jongminp@cae.wisc.edu (Jong-Min Park) (07/06/90)
Someone asked me for information on Korean language in Mac, but I misplaced his address. Since this seems important enough for posting, here goes: The Macintosh Korean system is a system software that contains Korean fonts, classic Chinese fonts, and HangulTalk. Unlike Japanese system KanjiTalk, it was not developed by Apple. KanjiTalk can be purchased by asking Apple to send you a copy. I'm not sure whether you can do that with Korean system, since they are copyrighted by the developers. I guess you'll have to contact the overseas developers, or at least ask Apple about any possibility of obtaining it in the US. There are at least two DAs (with fonts) for Korean typing, and I heard of a shareware product called MacHangul III. Another DA, which is a commercial product, is called WriteHangeul, but only heard of it in a Korean newspaper. Since they are DAs, they would automatically combine letters as you type, but I think the keyboard configuration varies. Last time I heard, this product went for ~$120. There are two commercial Korean fonts I saw in magazine ads, one of which I had a chance to work with. Here are the addresses and numbers: Linguist's Software 925 Hindley Ln. Edmonds, WA 98020 (206) 775-1130 Ecological Linguistics P.O. Box 15156 Washington, DC 20003-0156 (202) 546-5862 Linguist's provide fonts only, which means there are a lot of keys you have to memorize in order to form pretty letter combinations. They also have laser fonts, but not as pretty as the ones in HangulTalk. I am not sure of Ecological, but my guess is they may have the original foreign systems, not just fonts. You can ask them, though. Another source is the following, which have 22 foreign language fonts in one disk for ~$70 (from the ad), but I am not sure they include Korean. Devonian International Software Company P.O. Box 2351 Montclair, CA 91763 (714) 621-0973 I haven't seen any applications specifically designed for Korean, except the word processor ELEXegword, which is very much like the Japanese word processor EGword. It only works with HangulTalk, and not very useful. For myself, I created my own DA and have been using them for two years. I am not interested in distributing it, so it is crudely made, but it's better than spending money on products that don't even have auto letter combiner or that have a unaccustomed keyboard configuration. I hope to hear from others who have more information on Korean fonts/DAs or systems for Mac. JMPark