Editing Unicode

Transliterations and transcriptions of ancient languages usually use some '''special characters''', e.g. Greek signs, like alpha (&alpha;), ‘s’ with caron (''š''), ‘h’ with breve below (''ḫ''), ‘t’ with dot below (''ṭ''), Semitic Ain (''ꜥ''), Egyptological Alif (''ꜣ'').

In order to produce a robust file for e.g. a publisher, i.e. a file that is going to be displayed correctly on any electronic device, it is advisable that the encoder uses strictly '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode Unicode fonts]''' to enter his/her data. '''Characters''' that have been entered with a Unicode font '''cannot be confused''' on any other device. This is because the file actually contains the unique Unicode number of the intended character, e.g. <nowiki>U+1E6D</nowiki>. This number is unique and reserved for this very character all across the world in any Unicode font. With Unicode fonts, the only things that can happen are: a) The character cannot be displayed at all on the receiver’s device; b) The style of the font may be different, depending on the actual Unicode font that is installed on the receiver’s device.) 

== Recommended fonts ==
For glossing in general or for editing specific languages, we recommend to install the following fonts:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Language !! Fonts !! Character examples
|-
| Glossing in general || [http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=charissil_download ''Charis SIL''] || diacritics, IPA symbols, ā ē ī ō ū 
|-
| Akkadian || ''Times New Roman <br/>Arial Unicode MS <br/>[http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=charissil_download Charis SIL] <br/>[http://apagreekkeys.org/NAUdownload.html New Athena Unicode]'' || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>''ʾ ʿ ḫ ṣ š ṭ''</big></big>
|-
| Coptic || [http://www.evertype.com/fonts/coptic/ ''Antinouu''] || style="font-family:Antinoou" | <big><big>ⲁ ⲉ ⲙ ϣ ϩ ϭ ϯ ⳉ ⳁ</big></big> 
|-
| Ancient&nbsp;Egyptian<ref>Daniel A. Werning. 28.7.2016. ''Egyptological Transliteration in Unicode'', http://hdl.handle.net/21.11101/0000-0000-9E1A-2; Wikipedia, [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%84gyptische_Hieroglyphen#Hieroglyphen_in_der_Textverarbeitung ''Ägyptische Hieroglyphen. In der elektronischen Datenverarbeitung''].</ref> || ''[http://apagreekkeys.org/NAUdownload.html New Athena Unicode] <br/>[http://junicode.sourceforge.net/) Junicode]'' || style="font-family:New Athena Unicode" | <big><big>''ꜣ ʾ ı͗ i̯ ï ꜥ u̯ ḥ ḫ ẖ h̭ ś š ḳ č ṯ ṭ ṱ č̣ ḏ''</big></big>
|-
| Greek || [http://apagreekkeys.org/NAUdownload.html ''New Athena Unicode'']  || <span style="font-family:New Athena Unicode"><big><big>α ζ ς ή ω ᾆ ἧ ὧ</big></big></span>  <br/>{{Red|but uses non-standardized [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Use_%28Unicode%29 ''Private Use Area''] <br/>for some few characters:}} e.g. <span style="font-family:New Athena Unicode"><big><big>   </big></big></span>. 
|-
| Hittite || ''Times New Roman <br/>Arial Unicode MS <br/>[http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=charissil_download Charis SIL] <br/>[http://apagreekkeys.org/NAUdownload.html New Athena Unicode] <br/>[http://junicode.sourceforge.net/) Junicode]'' || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>''ḫ š''</big></big>
|}

== Recommended programs and links ==
=== Keyboard layouts === 
====Creator programs====

* [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx ''Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator''] (Windows).
* Mac OS Keyboard Layout Editor [http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele ''Ukulele'']

====Ready layouts====

* Egyptological transliteration, see https://www.archaeologie.hu-berlin.de/de/aknoa/service/links.

=== Unicode character programs and links === 
* BabelStone [http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Software/BabelMap.html ''BabelMap''] (Windows)
* Fileformat.info [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/search.htm ''Unicode character search''] (online)

== Required Unicode characters ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Character !! Unicode <br/>number !! Character  !! Unicode <br/>number !! Languages 
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ʿ</big></big> || U+02BF || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big></big></big> || || Akkadian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ʾ</big></big> || U+02BE || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big></big></big> || || Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>ꜥ</big></big>&nbsp;<ref name="small_alif_malformed">The characters U+A725 LATIN {{Orange|SMALL}} LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL AIN and U+A723 LATIN {{Orange|SMALL}} LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF are not usually printed smaller than the respective capitals. For print typesetting (but not for database encoding), we recommend to use the respectice CAPITAL letters instead.</ref> || U+A725 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ꜥ</big></big> || U+A724|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>ꜣ</big></big>&nbsp;<ref name="small_alif_malformed" /> || U+A723 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ꜣ</big></big> || U+A722|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>č</big></big> || U+010D || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Č</big></big> || U+010C|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>č̣</big></big> || U+010D&U+0323 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Č̣</big></big> || U+010C&U+0323|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ḏ</big></big> || U+1E0F || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ḏ</big></big> || U+1E0E|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ḥ</big></big> || U+1E25 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ḥ</big></big> || U+1E24|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ḫ</big></big> || U+1E2B || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ḫ</big></big> || U+1E2B|| Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Hittite
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ẖ</big></big> || U+1E96 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>H̱</big></big> || 'H'+ U+0331|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>h̭</big></big> || 'h'&U+032D || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>H̭</big></big> || 'H'&U+032D|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ı͗</big></big> || U+0131&U+0357 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>I͗</big></big> || 'I'&U+0357|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>i̯</big></big> || 'i'&U+032F || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ï</big></big> || U+00EF || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ḳ</big></big> || U+1E33 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ḳ</big></big> || U+1E32|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ṣ</big></big> || U+032E || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ṣ</big></big> || U+032D|| Akkadian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ś</big></big> || U+015B || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ś</big></big> || U+015A|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>š</big></big> || U+0161 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Š</big></big> || U+0160|| Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Hittite
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ṯ</big></big> || U+1E6F || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ṯ</big></big> || U+1E6E|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>ṭ</big></big> || U+1E6D || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>Ṭ</big></big> || U+1E6C|| Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>u̯</big></big> || ‘u’&U+032F || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>⸗</big></big> || U+2E17 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| style="font-family:New Athena Unicode" |<big><big>⸢</big></big> || U+2E22 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>⸣</big></big> || U+2E23||  text critical markup
|-
| style="font-family:Charis SIL" |<big><big>〈</big></big> || U+2329 || style="font-family:Charis SIL" | <big><big>〉</big></big> || U+232A|| text critical markup

|}

== References ==
<references />