Sunday, July 08, 2007
Time to move on from SPIonic
A recent correspondent commented on a repeated problem with the use of the SPIonic font, the free Scholars Press font designed by James Adair that has served Biblical scholars and students well for over ten years. The problem is that many users have confused the vau/digamma with the final sigma. Published books and articles are regularly produced with the wrong letter. It's something I have battled with for a long time, often having to point this out to graduate students, or correcting it in manuscripts I am reviewing or editing. There are other serious issues with the font too, not least among which is the necessity to use different keystrokes for accenting different width of vowels, something few users realize, and which results in some horrible looking manuscripts. For a long time, the solution was simply education, to make scholars, students and publishers aware of the difficulties. But the time has now surely come to say a warm and nostalgic thanks and to bid it adieu. For those who have not yet embraced unicode, now is the time to do it. For those who have, let's continue to try to persuade those who haven't.
Labels: Greek fonts, Unicode
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Type Greek
I've added a link to a fine new resource on my Greek Fonts page:
Type Greek
By Randy Hoyt: a very useful tool, describing itself as "a web-based software tool that converts text from a standard keyboard into beautiful, polytonic Greek characters as you type. Using an easy-to-learn and standardized system called beta code, TypeGreek converts your keystrokes into Unicode-compliant Greek in real-time."
If you are not yet typing in unicode, this may be just what you are looking for. It behaves in the same way as the Unicode Classical Greek Inputter by James Naughton, which has often been mentioned on this blog (see all my entries on Unicode).
One minor comment: I find that the iota subscript only works if I am using a standard US keyboard, so to get it to work on my current computers, I have to switch to a US keyboard from my default UK keyboard. My guess is that that is a peculiarity of using a US PC with a UK keyboard, so this issue may be unique to the tiny set of people like me. (And if you want to know why I use a UK keyboard, it's because the @ is in a different place; likewise inverted commas and the £ symbol; years of touch typing on a UK keyboard makes the switch to US difficult).
Type Greek
By Randy Hoyt: a very useful tool, describing itself as "a web-based software tool that converts text from a standard keyboard into beautiful, polytonic Greek characters as you type. Using an easy-to-learn and standardized system called beta code, TypeGreek converts your keystrokes into Unicode-compliant Greek in real-time."
If you are not yet typing in unicode, this may be just what you are looking for. It behaves in the same way as the Unicode Classical Greek Inputter by James Naughton, which has often been mentioned on this blog (see all my entries on Unicode).
One minor comment: I find that the iota subscript only works if I am using a standard US keyboard, so to get it to work on my current computers, I have to switch to a US keyboard from my default UK keyboard. My guess is that that is a peculiarity of using a US PC with a UK keyboard, so this issue may be unique to the tiny set of people like me. (And if you want to know why I use a UK keyboard, it's because the @ is in a different place; likewise inverted commas and the £ symbol; years of touch typing on a UK keyboard makes the switch to US difficult).
Labels: Greek NT Gateway, NT Gateway Updates, Unicode
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Latest Tyndale Tech: Biblical Fonts and Mac Woes
The latest Tyndale Tech email is now available online:
Biblical Fonts and Mac Woes: A Solution
April 2007
The good news for everyone is that Unicode has solved all our font problems.
The bad news for Mac users is that Hebrew doesn't work properly in Word.
The really good news is that NeoOffice now works as well as Word, with Hebrew, for free!
As usual, it's full of useful advice and great links. A couple of comments to come later.
Update (16:10): Danny Zacharias has some excellent comments on Latest Tyndale Tech: Some Clarifications.
Biblical Fonts and Mac Woes: A Solution
April 2007
The good news for everyone is that Unicode has solved all our font problems.
The bad news for Mac users is that Hebrew doesn't work properly in Word.
The really good news is that NeoOffice now works as well as Word, with Hebrew, for free!
As usual, it's full of useful advice and great links. A couple of comments to come later.
Update (16:10): Danny Zacharias has some excellent comments on Latest Tyndale Tech: Some Clarifications.
Labels: Deinde, Tyndale Tech, Unicode
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Sorting Unicode Greek in MS Word
Steven Craig Miller has written a great little macro to facilitate sorting in MS Word a list of accented Greek words in Greek alphabetical order. I offered to host it here on the NT Gateway, and have added a link on the NT Greek Computer Software page, to the following effect:
Sorting Unicode Greek in MS Word [Zip archive]Oh, and while I was at it, I updated all the links on that page too.
By Steven Craig Miller. Click on the link to download a macro which facilitates sorting in MS Word a list of accented Greek words in Greek alphabetical order. Instructions on how to use the macro and exactly what it does is in a PDF file, while the macro itself is in a text file entitled "ConvertUnicodeGreek2Uppercase". For security reasons, a copy of the macro is also in the PDF file. This archive is hosted here at the NT Gateway, but if you have any questions, please e-mail the author of the macro at: stevencraigmiller@comcast.net.
Labels: Greek Computer Software, Greek NT Gateway, NT Gateway Updates, Unicode
Monday, November 13, 2006
Using technology in conferences presentations: some advice
With the SBL Annual Meeting on the horizon, here are some thoughts about the use of technology in conference presentations. These emerge partly from the fact that I am trying to make my mind up about whether to use powerpoint or not in my paper, and this is the advice I am giving myself:
(1) Only use powerpoint if it will enhance your presentation. It is quite possible that the presentation will detract from your ability to communicate clearly and effectively. What are you hoping to achieve by using it? Do you need to show images or diagrams? Is there some kind of representation of the data that the visual aid of powerpoint will help?
(2) If you use powerpoint, or any other projections from a computer, keep in mind that when you get there the technology may not work, even if you are well prepared and if there is a technical person on hand and everything else. Sometimes, nay often, an unforeseen technical hitch occurs. So if you are planning to use powerpoint, make sure you are not reliant on it. Make sure that you have a back-up plan, e.g. hand-outs are always worth preparing and seldom go wrong. Think of that happy comfort of knowing that you have your hand-outs all ready in your suitcase, and that all you have to do is make sure that the suitcase makes it with you. (And speaking of that, make sure you have your electronic back-up in your hand luggage or better, on the net, for when your suitcase goes missing).
(3) If you are planning to use your laptop for powerpoint, take a USB cable with you. You may get to the room and find a projector, a wire and no way to plug it into your laptop.
(4) Have a back-up plan in case your laptop goes on the blink. Take your powerpoint presentation on your flashdrive too, so that you can plug it into a PC in the room, or someone else's laptop, in case of difficulties. And take your presentation on a CD-ROM too just in case neither laptop nor flashdrive works with the PC in the room.
