foreign language

[basia707]

Hi
I am a press photographer working in Poland. I came to know PhotoMechanic some time ago when I worked in the US, I loved the program and wanted to use it back home in Poland, but when I downloaded a trial version it turned out that I cannot write captions in Polish (we have some vowels and consonants that do not exist in Latin alphabet). I was wondering if it is possible to download somehow the foreign language? or maybe the new version of PhotoMechanic has different languages?
Barbara

[Hayo Baan]

Are you sure this doesn't work?  While I don't use polish (accented) characters, I do have files with Icelandic characters in the captions and this works fine.  I currently have the IPTC encoding set to "Windows Latin1+Euro", but I'm sure you should be able to get the characters with any encoding supporting your characters.  For max portability, you should perhaps use UTF-8 (though not all software likes utf encoded IPTC info).

Hope this helps.

[basia707]

hi
thanks for you answer. it helped (i didn't notice there were different ITPC encoding possibilities), you are right - Unicode saves the exact letters.
but I still have some questions:
1. how do I know which enocoding set supports my language? is there a list or something? I tried different ones, one that seemed right for Polish like "Microsoft Central Europe" but it didn't recognize it and the program suggested using Unicode but as you said, I would rather use specific encoding not the Unicode
2. how do I set a specific ITPC encoding for all the pictures and for the future pictures I will download? the program has "Mac Roman" as default and I don't know how to change it. I found an option in Tools - Convert IPTC Encoding. is it that? if so, could you explain me what to do? (I don't understand this option too well )

I would really aprecciate your answer
Thanks

[Hayo Baan]

hi
thanks for you answer. it helped (i didn't notice there were different ITPC encoding possibilities), you are right - Unicode saves the exact letters.

Great, glad it helped

but I still have some questions:
1. how do I know which enocoding set supports my language? is there a list or something? I tried different ones, one that seemed right for Polish like "Microsoft Central Europe" but it didn't recognize it and the program suggested using Unicode but as you said, I would rather use specific encoding not the Unicode

I think the Windows Latin1+Euro encoding will have most, if not all, of your characters, and if I'm not mistaken is the default Windows character encoding anyway.   Another likely candidate would be Latin2 Central+Eastern Europe.  The problem with any encoding other than UTF is that the receiving side must use the exact same encoding, or they risk interpreting the special characters wrongly.  I have seen ample examples of that in this forum in the past.  Of course this isn't a problem if you use it only for yourself.

2. how do I set a specific ITPC encoding for all the pictures and for the future pictures I will download? the program has "Mac Roman" as default and I don't know how to change it. I found an option in Tools - Convert IPTC Encoding. is it that? if so, could you explain me what to do? (I don't understand this option too well )

The default encoding can be specified in the preferences, on the IPTC/XMP tab at the top.

I just performed some tests with the convert IPTC encoding and it does what it says it does: it converts the encoding for the embedded IPTC data from the specified to the specified encoding or Unicode.

One thing to remember is that the encoding only has to do with the IPTC information, not with the XMP information (which is always Unicode).

What is confusing is that the IPTC Info screen always shows the default encoding (which is to be expected as the encoding is not actually part of the IPTC data), but moreover, resets the write unicode flag to your default as well (and that one IS actually part of the saved IPTC data)...

By the way, having said all this, do you embed the XMP data as well, and is that preferred to IPTC?  If it is, you should be fine actually regardless of the font encoding!

Hope this helps.

[basia707]

Hi
thanks again.
although I must admit I feel a bit stupid, I don't understand much of all this ITPC, XMP, all I know is I have to take a great picture and send it to my agency ASAP  I am really confused with all this techincal stuff. anyway my agency asked me to you use "ANSI", so I use this version and "write as unicode".
everything seemed fine but I have encountered a seriouse problem- if I write caption first in Photomechanic and then open a picture in photoshop, then do some adjustments and then save it under a different name and re-open it in PhotoMechanic the Polish letters become question marks. is there a way to avoid it?
regards
Barbara

[Hayo Baan]

Barbara,

The problem is with Photoshop; it doesn't understand the "ANSI" encoding, only (?) the Windows Latin1+Euro (or Mac Roman, on a Mac) one.
I confirmed this just now by taking an image with Icelandic characters, opening it in Photoshop (Elements in my case); the characters showed-up fine.  Then converted the encoding to ANSI, reopened, and got question marks for the unknown characters.

Actually this is quite logical: the character encoding is NOT saved with the IPTC information so each program will use its own interpretation.  For Windows-based programs, this will most likely be Windows Latin1+Euro. On the Mac, it will be Mac Roman.

The solution in your case:
Use the Windows Latin1+Euro encoding (assuming you are using Windows), or Mac Roman (if you're using a Mac).  Do all your editing and then prior to sending the files to your agency, convert the encoding to ANSI.  This should work.

Hope this solves all

[basia707]

thanks a lot!! now I finally get it