Google Khmer font shows only the square boxes

Question

I try to create a WebApp with Phonegap.

When I write Khmer (កើត​អាប់​ស) it works in Firefox and Chrome. But when I create the App (apk) my Smartphone only shows square boxes. But why?

I use this special font from Google
https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Khmer

Any ideas to fix this problem?

Answer 1

Details are available here which outline how to resolve the issue:

http://osify.com/2012/02/install-khmer-font-on-galaxy-s2-without-rooting-system/

To apply for Android 2.3.x:

1. Enable “unknown sources” installation (via Setting->Application)
2. Install Khmer.apk
3. Change font style
4. Settings > Display > Screen display > Font style
5. Choose Khmer
6. Restart the phone
7. Testing: Go to this website page: http://khnews.info/testing.html
8. To write Khmer, download Khmer keyboard from Android Market: Phum Keyboard or MultiLing Keyboard 9) To enable input keyboard:
   • Settings > Languages and keyboard > Select input method
   • Choose: Phum Keyboard (in my case)
   • After you should be able to see everything in Khmer even though the rendering is not fine, you can type Khmer Unicode as well.

Further details: http://adkhmer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:install-khmer-unicode-for-android-without-root&catid=6:android&Itemid=18

FlipFont is a great technology from Monotype Imaging and it is using in android phone of Samsung. The technology allows creating application for adding more fonts into android phone beside the fonts were shipped in system of the phone already.

Unfortunately, from Android 4.0 (ICS) and earlier version, FlipFont doesn't work with web browser, but it still find some more useful for Khmer, especially in Galaxy Note II with Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) for browsing song title, video name in Khmer in youtube and chat with friend via facebook messenger.

I would like to note that it works with facebook messenger found on Play Store only, it doens't work with facebook application yet. For facebook application on Google Play Store, we also can chat in Khmer, but we can’t read the feed post on the wall yet.

In Android 4.1.1, Khmer rendering work perfectly in all part of Android OS, but there are not font in system yet. So if you install Khmer.apk in Galaxy Note II, you can read and write Khmer in many applications without root the device.

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Otherwise, if I were coding a webpage and trying to get the font to display on someone's phone .. If modiX is correct I would use FontForge or any other font editor to import the glyphs from the original font into a new font file and reassign the glyphs to a unicode range within the limits of Android's range.

Answer 2

It seems Android does not support those UTF8 ranges, however you could root the device to get the necessary character set on the device.

I found an app that claims to do the same without root: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blogspot.androidsanctum.kui There are also direct APK installers on the web.