(5) You may lose your CD-ROM and flashdrive, so make sure that you have also loaded your presentation somewhere on the net, either by emailing it to yourself, putting it on Yahoo!briefcase, or whatever.
(6) If you are not using unicode fonts in a presentation that needs the fonts to be displayed correctly (e.g. if using Greek or Hebrew), make sure you embed your fonts in your presentation. This is especially important for (4) above, where you are using your flashdrive or your CD-ROM for the presentation. You do not want your carefully planned Greek diagrams to be gobbledygook because you've used a nice Greek font that isn't going to show up on the room's PC.
(7) If you are planning to use your laptop, make sure that you know how to toggle between your laptop monitor and the projector. Don't expect someone else present, even a techie, to know how your laptop works; that's your responsibility.
(8) Arrive at least twenty minutes before the session you are speaking in begins so that you can introduce yourself to the chair, warn him/her that you are planning to use some technology, and get everything set up and tested. Remember that even if you are last in a two and a half hour session, you may not have a minute to sort out your technology during the session, so it is essential that you arrive in plenty of time before the beginning. That way you know well in advance of the session starting whether or not the technology is working. You then have time either to relax in the knowledge that all is well, or to find time to compose yourself in the knowledge that it is not.
(9) If the technology is not working, grit your teeth and get on with your presentation without mentioning it. Ideally, do not mention it at all. If you must, mention once and once only that you had prepared a great presentation. If you do have to do this, use humour and don't be resentful. Your audience may feel a bit sorry for you if you can't show your powerpoint, but that's the end of it. They will not appreciate it if you keep going on about how great your presentation would have been if only you could illustrate it properly. After a while they will stop feeling sorry for you and will start feeling embarrassed before you.
Now this probably sounds horribly neurotic, but every one of the things mentioned above are the result of my own direct experience, either presenting, chairing or participating in sessions using technology, and I offer them in the hope of sparing someone somewhere some anxiety.
(1) Only use powerpoint if it will enhance your presentation. It is quite possible that the presentation will detract from your ability to communicate clearly and effectively. What are you hoping to achieve by using it? Do you need to show images or diagrams? Is there some kind of representation of the data that the visual aid of powerpoint will help?
(2) If you use powerpoint, or any other projections from a computer, keep in mind that when you get there the technology may not work, even if you are well prepared and if there is a technical person on hand and everything else. Sometimes, nay often, an unforeseen technical hitch occurs. So if you are planning to use powerpoint, make sure you are not reliant on it. Make sure that you have a back-up plan, e.g. hand-outs are always worth preparing and seldom go wrong. Think of that happy comfort of knowing that you have your hand-outs all ready in your suitcase, and that all you have to do is make sure that the suitcase makes it with you. (And speaking of that, make sure you have your electronic back-up in your hand luggage or better, on the net, for when your suitcase goes missing).
(3) If you are planning to use your laptop for powerpoint, take a USB cable with you. You may get to the room and find a projector, a wire and no way to plug it into your laptop.
(4) Have a back-up plan in case your laptop goes on the blink. Take your powerpoint presentation on your flashdrive too, so that you can plug it into a PC in the room, or someone else's laptop, in case of difficulties. And take your presentation on a CD-ROM too just in case neither laptop nor flashdrive works with the PC in the room.
(5) You may lose your CD-ROM and flashdrive, so make sure that you have also loaded your presentation somewhere on the net, either by emailing it to yourself, putting it on Yahoo!briefcase, or whatever.
(6) If you are not using unicode fonts in a presentation that needs the fonts to be displayed correctly (e.g. if using Greek or Hebrew), make sure you embed your fonts in your presentation. This is especially important for (4) above, where you are using your flashdrive or your CD-ROM for the presentation. You do not want your carefully planned Greek diagrams to be gobbledygook because you've used a nice Greek font that isn't going to show up on the room's PC.
(7) If you are planning to use your laptop, make sure that you know how to toggle between your laptop monitor and the projector. Don't expect someone else present, even a techie, to know how your laptop works; that's your responsibility.
(8) Arrive at least twenty minutes before the session you are speaking in begins so that you can introduce yourself to the chair, warn him/her that you are planning to use some technology, and get everything set up and tested. Remember that even if you are last in a two and a half hour session, you may not have a minute to sort out your technology during the session, so it is essential that you arrive in plenty of time before the beginning. That way you know well in advance of the session starting whether or not the technology is working. You then have time either to relax in the knowledge that all is well, or to find time to compose yourself in the knowledge that it is not.
(9) If the technology is not working, grit your teeth and get on with your presentation without mentioning it. Ideally, do not mention it at all. If you must, mention once and once only that you had prepared a great presentation. If you do have to do this, use humour and don't be resentful. Your audience may feel a bit sorry for you if you can't show your powerpoint, but that's the end of it. They will not appreciate it if you keep going on about how great your presentation would have been if only you could illustrate it properly. After a while they will stop feeling sorry for you and will start feeling embarrassed before you.
Now this probably sounds horribly neurotic, but every one of the things mentioned above are the result of my own direct experience, either presenting, chairing or participating in sessions using technology, and I offer them in the hope of sparing someone somewhere some anxiety.
Labels: presenting papers, Unicode
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Recommending resources for NT graduates
On Thursday this week, our New Testament and Judaic Studies Colloquium at Duke, which meets three or four time each term, was devoted to looking at bibliographical and other resources, with an eye specifically on graduate students. Joel Marcus talked about key books, bibliographical resources and the like for the first part of the colloquium, and brought down a large mobile bookcase filled with his special selections including BDAG, Hatch and Redpath, New Testament Abstracts, and loads more, some of which were new to me. Eric Meyers followed up with some recommended resources for the study of early Judaism and Yael Wilfand talked about and demonstrated the remarkable Judaic Responsa, which was completely new to me.
I had been asked to take half an hour to introduce people to some important electronic resources. I took my laptop along and plugged it into the data projector and led people through one or two things that were recent and worthwhile, thinking in particular of things that people might not have known about, or might never have dabbled in. As well as mentioning one or two global things like Firefox (do you have Firefox 2 yet?), I stressed the importance of people coming to terms with unicode, and suggested my Greek New Testament Gateway: Fonts page as a good place to begin. It really is time to drop SPIonic and embrace the unicode revolution. (If only we could persuade more of the publishers of this.)
