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I found the post How does one type Chinese in LaTeX? about how to typeset Chinese in Latex. I just encountered the same problem, and my questions are:

1.To type Chinese or Japanese, I have to have some particular packages (such as CJK/XeCJK) installed, don't I?

2.I'm confused by the first solution in that post, it looks like this:

% UTF-8 encoding
% Compile with latex+dvipdfmx, pdflatex or xelatex
% XeLaTeX is recommanded
% Some Chinese fonts should be installed in your system (SimSun, SimHei, FangSong, KaiTi)
\documentclass[UTF8]{ctexart}
\begin{document}
文章内容。
\end{document}

The above solution just uses a class ctexart without any particular packages, and I tried to replace ctexart with article, it failed. So I wonder what is special about ctexart which can display Chinese without any add-on packages?

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  • 4
    The ctexart document class itself loads CJK (if using pdflatex) or the xeCJK (if using xelatex) package, hence it works!
    – imnothere
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 7:46
  • @LianTzeLim, so if I want to type CJK characters, I have to get those packages (CJK or XeCJK) ready anyway, right?
    – avocado
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 7:49
  • 2
    That's right. You can install these packages pretty easily via the package management tools that come with TeXlive or MikTeX.
    – imnothere
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 8:02
  • @Mico, well, :-|
    – avocado
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 13:31

2 Answers 2

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  1. The following works pretty well in both LuaLaTeX and XeTeX without any special packages. fontspec (which I don't count among special packages) simply uses the SimSun font from Windows's font directory (as suggested in the code you're providing).

    \documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{SimSun}
\begin{document}
文章内容。
\end{document}

    enter image description here

  2. ctexart simply loads the packages it needs, see LianTze Lim's comment.

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  • Thanks, your fontspec solution works, but let me get it straight, why fontspec works? This package tell the tex engine how to handle the Chinese character?
    – avocado
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 7:53
  • fontspec is a package that basically provides a connection between XeTeX or LuaTeX and the fonts installed on your system, particularly .otf and .ttf files. When using Xe or Lua, fontspec is almost a must-load, even for people typesetting texts in plain English. If I wanted to use Times New Roman, I'd simply use that same code I gave you, but say \setmainfont{Times New Roman} instead. Note that in traditional pdfTeX, fontspec is neither required, nor does it work, as fonts are handled differently there. See also here.
    – Nils L
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 7:58
  • So, I have to compile the .tex using LuaTex or XeTex if I use fontspec, right?
    – avocado
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 8:06
  • that is correct.
    – Nils L
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 8:08
  • BTW, if I don't use \setmainfont{SimSun}, nothing shows in pdf, why? Without setmainfont, tex doesn't know how to do with the CJK characters? Furthermore, why use \setCJKmainfont when using package CJK? Can't I use setmainfont?
    – avocado
    Commented Mar 26, 2013 at 9:07
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ctexart, ctexbook and ctexrep are the equivalent to "article", "book" and "report" of the standard classes. You should definitely use those if you have Chinese text.

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