,
I've been using Calypso and then Courier client for many years and all of this time I wonder why the heck both this programs are still ages left behind other Windows software. How come that letters like ą, ć, ń etc. don't display properly on the screen. All other Windows software can do it - Courier don't. Perhaps someone knows the trick to force Courier to use international fonts properly?
Example of how the text looks like:
Dziękujemy za złożenie zamówienia
and how it should look like:
Dziękujemy za złożenie zamówienia
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There is no real guarantee I see the same characters as your example, but since the two do look different I'll assume we see the same thing. Fonts aren't my best subject so this may go off into the topic of unicode support, which I don't know much about but is planned for Courier sometime in the future. Aside from that, I will speak of things I know about while admitting that unicode support may render my comments obsolete.
What characters are displayed tend to be what is assigned in the font style for that key. An example of this is that the letter J in most font faces, if changed to the font named Wingdings, would appear as a smiley face. You can open a new HTML mail, type the letter J (has to be a capital J), highlight it and change the font to Wingdings and you'll see the obvious change. There's a chance that the font you are viewing those characters in simply don't support what you expect to see there. I can paste both examples into a HTML mail (font set to Comis Sans MS) and they display exactly the same as your examples do in Firefox. In plain text the second example does change, but as "Dziekujemy za zlozenie zamówienia" ... note what I paste as a "Dzię" turns the "ę" into a regular "e", not a "Ä™" as in your example. This could be a font issue and, depending on which browser you use, we may not be seeing the same thing in this post, as different browsers can have different default fonts.
Where do you encounter the problem? In HTML mail, plain text mail, general created names like a new folder? David's post @ Courier Email Fonts - some info and perspective. may address your problem. If not, please elaborate on where this problem occurs. Someone else may be able to better answer you but I'll try to help if I can.
I would also like to add that Courier is a little behind in technology, but mostly because of the obvious lack of updates from a team that, for whatever reason, wasn't providing any. It is in the process of being updated again, but some features that aren't available now will be in the (hopefully near) future.
I know that there are many different fonts, I know that pressing a key may result differently depending on the chosen font, but still I do not understand why Courier does not work like most of nowadays Windows aplications. That is the point. I read the topic you mentioned and I see that in Courier one has to make many settings that are not required by any other Windows program.
Why can't just Courier use Windows fonts like other progs do? That's a question.
Anyway, thanks for you reply.
Why can't just Courier use Windows fonts like other progs do?
We may have different ideas of what "Windows fonts" are. In the way I think of the the term, it is a font that is supported by Windows' operating systems. In this way, all of Courier's displayed fonts are Windows' fonts.
I'm not sure, but I think the problem you're describing I would recognize as a lack of "unicode support." That is a very valid question, and I believe it is a concern that will be addressed in Courier's future development. The reason it is likely not in there yet is probably due to the fact that Courier was not updated often in the past because the developer didn't have the time to devote to doing so. This means that a couple years' technology kept advancing while Courier's development was not keeping up with the pace of new technology. The project has been assigned to a new team which is attempting to feverishly bridge that gap. Vista compatibility is the main focus right now (for the Beta), but SSL support and a few other features, (I think) including unicode are planned for a future release. The answer is probably not the one you had hoped to hear, but all I can really say is that lack of unicode support is a problem that Courier's dev team is aware of, and one that will hopefully be fixed in the not-too-distant future.
If any of my assumptions are wrong, please feel free to correct me.
I know that there are many different fonts, I know that pressing a key may result differently depending on the chosen font, but still I do not understand why Courier does not work like most of nowadays Windows aplications. That is the point. I read the topic you mentioned and I see that in Courier one has to make many settings that are not required by any other Windows program.
Why can't just Courier use Windows fonts like other progs do? That's a question.
Anyway, thanks for you reply.
well, Xeno has been giving you good information... Courier 3.5 was released back in summer of 2003, as I understand. programs need updating after such a period. I did try your sample characters and my results were somewhat better ... Dziekujemy za zlozenie zamówienia - a few letters aren't perfect, but better than in your original post.
you're right in that Courier does not work like other programs. many email clients do not allow setting of preferred character sets, while Courier does. that is a strength. you can set your preferred character set and also set your preferred default fonts separate for plain text and HTML. You can also set your preferred font for reading different character sets on incoming mail - possibly overkill for most of us... The major issue, as Xeno stated, is that Unicode is not in Courier yet. it isn't a matter of using Windows fonts or not. It's the lack of Unicode support. thanks for writing.
david
Thank you both xeno and dskirk for your time. I guess we may close our discussion here and just wait for the finished Courier version.
Anyway, although I've tried dozens of email client programs I'm going to use Courier because it is the best one in a known Universe
Regards
Hey, Jancio,
I'm not sure if I am supposed to respond since I don't really have anything new to add. I would just like to thank you for using what I also think is the best email program in the universe, even if it doesn't yet support unicode. Thanks for your feedback and I hope we did well answering. Please never hesitate to ask about any concerns you may have. I think I can speak for others on this forum when saying we are glad to help when we can, and hope to at least answer questions when we can't. The ability to display different national fonts is a concern that impacts many people. Your questions about it are now on the forum and may help others wondering about the exact same thing.
