Government software facilitates electronic communication in Chinese
21 - 09 - 2003

The Information Technology Services Department has made available a "Chinese Input Utility" software to facilitate open-source software users to communicate in Chinese effectively. The software supports the international coding standard, ISO 10646, and the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set 2001 (HKSCS-2001), which the Government has adopted as a common Chinese language interface for electronic communication.

The Chinese Input Utility enables Linux-based software users to input, display and print Chinese characters supported under the ISO 10646 standard and the HKSCS-2001 and supports four input methods - Changjei, Quick, Stroke Count and Unicode Internal Code.

The software is packaged with a Chinese font that contains over 27,000 characters as defined under the ISO 10646-1:2000 standard. The Chinese font complies with the "Guidelines on the Song Style (Print Style) Character Glyphs for Chinese Computer Systems in Hong Kong" jointly published by the Chinese Language Interface Advisory Committee and the Government in February 2002.

The Chinese Input Utility is free of charge and can be downloaded from the "Digital 21" website (www.info.gov.hk/digital21/eng/structure/cli_tools.html). Users should also see the Terms of Use and installation procedures posted on the webpage.

The government has already provided a similar sample reference font and input software supporting the ISO 10646 standard and the HKSCS for Microsoft Windows users. This is also available for free downloading from the "Digital 21" website.

Government has been promoting the use of open and interoperable platforms when developing or acquiring computer systems that interface with the public. Under this approach, bureaux and departments are also encouraged to adopt open standards to widen their choice of computer hardware and software.

Making the Chinese Input Utility available to Linux users will meet Government's objective of increasing the adoption of the common Chinese language interface in the wider community. This in turn will facilitate the development of IT products supporting the ISO 10646 standard and the HKSCS.

Further information on the common Chinese language interface is available at the "Digital 21" website (www.info.gov.hk/digital21/eng/structure/cli_main.html).

- END -