I pointed people to ATLA as a wonderful bibliographical resource (and more), but added that JSTOR is currently going from strength to strength and often provides a far more user-friendly viewing experience (e.g. PDF downloads) for articles they have available. Where our students were on a Duke computer, or on a Virtual Private Network link up, they can access a world of information on-line through ATLA and JSTOR. I introduced Google Scholar too, which I find myself using ever more frequently, and Google Books, which I have been enjoying a great deal since the recent launch of the "Full view books" capability, with PDF downloads, on old volumes -- and I showed them the first page of Grenfell and Hunt's 1897 LOGIA IHSOU.
Among other recent resources, I had to give priority to Zhubert.com, which I use regularly, and have recently added to the left hand column here, and have promoted to top billing on the Greek New Testament Gateway. I showed how one can click on words, go to word statistics and lexica and so on.
I had been asked to take half an hour to introduce people to some important electronic resources. I took my laptop along and plugged it into the data projector and led people through one or two things that were recent and worthwhile, thinking in particular of things that people might not have known about, or might never have dabbled in. As well as mentioning one or two global things like Firefox (do you have Firefox 2 yet?), I stressed the importance of people coming to terms with unicode, and suggested my Greek New Testament Gateway: Fonts page as a good place to begin. It really is time to drop SPIonic and embrace the unicode revolution. (If only we could persuade more of the publishers of this.)
I pointed people to ATLA as a wonderful bibliographical resource (and more), but added that JSTOR is currently going from strength to strength and often provides a far more user-friendly viewing experience (e.g. PDF downloads) for articles they have available. Where our students were on a Duke computer, or on a Virtual Private Network link up, they can access a world of information on-line through ATLA and JSTOR. I introduced Google Scholar too, which I find myself using ever more frequently, and Google Books, which I have been enjoying a great deal since the recent launch of the "Full view books" capability, with PDF downloads, on old volumes -- and I showed them the first page of Grenfell and Hunt's 1897 LOGIA IHSOU.
Among other recent resources, I had to give priority to Zhubert.com, which I use regularly, and have recently added to the left hand column here, and have promoted to top billing on the Greek New Testament Gateway. I showed how one can click on words, go to word statistics and lexica and so on.
Labels: Unicode
Friday, May 20, 2005
Tyndale Tech Latest -- Unicode
The latest Tyndale Tech email arrived today from David Instone Brewer (not yet on the web) and it returns to the theme of Biblical language fonts and unicode. David has now dispensed with some of his previous qualms about the adoption of unicode, especially for those working with Macs (see April 2004: Greek and Hebrew Fonts: Unicode and Older and my blog comment Unicode: Tyndale Tech and some thoughts on Greek) and he has developed several of his own new utilities, including the following, in the tradition of his previous Tyndale Font Kits:
One minor comment: David suggests that "Unicode fonts are loved by publishers". That has not been my own experience yet, though I think it is beginning to change. One of the biggest Theology and Religion / Biblical Studies publishers, T and T Clark International / Continuum, still go with SPIonic, something I'd like to see them change. I have found that other publishers are amenable to shifting to unicode when the aesthetics of font choice are pointed out, e.g. Palatino Linotype's Greek looks a whole league division more attractive than SPIonic.
To subscribe to the Tyndale Tech updates, if you are not already receiving them, go to Tyndale Tech and scroll to the bottom.
For more web helps on working with unicode, and especially Greek, see The Greek New Testament Gateway: Fonts.
Tyndale Unicode Font Kit for PCsI have not had chance to try these out for myself yet, but clearly it is likely to be another excellent and helpful tool.
http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Download/TyndaleUnicodePC.exe
Save this installer on your desktop, double-click on it to install the files, and follow the simple instructions to activate it. Then you can delete it.
Tyndale Unicode Font Kit for Macs
http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Download/TyndaleUnicodeMac.zip
Download this, open the folder, and open the "Instructions" file
One minor comment: David suggests that "Unicode fonts are loved by publishers". That has not been my own experience yet, though I think it is beginning to change. One of the biggest Theology and Religion / Biblical Studies publishers, T and T Clark International / Continuum, still go with SPIonic, something I'd like to see them change. I have found that other publishers are amenable to shifting to unicode when the aesthetics of font choice are pointed out, e.g. Palatino Linotype's Greek looks a whole league division more attractive than SPIonic.
To subscribe to the Tyndale Tech updates, if you are not already receiving them, go to Tyndale Tech and scroll to the bottom.
For more web helps on working with unicode, and especially Greek, see The Greek New Testament Gateway: Fonts.
Labels: Tyndale Tech, Unicode
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Unicode for Greek Guidelines
Thanks to Bob Buller for letting me know of the existence of this excellent article at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University:
Preliminary Guidelines to Using Unicode for Greek
Deborah Anderson
This will also be worth adding to the new unicode section on my Fonts page later on.
Preliminary Guidelines to Using Unicode for Greek
Deborah Anderson
This will also be worth adding to the new unicode section on my Fonts page later on.
Labels: Unicode
Thursday, February 10, 2005
More helps with unicode
I am happy to see Joe Weaks now posting some useful introductory material on unicode on his Macintosh Biblioblog
Unicode: A Bible Scholar's Introduction
I look forward to the future instalments. I took a session today in our Biblical Studies seminar on Greek fonts, and especially unicode, and pointed to some of my own links of choice on the Greek NT Gateway fonts page. I was stirred to do this having seen so many PhD theses struggling with fonts. I reckon that I have probably asked for major font corrections in the majority of theses I've examined.
Meanwhile, the interesting discussions on unicode continue over on b-greek which last night included a particularly notable contribution from Peter Kirby who has released a beta of a programme called Greek Pad, available at http://www.peterkirby.com/greekpad.zip. It's a great facility and allows you to type in Beta code and get unicode output, which you then copy and paste into your document. One of the things it has over the Unicode Classical Greek Inputter is that you can see in three columns, first the beta code keystrokes you are typing in, then the unicode that is coming out, and then the code points. Peter has also done some clever stuff to allow you to type in unaccented Greek, then hit the enter / return key and get some accenting based on stored dictionary entries. I'm not yet clear quite how the latter will pan out since it will not, presumably, be able to distinguish between different forms of given words. For example, I typed in εν αρχη ην ο λογος, pressed return and got ἐν ἀρχὴ ἣν ὁ λόγος and not Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. But it is a beta, and it's another cracking resource.
Unicode: A Bible Scholar's Introduction
I look forward to the future instalments. I took a session today in our Biblical Studies seminar on Greek fonts, and especially unicode, and pointed to some of my own links of choice on the Greek NT Gateway fonts page. I was stirred to do this having seen so many PhD theses struggling with fonts. I reckon that I have probably asked for major font corrections in the majority of theses I've examined.
