Handwriting input for Chinese characters in Ubuntu

In the article about setting up Chinese support in the freely distributed Ubuntu operating system (Ubuntu), I mentioned that it includes easily installed Chinese fonts and input methods (Pinyin, Zhuyin, and others), as well as the office suite "OpenOffice" (OpenOffice) with East Asian language support. Today I offer readers instructions for installing the Chinese (and Japanese) character handwriting program "Tegaki" (Tegaki) in the April 2010 release of Ubuntu.

Tegaki is installed by running just one terminal command:

sudo aptitude install tegaki-recognize tegaki-train tegaki-zinnia-simplified-chinese

In the April 2010 Ubuntu release, all dependencies are satisfied without difficulty.

Since, when working in "GNOME" (Gnome), I use the "IBus" (ibus) input method to enter Chinese characters, the need to integrate "Tegaki" with the "IBus" input method seems obvious and indisputable. The integration package’s source should be downloaded from the same official Tegaki project website. This package is installed using three commands:

unpack: tar -zxvf ~/ibus-tegaki-0.3.1.tar.gz
change to the source code folder: cd ibus-tegaki-0.3.1/
run the installer: sudo python setup.py install --prefix /usr

Left-click the "IBus" input method icon in the notification area and choose "Preferences". Open the "Input Method" tab, open "Other" in the drop-down menu, select "Tegaki", click "Add", and configure the input-switching shortcuts as you prefer (personally, I switch between Russian and Chinese using "Ctrl" and "Shift", start the "IBus" input method with "Ctrl" and "Space", and switch between "Pinyin" Chinese character input, which is set as the default, and handwriting input by pressing "Alt_L" and "Shift".

It should be added that versions of this program are also available for Windows and Mac.

Finally, a screenshot: