Mark Vitalis Hoffman
mhoffman@ltsg.edu
Valentine 414
717.334.6286 x2414
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Mark Vitalis Hoffman |
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| MGVH HomePage at LTSG | CrossMarks |
The easiest way to accomplish get the fonts and a keyboard is to go to:
"Fonts for
Biblical Studies" (Tyndale House). Use the "Tyndale Unicode Font
Kit" available for either PCs or Macs. Follow the installation steps, and
you are set for now. (The only other thing you may want to confirm is
viewing Greek in your browser.)
If, however, you kind of know what you are doing and want a bit more control over the process, take the following steps.
In the past, you had to use different TrueType font sets to compose in and view different language characters. (An English set like TimesNewRoman or Arial, a Greek set, a Hebrew set, dingbat set, etc.) If someone else wanted to view your work, they would need the specific font sets that you used.
The promise of Unicode fonts is that there is a spot for every single language character in just one font set. You need only have a way to access the different character areas in that font set. It is a great thing, because anyone can view your work just by having any Unicode font on their system. (If you want to know more about Unicode, check here.)
Until these Unicode fonts become system and web standards, however, there will be issues in the proper viewing of and composing with Greek fonts. Unicode fonts work very well with Windows2000 or WindowsXP, so if you have some other operating system, you will experience limitations. With these issues in mind, I have decided that the best course is still to go with Unicode fonts, and in everything I print, upload, or post to the web, I will be using the Cardo Unicode font.
| SO, Step 1, get this font: Cardo - This is an attractive, true Unicode font from David Perry. It is especially nice for Biblical scholars because it has both Greek and Hebrew characters. Option A
Option B
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You have a number of options for typing in Greek once you have the fonts. For non-Unicode fonts, it is a matter of choosing the font and typing using that particular fonts key assignments. If you used the "Tyndale Unicode Font Kit" noted at the top of this page, it installs a keyboard and gives excellent, step-by-by directions for installation. It is a good keyboard layout, but I prefer a different way of entering some characters and especially dealing with accents. If you want to try this out, work through the following step:
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Step 2: Option A (Windows; for Mac, go HERE) What should be the best solution is to take advantage of the built in capabilities of WinXP (or Win2000). There are a variety of keyboard layouts for typing polytonic Greek, but I have modified the Logos Greek keyboard layout so that it matches the 'standard' set by the earlier fonts by SBL's SPIonic and Silver Mountain's SGreek. Follow these directions carefully:
You can confirm that everything is working by holding down the (left) ALT key and pressing a SHIFT key. You should see down in the bottom of your screen, toward the right, where it changes between EN (=ENglish) and EL (=hELlas=Greek) [and also HE=HEbrew if you also added that keyboard].
Do note that there are some issues with this solution using Word2007. If you have a problem, use one of the solutions below. |
OR
| Step 2: Option B Using Option A above is superior, but some prefer, and some older operating systems require, the following:
Then:
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| OPTIONAL STEP 3 FOR ADVANCED USERS:
Once you have either
Keyman or the the Logos system installed, you may want to create/record a
macro for Microsoft Word to simplify entry. What
you want the macro to do is (e.g., with the Greek): switch to the Greek
keyboard, turn off spell checking [so you don't get all those red lines
under your Greek- look under Tools>Options>Spelling & Grammar tab], turn off smart quotes [which confuse the Greek
accenting-look under Tools>AutoCorrect options>Autoformat As You Type
tab], and switch to the Cardo font. Create another macro to undo all those
things. (When recording this macro, use CTRL-SHFT+Z to return to your default font.)
Create a similar macro for the Hebrew if needed. Then assign each of these
macros to a shortcut key. |
OR
OTHER OPTIONS FOR TYPING IN UNICODE:
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If you see accented Greek here with no funny boxes > Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς < you are good to go. If you see some Greek, with little boxes, you need to set your internet browser correctly. At the top left of the window, go to View, Encoding, More and select Unicode (UTF-8). Look good now?
If not, on your browser menu, choose Tools / Internet Options > on the General Tab, click on Fonts, then in the left column under Web Page Fonts, choose one of your Unicode fonts.
Still problems? Try one of these pages (which include info for Macs):
Another level of complexity is introduced with Hebrew due to the need to compose from right to left. Programs like Bibloi and BibleWorks come with right-to-left Hebrew support that can be pasted into other word processors. With Win2000 or WinXP or better, there are some built in ways properly to enter Hebrew, either with Keyman or with keyboard drivers. (See the info with the fonts below.)
As for fonts:
If you are working with a pre-WinXP system and do not have a Bible software program to help you out, try:
Note that while all Unicode fonts have each character location specified, not all fonts have actually composed characters for every language set. For example, the Gentium font has all the Greek characters you need but not any Hebrew. The advantage to supporting limited character sets is a smaller font file size. Arial Unicode MS has everything, but the file is huge. (22Mb compared to well under 1Mb for more limited sets)