Meanwhile, the interesting discussions on unicode continue over on b-greek which last night included a particularly notable contribution from Peter Kirby who has released a beta of a programme called Greek Pad, available at http://www.peterkirby.com/greekpad.zip. It's a great facility and allows you to type in Beta code and get unicode output, which you then copy and paste into your document. One of the things it has over the Unicode Classical Greek Inputter is that you can see in three columns, first the beta code keystrokes you are typing in, then the unicode that is coming out, and then the code points. Peter has also done some clever stuff to allow you to type in unaccented Greek, then hit the enter / return key and get some accenting based on stored dictionary entries. I'm not yet clear quite how the latter will pan out since it will not, presumably, be able to distinguish between different forms of given words. For example, I typed in εν αρχη ην ο λογος, pressed return and got ἐν ἀρχὴ ἣν ὁ λόγος and not Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. But it is a beta, and it's another cracking resource.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Greek NT Gateway: Fonts update
I have finally got round to updating the following:
Greek New Testament Gateway: Greek Fonts
I have introduced a fresh (and much overdue) section on unicode, which I have prioritised. I have also tried to provide a little more than just a series of annotated links and have drawn special attention to the useful guides supplied by John Schwandt and Rodney Decker, both of which I have found very helpful.
One of the resources I had been using for some time myself is also linked on my updated page, the Unicode Classical Greek Inputter, but at the encouragement of Randall Buth on b-greek and Stephen Carlson on Hypotyposeis, I have begun using a proper Greek keyboard myself for inputting unicode Greek. And there's no better guide on how to get going on that on the PC than John Schwandt's previously mentioned.
Greek New Testament Gateway: Greek Fonts
I have introduced a fresh (and much overdue) section on unicode, which I have prioritised. I have also tried to provide a little more than just a series of annotated links and have drawn special attention to the useful guides supplied by John Schwandt and Rodney Decker, both of which I have found very helpful.
One of the resources I had been using for some time myself is also linked on my updated page, the Unicode Classical Greek Inputter, but at the encouragement of Randall Buth on b-greek and Stephen Carlson on Hypotyposeis, I have begun using a proper Greek keyboard myself for inputting unicode Greek. And there's no better guide on how to get going on that on the PC than John Schwandt's previously mentioned.
Unicode Greek Samples
On b-greek, Wieland Willker puts together samples of unicode Greek fonts to compare the "looks" of each, and compares with the non-unicode Bible Works:
Unicode Fonts samples [PDF]
It reminds me that I really must update my Greek fonts page; it's looking horribly long in the tooth.
Unicode Fonts samples [PDF]
It reminds me that I really must update my Greek fonts page; it's looking horribly long in the tooth.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Apocalypse of Peter on-line
When our post graduate Greek class here were reading Apocalypse of Peter last term, I noticed that there was no electronic text available on-line. So I have created one:
The Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim Fragment) [MS Word]
I have transcribed it from Lic. Dr. Erich Klostermann (ed.), Apocrypha I: Reste Des Petrusevangeliums, Der Petrus-Apocakalypse und des Kerygmati Petri (Bonn: A. Marcus und E. Weber’s Verlag, 1903): 8-11. It's in MS Word format, but I'll add a PDF version later on. It uses Palatino Linotype, which is a unicode font. I am encouraging people to send corrections to me at M.S.Goodacre@bham.ac.uk so that we can ensure the most accurate text possible.
Update (20.34): thanks to Danny Zacharias for providing this PDF:
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim Fragment) [PDF]
Update (23.52): Ricoblog comments.
The Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim Fragment) [MS Word]
I have transcribed it from Lic. Dr. Erich Klostermann (ed.), Apocrypha I: Reste Des Petrusevangeliums, Der Petrus-Apocakalypse und des Kerygmati Petri (Bonn: A. Marcus und E. Weber’s Verlag, 1903): 8-11. It's in MS Word format, but I'll add a PDF version later on. It uses Palatino Linotype, which is a unicode font. I am encouraging people to send corrections to me at M.S.Goodacre@bham.ac.uk so that we can ensure the most accurate text possible.
Update (20.34): thanks to Danny Zacharias for providing this PDF:
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim Fragment) [PDF]
Update (23.52): Ricoblog comments.
Labels: Apocalypse of Peter, Non-canonical, Unicode
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Sophokeys
One of these days I really will get round to finishing my reflections on Unicode, and completing a revamp of my Greek fonts page on the NT Gateway, but while it's current, let me mention that the Stoa draws attention to a useful looking new facility for those of you who are still struggling to come to terms with unicode (Greek in this case) and who have Macs. The facility is a new freeware Unicode keyboard layout for ancient Greek, via VersionTracker. It enables you to type in unicode but using the Beta Code keyboard. I've not tried it since I am a PC user, but here's the link for something that sounds useful:
Sophokeys
Unicode keyboard layout: type ancient Greek using Beta Code
Sophokeys
Unicode keyboard layout: type ancient Greek using Beta Code
Labels: Unicode
Monday, November 29, 2004
Unicode and Macs
Following on from my Unicode Lament, Ken Ristau comments (but please use the "Comments" facility and not this, "Old Comments" facility, which is there to keep the older Haloscan comments alive and will be dropped in due course) and Jim Davila emails to point out the problem re. unicode and the Mac. I am afraid that I am ignorant about Macs, but what I do know is that whenever I mention them here I get an avalanche of comments and emails, so I wonder if anyone is able to answer the question about unicode and Macs. If there is a significant problem with using unicode on Macs, I will agree that we should not all be quite so hasty in changing to unicode, and we'll have to stick around with SPIonic for a bit longer, but I'll bet that there is a good answer. Anyone?
Labels: Unicode
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Unicode Lament
In Sansblogue, Tim Bulkeley rightly laments some technical problems I reported on at the SBL,
When, oh when, will we hear the last of scholars who - through stubborn determination NOT to learn the first few things about the "new" technology (computers replacing the "older" technology of ink on paper) - ensure that their work is only accessible if others assist them!?I could not agree more. And believe me, these were the very thoughts going through my head as I presided at the session in question, not least when the speaker turned to me somewhat plaintively appealing that the Greek was "not working". But we are still such a long way from scholars getting on top of unicode, something that is surprisingly simple. I'm afraid that our publishers are behind the times too and many major publishers are still working with non-unicode fonts and are planning to continue to work with them for the foreseeable future. Until they take a lead, the problems will remain. And sadly, too, many post-graduate students are not picking up unicode because their supervisors are not taking a lead. In the mean time, the rest of us are just going to have to bang on about this until everyone starts listening, and training up our own students so that the next generation is ahead of this one.
