strange characters with OSM in Central Asia

[giuseppe66]

Good evening, when traveling in Central Asia I use OSM maps on XT because Garmin maps are not available but searching for cities or streets is difficult as the characters are not Latin ones but rather a kind of translation into strange characters occurs. The example photograph is Iran. Has anyone actually found a solution to display the Latin characters like google maps does for the same area? Thank you

[FrankB]

I haven't got a solution, but I can tell you more about the problem.

- Most, if not all, OSM maps are created by a program called MKGMAP. This program has a few options to set the character set.

--code-page = xxxx
--latin
--unicode

For most European, and US countries, --latin is just fine. For Asia however you need to use --unicode. This will create a map with the correct characters for Basecamp. If you try to install the map onto the Zumo XT you will get an error.
So in short, it can work for Basecamp, but not for the XT.

- See under the heading LABEL OPTIONS: https://www.mkgmap.org.uk/doc/options
- https://openmtbmap.org/garmin/unicode-maps/

Edit: Will look into the option to show Latin characters.

[giuseppe66]

thanks. I try with Iran for sample

[FrankB]

There is an option in MKGMAP: name-tag-list=name:en,int_name,name
It specifies to get in this order: the english name, the international name the local name.

This option does work, but in your example of Iran a lot of places dont have an English name in OSM, so it will only help a little.

I have no more ideas. Good luck.

[FrankB]

thanks. I try with Iran for sample

If you want to have a look at the map I made for Iran, send me a private message with your email address. I can send it to you via wetransfer. It just over 550 Mb.

[giuseppe66]

many thanks for your availability. I travel by motorcycle and would have to cross Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and then return to Europe from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Nepal, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan have few roads so the navigator is rarely used, for Russia I have the Garmin map and now I check what the maps are like for Pakistan and India. I'll update you as soon as possible. Thank you and good day