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There's a dearth of good Cantonese input methods for the Mac out there. So I made one myself, based on the LSHK Jyutping tables. The latest version is 1.1.1. I added some characters from the HKSCS, and added installation instructions for OS X 10.4 (Tiger). As of 2007.04.06, version 1.1.1 and the Yale input version 0.2 include the source data files, so you can fiddle with them and build your own, if you so desire.
Download Jyutping for Mac (for OS X 10.2 or later) (zip, 157 K, includes source)
Jyutping 1.1 (for OS 9 or OS X 10.1) (binary, 115 K)
Also available is a Yale-romanized Cantonese input method, which some people might be more used to.
Download Yale Cantonese for Mac (for OS X 10.2 or later) (zip, 139 K, includes source)
If you want other romanizations, you are welcome to play with the source files I've provided. Hint: a little perl goes a long way.
Despite providing a Jyuting input method here, I'm actually not sure it's a very good system for input. For one thing, it takes so many keystrokes! It's also a pain to always remember when to use "oe" and when to use "eo", which are so similar to each other, and moreover the vowels they represent are (phonologically) in complementary distribution, that it's really just an extra burden.
Also, I'm not sure it's the best system for people learning Cantonese, mainly because it uses numbers for tones. I mean, the numbers are practically hard-wired into my brain, and I still prefer drawing tone marks (acute accent for rising tone, etc.), not just because it's prettier but because it vaguely reminds you of of the pitch contour, whereas with numbers you get nothing. On that note, the Yale system of distinguishing lower register with an "h" certainly reduces the number of diacritics you need, but it's rather confusing.
OK, rant over.
For those of you who are interested, there's another Cantonese input method out there.
If you don't like the Jyutping romanization system, you can try downloading
the
I highly recommend PlecoDict, with the ABC Dictionary. It seems expensive, but it's worth every penny.
I use CJKOS, available at http://www.dyts.com. It's not bad, and includes a bunch of different input methods. On the down side, the English documentation leaves a bit to be desired. Also, the Dayi input method implementation is weird, but I appear to be one of the few people who use that particular input method. It's shareware $28.
There are actually a couple of Chinese systems for PalmOS. Besides CJKOS, I hear PalmDragon is pretty good, too. I'm not sure how to get it outside of Taiwan, though. For what it's worth, here's instructions in English.
The comprehensive source for information on Chinese on the Mac is The Chinese Mac FAQ.
CJK Tables for Eudora - for anyone who's still using Eudora (I've switched to OS X Mail). Eudora has trouble sending out emails with Chinese in them. These tables help a little.