People, there is this "new" thing called Unicode, it means that we are no longer font dependent in the same way. If you type Greek in ANY Unicode compliant font, and if I have ANY Unicode Greek compliant font available, I should see your Greek (or Hebrew or ...). Even if you use Rabbit fonts, but I use MasterFonts+, this is a gain worth learning a small new bag of tricks to perform.
Labels: Unicode
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Alan Wood's Unicode Resources
I've added this to my blogroll:
Alan Wood's Unicode Resouruces
A very useful resource for unicode, now with its own RSS feed for updates. I thought that I had spotted this on goranh but I can't see it at the moment.
Alan Wood's Unicode Resouruces
A very useful resource for unicode, now with its own RSS feed for updates. I thought that I had spotted this on goranh but I can't see it at the moment.
Labels: Unicode
Sunday, November 07, 2004
New version of Cardo
The Stoa announce a new version of the free unicode font Cardo:
Cardo Font Page
A major update to Cardo, a Unicode font designed for scholars, is now available at scholarsfonts.net. Version .98 adds over 1400 new characters, including all the Greek characters proposed for Unicode by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, variants of Greek letters for epigraphy and numismatics, and all the characters recommended by the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative. This version also supports glyph variants through OpenType features and provides other typographic refinements such as small capitals. Please pass the word to any colleagues who might be interested. Cardo works under Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.The Cardo Font page is here:
Version .98 will be in beta testing until January 31, 2005, after which it will be replaced by version 1.0. Please send any corrections or suggestions to me by that date.
Cardo Font Page
Labels: Unicode
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Carlson colours the Synopsis again
The world is divided into those who enjoying colouring their Synopsis and those who do not. Well, that's one way I like to divide the world up. I was taught to colour the Synopsis by Ed Sanders in his lectures on the Synoptic Gospels in Oxford in the mid 1980s and I was captivated by this straight away. There's no question that it is an ideal way of getting familiar with the data in the Synopsis. And everyone who has tried it at any length will have reached the stage where they become quite frustrated by it because it's never as easy to apply as you might wish. I did make the mistake as an undergraduate, though, of beginning to colour directly in my copy of Greeven's Synopsis. So I now always advise students to photocopy first and then colour; always avoid defacing books if possible, especially with coloured pencils.
I have just been teaching the Synoptic Problem and Redaction Criticism to new first year students over the last couple of weeks, so it is nice to have the topic of colouring the Synopsis come to light again on the web courtesy of Stephen Carlson's post today Multi-color Synopsis @ Synoptic Problem website, which draws attention to the relaunch of his colouring project, probably the first attempt to colour the Synopsis on the internet back in ?1996. Here's the first page of the new Synopsis:
John's Imprisonment
The first noticeable thing is the excellent and necessary move to unicode fonts from the Symbol font used in the earlier version, at the time a necessary evil. The second thing to notice is the colouring scheme, which Stephen explains in the blog entry, and which is continuous with the earlier system. One of the things that is fascinating about the business of Synopsis colouring is how different systems appear intuitive to different people, and I suppose this shows differences in how we find it helpful to view things. I remember looking at the way that other students did their revision and being surprised by how different it was to the way that I organised my own. I feel the same way now when I see how colleagues organise their hand-outs. This is something of a round-about way of saying that I don't at this stage find Stephen's scheme as intuitive as my own (explained in The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze, with English examples here and blogged on here), which to me has the advantage of giving at-a-glance visual clues to what kind of agreement one is dealing with. For example, since Mark is red, a purple in Matthew will tell us straight away that there is some Marcan material in Matthew here since purple has red in it. Or when I look at green material, I see something with no red in it whatsoever, and this is double tradition (Q) material, i.e Matthew (blue) + Luke (yellow). And so on -- I like the combinations and the way that the colours merge into one another and contrast with one another. For me it creates a kind of colour map of the Synopsis, representing visually the way in which the different agreements and disagreements are networking with one another.
But I didn't begin this post with a view to discussing again my own preferred scheme, but to commend Stephen on the re-launch of an excellent project.
Update (Wednesday, 23.32): Stephen Carlson comments and comes up with the great idea of using user-defined CSS (cascading style sheets) to override Stephen's own colour choices. I've followed Stephen's instructions and have adjusted the style sheet but can't seem to get it to achieve the desired result. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong there; is it just me? One comment, though: even if I can get it to work, Stephen's scheme works with triple tradition agreements = default / black text, and so not separately encoded, whereas mine works with triple tradition agreemnents as brown (i.e. expressive of blue+red+yellow, Matthew+Mark+Luke), so in order to get from Stephen's scheme to mine, the default text would also need to be encoded and not just left.
I've been thinking a little more about my scheme too and want to pose this question: what do we think we are doing when we colour the Synopsis? Well, for me one of the goals is to create a visual map of the way in which the different agreements network together, i.e. to find a way of visually presenting the contours of a given passage that one can pick up straight away. It's a bit like diagramming Greek grammar. The way the primary-colours and combinations scheme works is to present to the reader with a one-look demonstration of the different degrees of agreement and disagreement. I am not sure if I am finding a clear way to articulate this yet, and at the root of my inability to articulate it may be some misunderstanding on my part of how, for example, Stephen's scheme works, e.g. I am more familiar with primary colours and combinations in painting and paint-mixing than I am with "the primary colours of light", but in the latter does blue+red+green = black (Matt+Mark+Luke = triple agreemnt) in the same way that blue+red+yellow = brown on my scheme? It's probably just my ignorance showing here.
Update (Thursday, 16.02): Catherine Smith helps me out with the Primary Colours of Light with that link to a nice diagram. The diagrams here bear out my concern. The top one could be re-labelled according to my colouring scheme for the Synoptics, replacing blue / red / yellow with Matthew / Mark / Luke, purple with Matthew + Mark orange with Mark + Luke, green with Matthew + Luke, brown with Matthew + Mark + Luke. In fact, it occurs to me that that would be a useful way of my demonstrating my colouring scheme. But the same is not true for the primary colours of light in relation to Stephen's scheme since the latter has a rough adherence to the combinations but not a complete adherence.
One other thing -- Stephen corrects the CSS in his post on Synoptic Colors but I still can't get it to work for me. I am probably being Mr Thicko on this but can't work out what I am doing wrong.
