# Cannot display Chinese

**URL:** <https://igraph.discourse.group/t/cannot-display-chinese/940>\
**Category:** Usage\
**Tags:** Python\
**Created:** [29 October 2021 07:51 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/cannot-display-chinese/940 "2021-10-29T07:51:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ning\_Shang](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/ning_shang/32/617_2.png) [@Ning\_Shang](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/Ning_Shang)\
**Post date:** [29 October 2021 07:51 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/cannot-display-chinese/940/1 "2021-10-29T07:51:19Z")

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i use igraph in linux ，it cannot display Chinese labels when i use function igraph.plot(g)

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**Author:** ![tamas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/tamas/32/1261_2.png) [@tamas](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/tamas)\
**Post date:** [29 October 2021 12:49 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/cannot-display-chinese/940/2 "2021-10-29T12:49:23Z")

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igraph’s support for non-Latin characters depends on the underlying plotting backend. The default is Cairo, and I’m not sure whether Cairo is sophisticated enough to deal with it; chances are that its default font does not support Chinese characters.

Recent versions of `python-igraph` support Matplotlib as an alternative plotting backend; basically you need to construct a Matplotlib `Axes` object and then call `igraph.plot(g, target=axes)`, which will in turn use Matplotlib to draw the graph on the given `Axes` using Matplotlib. I believe that Matplotlib has better support for non-Latin characters so I would try that first if I were you.