Asian languages do not display in IE8/XP

The Problem

Asian language characters (i.e. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese) render as rectangles/boxes in Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP. The glyphs display correctly in IE7 and FireFox.


Click here to jump right to The Solution, or read on for a brief analysis.

The Analysis

There are two inconvenient client-side workarounds; neither is a real solution. Microsoft states a per-page workaround, but it does not work for me.

The first client-side workaround is to click the "Compatibility" button to tell IE8 to re-render the page using the IE7 rendering engine. This would require your users to click this button in order to view your site, which is not user-friendly. Also, text in HTML <select> boxes is still rendered as boxes.


The second client-side workaround is to right-click the page and select:
Encoding ► More ► <problematic language>. The problem with this approach is: the encoding does not "stick"; you must re-select it for each page, and text in <select> boxes is still no different.


Microsoft's IE8 Readiness Toolkit states a per-page fix: add the following meta tag to tell IE8 to render the page like IE7. However when I add this tag, all characters still look like boxes, so this does not work.

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"/>

The Solution

There are two solutions:

1. Solution 1 requires a web-server change; Asian characters in <select> boxes
   will not display correctly.
2. Solution 2 requires a client-side Windows Control Panel change; all Asian text will display correctly.

Solution 1: Web Server Change

Add to your web server an HTTP response header which instructs IE8 to render the page using the old IE7 renderer. Note: Asian characters displayed in HTML <select> boxes will not render in IE8 nor IE7; if you need that to work, skip to Solution 2.

The HTTP header that fixes IE8 Asian characters in all text except <select> boxes:

X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE7

Solution 2: Windows Control Panel change

Microsoft has tied Internet Explorer 8 directly into your computer's Regional & Language Support settings. This makes sense, but it's unfortunate for IE since Asian languages work out-of-the box with other web browsers.

To view Chinese, Korean, Japanese and other East Asian languages in all text on web pages in both IE8 and in IE7, follow this. In Windows XP go to:

Control Panel ► Regional and Language Options ► Languages

Check the "Install files for East Asian languages" option, insert your Windows XP CD-ROM, and restart when it's done:


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