I have just been teaching the Synoptic Problem and Redaction Criticism to new first year students over the last couple of weeks, so it is nice to have the topic of colouring the Synopsis come to light again on the web courtesy of Stephen Carlson's post today Multi-color Synopsis @ Synoptic Problem website, which draws attention to the relaunch of his colouring project, probably the first attempt to colour the Synopsis on the internet back in ?1996. Here's the first page of the new Synopsis:
John's Imprisonment
The first noticeable thing is the excellent and necessary move to unicode fonts from the Symbol font used in the earlier version, at the time a necessary evil. The second thing to notice is the colouring scheme, which Stephen explains in the blog entry, and which is continuous with the earlier system. One of the things that is fascinating about the business of Synopsis colouring is how different systems appear intuitive to different people, and I suppose this shows differences in how we find it helpful to view things. I remember looking at the way that other students did their revision and being surprised by how different it was to the way that I organised my own. I feel the same way now when I see how colleagues organise their hand-outs. This is something of a round-about way of saying that I don't at this stage find Stephen's scheme as intuitive as my own (explained in The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze, with English examples here and blogged on here), which to me has the advantage of giving at-a-glance visual clues to what kind of agreement one is dealing with. For example, since Mark is red, a purple in Matthew will tell us straight away that there is some Marcan material in Matthew here since purple has red in it. Or when I look at green material, I see something with no red in it whatsoever, and this is double tradition (Q) material, i.e Matthew (blue) + Luke (yellow). And so on -- I like the combinations and the way that the colours merge into one another and contrast with one another. For me it creates a kind of colour map of the Synopsis, representing visually the way in which the different agreements and disagreements are networking with one another.
But I didn't begin this post with a view to discussing again my own preferred scheme, but to commend Stephen on the re-launch of an excellent project.
Update (Wednesday, 23.32): Stephen Carlson comments and comes up with the great idea of using user-defined CSS (cascading style sheets) to override Stephen's own colour choices. I've followed Stephen's instructions and have adjusted the style sheet but can't seem to get it to achieve the desired result. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong there; is it just me? One comment, though: even if I can get it to work, Stephen's scheme works with triple tradition agreements = default / black text, and so not separately encoded, whereas mine works with triple tradition agreemnents as brown (i.e. expressive of blue+red+yellow, Matthew+Mark+Luke), so in order to get from Stephen's scheme to mine, the default text would also need to be encoded and not just left.
I've been thinking a little more about my scheme too and want to pose this question: what do we think we are doing when we colour the Synopsis? Well, for me one of the goals is to create a visual map of the way in which the different agreements network together, i.e. to find a way of visually presenting the contours of a given passage that one can pick up straight away. It's a bit like diagramming Greek grammar. The way the primary-colours and combinations scheme works is to present to the reader with a one-look demonstration of the different degrees of agreement and disagreement. I am not sure if I am finding a clear way to articulate this yet, and at the root of my inability to articulate it may be some misunderstanding on my part of how, for example, Stephen's scheme works, e.g. I am more familiar with primary colours and combinations in painting and paint-mixing than I am with "the primary colours of light", but in the latter does blue+red+green = black (Matt+Mark+Luke = triple agreemnt) in the same way that blue+red+yellow = brown on my scheme? It's probably just my ignorance showing here.
Update (Thursday, 16.02): Catherine Smith helps me out with the Primary Colours of Light with that link to a nice diagram. The diagrams here bear out my concern. The top one could be re-labelled according to my colouring scheme for the Synoptics, replacing blue / red / yellow with Matthew / Mark / Luke, purple with Matthew + Mark orange with Mark + Luke, green with Matthew + Luke, brown with Matthew + Mark + Luke. In fact, it occurs to me that that would be a useful way of my demonstrating my colouring scheme. But the same is not true for the primary colours of light in relation to Stephen's scheme since the latter has a rough adherence to the combinations but not a complete adherence.
One other thing -- Stephen corrects the CSS in his post on Synoptic Colors but I still can't get it to work for me. I am probably being Mr Thicko on this but can't work out what I am doing wrong.
Labels: Unicode
Saturday, October 09, 2004
The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha
Several other bibliobloggers have already mentioned this, but some links are too important not to underline oneself. This looks like a very promising project, properly thought-through and so far beautifully executed, using sophisticated but aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly lay-outs:
The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha
The project is directed by Ken Penner, David Miller and Ian Scott. Good to see them using unicode fonts for the project, surely the future of all such projects. So far, The Testament of Job has been fully prepared with critical apparatus; also available are Testament of Abraham and 1 Enoch. There are invitations for others to get involved too. A very promising project -- all strength to their arms.
The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha
The project is directed by Ken Penner, David Miller and Ian Scott. Good to see them using unicode fonts for the project, surely the future of all such projects. So far, The Testament of Job has been fully prepared with critical apparatus; also available are Testament of Abraham and 1 Enoch. There are invitations for others to get involved too. A very promising project -- all strength to their arms.
Labels: Unicode
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
John Paulien homepage
New on Scholars: O, P, Q is the following web page:
John Paulien
Andrews University Theological Seminary, Michigan, U.S.A.
The page features several full text article reproductions, especially on Revelation (though some of the formatting looks a bit odd on my PC, especially Moyise Anthology, which features strings of      Â). Nevertheless, it's great to see another scholar joining in the steadily moving revolution of placing reproductions of their peer-reviewed articles on-line for all to view.
Update (14.06): As Darko rightly points out in Comments, you just need to make sure that your encoding is adjusted to Unicode (if in IE, go to View/Encoding). I have my default selection as Auto-Select but it did not pick this up. Another thing of interest in this article is the way that John Paulien has set up the footnoting, with anchors in the text and footnotes appearing in just that location on-click. It appears to have been generated by Microsoft Word.
John Paulien
Andrews University Theological Seminary, Michigan, U.S.A.
The page features several full text article reproductions, especially on Revelation (though some of the formatting looks a bit odd on my PC, especially Moyise Anthology, which features strings of      Â). Nevertheless, it's great to see another scholar joining in the steadily moving revolution of placing reproductions of their peer-reviewed articles on-line for all to view.
Update (14.06): As Darko rightly points out in Comments, you just need to make sure that your encoding is adjusted to Unicode (if in IE, go to View/Encoding). I have my default selection as Auto-Select but it did not pick this up. Another thing of interest in this article is the way that John Paulien has set up the footnoting, with anchors in the text and footnotes appearing in just that location on-click. It appears to have been generated by Microsoft Word.
Labels: Unicode
Friday, April 30, 2004
Tony Fisher's Greek NT Pages problem
Greg Bloomquist emails me to point out that the late Tony Fisher's Greek New Testament pages have encountered a problem -- one always gets an "Error! Database is busy . . ." message. I have written to a contact in the York University computing department in the hope that this can be fixed. It may be that in the long term we should approach York with a view to taking over the site so that it can be maintained on a more day-to-day basis. I will post any updates here. In the mean time, the Online Greek Bible provides a similar service if one is doing a simple search. That site is superior in one way -- it provides varieties of fonts for display, including unicode, but it is not able to tackle the more complex searches that Tony Fisher's site can. Also, I am not keen on the anonymity of the site -- I prefer web authors to be upfront about who they are.
