Need some help for implement chinese language on a very little HIM product.

A little product. not a lot of memory and... 20000 chinese char!!
For the moment, don't care about chinese standard
(big5, unicode or GB).
1st problem is what's the minimal number of char I need to build a correct HMI application for a commom chinese customer.I read between 400 and 1500. Is it right? As I haven't lots of memory for the font, I have to make a choice

Is there some font in gif or jpeg format?

If you I have some ideas about a cheap solution.You're welcome.

 

Runing your HMI on windows2000 (english version is available),You can input any chinese words in your interface.

 

The gif generator at http://www.mandarintools.com may be of some help.