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Old 04-09-2005, 01:14 PM   #1
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Default Typing Greek Fonts

Peter Kirby wrote a guide for converting ascii to Greek here: Ancient languages. This was required for a previous version of vBB which (I think?) did not always support unicode.

Use of the SYMBOL font is not recommended - it is a Microsoft proprietary product and will not work with all browsers.

Our current version of vBB allows you to copy and paste unicode characters, but still requires a FONT. What Peter recommended was

[ SIZE=3 ][ FONT=Arial Unicode MS,Palatino Linotype,Code2000,TITUS Cyberbit Basic,Athena ] insert unicode here [ /FONT ][ /SIZE ]

(I have inserted spaces to allow you to see it.)

Stephen Carlson has been using Tahoma. When he does this, I can't see the Greek characters with accents, even if he lists other fonts.

So I thought I would do a survey. Which of these can you read?

Feel free to try other combinations

FONT=Arial Unicode MS,Palatino Linotype,Code2000,TITUS Cyberbit Basic,Athena

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους Solon detested men like this man here.


FONT=Tahoma,Arial Unicode MS,Palatino Linotype,Code2000,TITUS Cyberbit Basic,Athena

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους Solon detested men like this man here.

FONT=Palatino Linotype only

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους

FONT=Arial Unicode MS only

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους

FONT=TITUS Cyberbit Basic only

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους

FONT=Code2000 only

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους

Font= Athena

Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους
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Old 04-09-2005, 02:44 PM   #2
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I can read them all using Safari (1.2) but I get question marks replacing several characters in all the phrases when using IE (5.2 for Mac).
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Old 04-09-2005, 03:04 PM   #3
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Using IE I have problems with the last three ie

TITUS Cyberbit Basic only
Code2000 only
Athena

The first four were fine

Andrew Criddle
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Old 04-09-2005, 05:06 PM   #4
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I can read all of them just fine. Arial Unicode MS looks the best, but doesn't the "MS" stand for "Microsoft," making me hestitant to fully recommend a proprietary font? The last three, however, are the ugliest of the lot (TITUS Cyberbit Basic, Code2000, and Athena).

My favorite Unicode Greek font is Gentium or GentiumAlt (e.g. Σόλων á¼?μίσει τοὺς οἷος οὗτος ἀνθÏ?ώπους). It is a serif font, though. For sans serif, I'm happy with the look of Arial Unicode MS, modulo my proprietary concerns.

Stephen
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Old 04-09-2005, 05:10 PM   #5
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Another point: If I don't specify a font, my browser (Firefox) is pretty good about finding a Greek font to display it. In fact, I tend to get the most problems when people specify a font for the Greek.

Isn't just possible to configure one's browser to do the right thing for Unicode Greek without having to asking everyone inputting Greek to come up with a long list of supported fonts?

Stephen
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Old 04-09-2005, 06:35 PM   #6
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It still looks all Geek to me.
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Old 04-09-2005, 08:20 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by S.C.Carlson
I can read all of them just fine. Arial Unicode MS looks the best, but doesn't the "MS" stand for "Microsoft," making me hestitant to fully recommend a proprietary font?
The proprietary thing about the font is merely that Microsoft made the font and licenses it. It can be used on any computer platform. It is a Truetype font and is a Unicode font. Microsoft also licenses Palatino Linotype (not sure if they made it).

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Peter Kirby
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Old 04-09-2005, 09:23 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Kirby
The proprietary thing about the font is merely that Microsoft made the font and licenses it. It can be used on any computer platform. It is a Truetype font and is a Unicode font. Microsoft also licenses Palatino Linotype (not sure if they made it).
Is it available on the Mac, for example?
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Old 04-09-2005, 10:02 PM   #9
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Yes, it is available for the Mac or for Linux. Just download and install on any computer (that can use Truetype fonts).

best,
Peter Kirby
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Old 04-11-2005, 10:57 AM   #10
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These two do not show the accented characters using IE:

FONT=Tahoma,Arial Unicode MS,Palatino Linotype,Code2000,TITUS Cyberbit Basic,Athena

Font= Athena

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I need to do?

Julian
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