Labels: Unicode
Friday, April 23, 2004
Unicode: Tyndale Tech and some thoughts on Greek
David Instone-Brewer has uploaded to the web the latest of his Tyndale Tech newsletters (with thanks to Jim Davila on Paleojudaica for the alert). The topic is unicode, and especially unicode for Hebrew. As ever, it is full of useful bits and bobs:
Greek and Hebrew Fonts: Unicode and Older
I think my own experience of working with unicode is more positive than David's and for two reasons, first that I work with Greek a lot but Hebrew only a little and second that I work with PCs and not Macs. There are a few things I would add from my own experience and which may prove helpful to others:
(1) Palatino Linotype: if you are running Windows 2000 or XP you arleady have a unicode font installed called Palatino Linotype. This includes a Greek character set (not all unicode fonts do) and it looks excellent on both screen and paper. The reason that this is worth mentioning is that if you are running Windows 2000 or XP and require a really good Greek font, then you don't have to do anything.
(2) Inputting the text. This is the big issue. I have been using this excellent facility for some time now:
Unicode Classical Greek Inputter
This is designed by James Naughton and provides a very straightforward facility for you to type in unicode and then to copy and paste into your document. You can choose your preferred font (Arial Unicode MS, Cardo, Gentium, Palatino Linotype etc.). If you prefer mouse-clicking to typing, you can do that too. An additional advantage of this web page is that you can save it onto your hard drive and access it whenever or wherever you want, without being connected to the internet. So it's worth saving now while one has the chance -- it might not be there in a year's time!
(3) Quotations from the Greek New Testament: If in a given document you are simply writing out quotations from the Greek New Testament, there is no need to type this afresh. Here there are several options:
(a) Search or browse on The Unbound Bible, choosing "NA26, Accents (Unicode)" and copy and paste the results into your document.
(b) Do the same at the Online Greek Bible, choosing either "Athena" or "Palatino Linotype".
(c) Go to James Naughton's Unicode Classical Greek page and download the complete text of the Greek New Testament in an HTML help file or PDF. The advantage of this is that you can store it locally and use off-line.
Update (19.23): Paul Nikkel comments in Deinde on the Tyndale Tech email and the comments in Paleojudaica. He comments that "Actually the current Mac OS has Unicode support and as far as I know has had it since OS 8.5 or so. Also, contrary to the Tyndale article OpenType fonts are supported on the Mac OS X as far as I know, Mac Developers Article." Read more . . . . .
Update (Saturday, 22.24): Rubén Gómez comments in Biblical Software Review Weblog.
Update (Saturday, 22.32): Jim Davila comments in Paleojudaica. Minor note: Jim comments on Deinde, "If there's a way to link to individual posts on his site, I couldn't find it". You click on the "View comments" link and that gives you an URL for that post plus any subsequent comments on it.
Greek and Hebrew Fonts: Unicode and Older
I think my own experience of working with unicode is more positive than David's and for two reasons, first that I work with Greek a lot but Hebrew only a little and second that I work with PCs and not Macs. There are a few things I would add from my own experience and which may prove helpful to others:
(1) Palatino Linotype: if you are running Windows 2000 or XP you arleady have a unicode font installed called Palatino Linotype. This includes a Greek character set (not all unicode fonts do) and it looks excellent on both screen and paper. The reason that this is worth mentioning is that if you are running Windows 2000 or XP and require a really good Greek font, then you don't have to do anything.
(2) Inputting the text. This is the big issue. I have been using this excellent facility for some time now:
Unicode Classical Greek Inputter
This is designed by James Naughton and provides a very straightforward facility for you to type in unicode and then to copy and paste into your document. You can choose your preferred font (Arial Unicode MS, Cardo, Gentium, Palatino Linotype etc.). If you prefer mouse-clicking to typing, you can do that too. An additional advantage of this web page is that you can save it onto your hard drive and access it whenever or wherever you want, without being connected to the internet. So it's worth saving now while one has the chance -- it might not be there in a year's time!
(3) Quotations from the Greek New Testament: If in a given document you are simply writing out quotations from the Greek New Testament, there is no need to type this afresh. Here there are several options:
(a) Search or browse on The Unbound Bible, choosing "NA26, Accents (Unicode)" and copy and paste the results into your document.
(b) Do the same at the Online Greek Bible, choosing either "Athena" or "Palatino Linotype".
(c) Go to James Naughton's Unicode Classical Greek page and download the complete text of the Greek New Testament in an HTML help file or PDF. The advantage of this is that you can store it locally and use off-line.
Update (19.23): Paul Nikkel comments in Deinde on the Tyndale Tech email and the comments in Paleojudaica. He comments that "Actually the current Mac OS has Unicode support and as far as I know has had it since OS 8.5 or so. Also, contrary to the Tyndale article OpenType fonts are supported on the Mac OS X as far as I know, Mac Developers Article." Read more . . . . .
Update (Saturday, 22.24): Rubén Gómez comments in Biblical Software Review Weblog.
Update (Saturday, 22.32): Jim Davila comments in Paleojudaica. Minor note: Jim comments on Deinde, "If there's a way to link to individual posts on his site, I couldn't find it". You click on the "View comments" link and that gives you an URL for that post plus any subsequent comments on it.
Labels: Tyndale Tech, Unicode
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Galilee Unicode Font new version
Rod Decker has released version 0.6 of the Galilee Unicode Greek font. It covers
classical as well as koine Greek; also included are NA27-style sigla for textual criticism. Download plus details here:
Galilee Unicode Gk Font
classical as well as koine Greek; also included are NA27-style sigla for textual criticism. Download plus details here:
Galilee Unicode Gk Font
Labels: Unicode
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Googlistas
A brief interlude of general internet interest. I'd never heard the term "Googlistas" until Saturday's Guardian which had an interesting article on the attempts by Microsoft to buy up or replace Google:
Googlistas will never be Mooglesofters
I hope that Google can stay independent and maintain the quality of its service. Who now uses anything else? I suppose that if Microsoft does develop a rival, it needn't mean the end of Google just as Internet Explorer has not meant the end of Netscape. I still use Netscape a good deal -- and Netscape 7 is a great improvement on previous versions; e.g. for some reason my Netscape seems to find it much easier to read sites using unicode fonts than does my Internet Explorer. Looking at browser share among users of the NT Gateway, just over 6% of users access it using Netscape and just over 93% using Internet Explorer. Although overwhelmingly dominant, it hasn't completely usurped Netscape yet.
Googlistas will never be Mooglesofters
I hope that Google can stay independent and maintain the quality of its service. Who now uses anything else? I suppose that if Microsoft does develop a rival, it needn't mean the end of Google just as Internet Explorer has not meant the end of Netscape. I still use Netscape a good deal -- and Netscape 7 is a great improvement on previous versions; e.g. for some reason my Netscape seems to find it much easier to read sites using unicode fonts than does my Internet Explorer. Looking at browser share among users of the NT Gateway, just over 6% of users access it using Netscape and just over 93% using Internet Explorer. Although overwhelmingly dominant, it hasn't completely usurped Netscape yet.
Labels: Unicode
Galilee Font & Unicode adjustments
Thanks to Rod Decker for reminding me to update some details on my Fonts page. His very useful PDF paper on Unicode has been reworked and retitled:
What a Biblical Scholar / Student Should Know About Unicode
While on that page I also deleted a line about the Tyndale Fonts Kit; there was a problem with the final sigma in that kit, which was the vau/digamma rather than final sigma proper, but it was fixed after David and I had some interesting email exchanges on the topic several months ago. It's a good one-stop solution for your font needs, though in the long run we are all going to be using unicode so the sooner one gets used to it, the better.
What a Biblical Scholar / Student Should Know About Unicode
While on that page I also deleted a line about the Tyndale Fonts Kit; there was a problem with the final sigma in that kit, which was the vau/digamma rather than final sigma proper, but it was fixed after David and I had some interesting email exchanges on the topic several months ago. It's a good one-stop solution for your font needs, though in the long run we are all going to be using unicode so the sooner one gets used to it, the better.
Labels: Unicode
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Galilee Unicode Font
Just announced on b-greek, Rod Decker has posted a beta of the unicode version of his Galilee font. You will find it here:
Galilee Unicode Greek Font
Rod has provided lots of useful information about how to download the font, design features and so on. If you don't yet know anything about unicode and you work with Biblical languages, then you need to know this: it is the future. Rod has one of the best pages available for explaining to scholars and students about unicode and it is here:
Biblical Language Fonts and Unicode
Galilee Unicode Greek Font
Rod has provided lots of useful information about how to download the font, design features and so on. If you don't yet know anything about unicode and you work with Biblical languages, then you need to know this: it is the future. Rod has one of the best pages available for explaining to scholars and students about unicode and it is here:
Biblical Language Fonts and Unicode
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Unicode Greek New Testament & Septuagint
Earlier today I mentioned James Naughton's excellent Unicode Greek Inputter. Let me now mention a couple of other resources he has put together. Go to the following page:
Unicode Classical Greek
and you will find a nice unicode Greek New Testament which you can save to your own PC in one file either as an "HTML help" file or as a PDF. Also available is a Septuagint text in the HTML help format. He does say what the editions of either the LXX or the Greek NT are, though, I am afraid.
Unicode Classical Greek
and you will find a nice unicode Greek New Testament which you can save to your own PC in one file either as an "HTML help" file or as a PDF. Also available is a Septuagint text in the HTML help format. He does say what the editions of either the LXX or the Greek NT are, though, I am afraid.
Labels: Unicode
Unicode Greek Inputter
Very useful resource for those, like me, who are just coming to terms with unicode for typing Greek:
Unicode Greek Inputter
It's devised by James Naughton from Oxford. This is how he describes it:
I've tried it out and it is an excellent resource. The hint at the end is very useful -- plan ahead now for when it vanishes from the web!
Unicode Greek Inputter
It's devised by James Naughton from Oxford. This is how he describes it:
The Unicode Greek Inputter is a small utility for producing polytonic Greek text with an ordinary English keyboard, using a betacode-like input method. Paste your resulting text into Unicode programs such as OpenOffice, Word 97 or 2000. Save the utility as an html file for use offline.
I've tried it out and it is an excellent resource. The hint at the end is very useful -- plan ahead now for when it vanishes from the web!
Labels: Unicode
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Greek text of Didache at CCEL
In our post-grad Greek class here in Birmingham we are working the Didache this first half-term so I was looking to see what was available on the web. I hadn't realised before (or I'd forgotten) that CCEL have the Greek texts of Kirsopp Lake's Loeb edition of the Apostolic Fathers here:
Apostolic Fathers
Includes the Didache here:
The Didache
All are searchable, though I've not tried the search yet. At first glance there are some errors in the Greek; I won't know just how extensive until I've spent a bit more time with it. It's all unicode too. For some reason I can't get my Internet Explorer 6 to show the font properly, though it looks fine in Netscape 7. Anyway, a useful contribution to the web. I should add that Wieland Willker also has an edition of the Didache available on-line, based on the critical edition of Funk / Bihlmeyer. This one requires you to download E-Greek font and there are no accents.
Update: I've looked at their What's New page and it seems that the Apostolic Fathers went on-line at CCEL in March of this year, so it is a new development.
Apostolic Fathers
Includes the Didache here:
The Didache
All are searchable, though I've not tried the search yet. At first glance there are some errors in the Greek; I won't know just how extensive until I've spent a bit more time with it. It's all unicode too. For some reason I can't get my Internet Explorer 6 to show the font properly, though it looks fine in Netscape 7. Anyway, a useful contribution to the web. I should add that Wieland Willker also has an edition of the Didache available on-line, based on the critical edition of Funk / Bihlmeyer. This one requires you to download E-Greek font and there are no accents.
Update: I've looked at their What's New page and it seems that the Apostolic Fathers went on-line at CCEL in March of this year, so it is a new development.
Labels: Unicode
Monday, September 22, 2003
Galilee Font
Rodney Decker has developed further his "Galilee" Greek font (new release version 1.02). It includes bold and italic faces for the font.
Galilee Greek Font
That links to a page about the font -- useful stuff. One of the drawbacks of some of the other free fonts available on the web is that they don't have information pages like this, particularly useful for those starting out with it for the first time.
Decker is currently working on developing a Unicode version of the font, which will be a welcome development. If you don't know much about Unicode yet, it happens that Rod Decker has one of the best pages available for explaining it to the newcomer:
Biblical Language Fonts and Unicode
Galilee Greek Font
That links to a page about the font -- useful stuff. One of the drawbacks of some of the other free fonts available on the web is that they don't have information pages like this, particularly useful for those starting out with it for the first time.
Decker is currently working on developing a Unicode version of the font, which will be a welcome development. If you don't know much about Unicode yet, it happens that Rod Decker has one of the best pages available for explaining it to the newcomer:
Biblical Language Fonts and Unicode
Labels: Unicode
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