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 (''<span class="translit">ṭ</span>''), Semitic Ain (''<span class="translit">ꜥ</span>''), Egyptological Alif (''<span class="translit">ꜣ</span>'').

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] <br/>[http://junicode.sourceforge.net/) Junicode]'' || style="font-family:Times New Roman, Segoe UI" | <big><big>''ʾ ʿ ḫ ṣ š ṭ''</big></big>
|-
| Coptic || [http://www.evertype.com/fonts/coptic/ ''Antinouu''] <br/>[http://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/publier/outils-ed/polices/#download ''IFAO-Grec Unicode''] || style="font-family:Segoe UI Historic, Antinoou, IFAO-Grec Unicode" | <big><big>ⲁ ⲉ ⲙ ϣ ϩ ϭ ϯ ⳉ ⳁ</big></big> 
|-
| Ancient&nbsp;Egyptian&nbsp;<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]'' || class="translit" | <big><big>''ꜣ ʾ ı͗ i̯ ï ꜥ u̯ ḥ ḫ ẖ h̭ ś š ḳ č ṯ ṭ ṱ''&nbsp;<ref>Capital &nbsp;Ṱ&nbsp; ''missing in New Athena Unicode.</ref> č̣ ḏ''</big></big>
|-
| Greek || [http://apagreekkeys.org/NAUdownload.html ''New Athena Unicode'']&nbsp;<ref>Note that New Athena Unicode  uses non-standardized [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Use_%28Unicode%29 ''Private Use Area''] for some few characters, e.g. <span style="font-family:New Athena Unicode"><big><big>   </big></big></span>. See [https://apagreekkeys.org/technicalDetails.html#PUA here].</ref> <br/>[http://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/publier/outils-ed/polices/#download ''IFAO-Grec Unicode'']  || style="font-family:New Athena Unicode,IFAO-Grec Unicode" | <big><big>α ζ ς ή ω ᾆ ἧ ὧ</big></big>. 
|-
| 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:Times New Roman, Segoe UI" | <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 
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ʿ</big></big> || U+02BF || class="translit" | <big><big></big></big> || || Akkadian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ʾ</big></big> || U+02BE || class="translit" | <big><big></big></big> || || Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" | <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 often rendered smaller than the respective capitals in computer fonts. This, however, is not the case in most Egyptological print fonts. For print typesetting (but not for database encoding), we recommend to use the respectice CAPITAL letters instead.</ref> || U+A725 || class="translit" | <big><big>Ꜥ</big></big> || U+A724|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" | <big><big>ꜣ</big></big>&nbsp;<ref name="small_alif_malformed" /> || U+A723 || class="translit" | <big><big>Ꜣ</big></big> || U+A722|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>č</big></big> || U+010D || class="translit" | <big><big>Č</big></big> || U+010C|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>č̣</big></big> || U+010D&U+0323 || class="translit" | <big><big>Č̣</big></big> || U+010C&U+0323|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ḏ</big></big> || U+1E0F || class="translit" | <big><big>Ḏ</big></big> || U+1E0E|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ḥ</big></big> || U+1E25 || class="translit" | <big><big>Ḥ</big></big> || U+1E24|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ḫ</big></big> || U+1E2B || class="translit" | <big><big>Ḫ</big></big> || U+1E2B|| Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Hittite
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ẖ</big></big> || U+1E96 || class="translit" | <big><big>H̱</big></big> || 'H'+ U+0331|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>h̭</big></big> || 'h'&U+032D || class="translit" | <big><big>H̭</big></big> || 'H'&U+032D|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>i͗</big></big> || 'i'&U+0357 || class="translit" | <big><big>I͗</big></big> || 'I'&U+0357 || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>i̯</big></big> || 'i'&U+032F || class="translit" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ï</big></big> || U+00EF || class="translit" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ḳ</big></big> || U+1E33 || class="translit" | <big><big>Ḳ</big></big> || U+1E32|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ṣ</big></big> || U+032E || class="translit" | <big><big>Ṣ</big></big> || U+032D|| Akkadian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ś</big></big> || U+015B || class="translit" | <big><big>Ś</big></big> || U+015A|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>š</big></big> || U+0161 || class="translit" | <big><big>Š</big></big> || U+0160|| Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Hittite
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ṯ</big></big> || U+1E6F || class="translit" | <big><big>Ṯ</big></big> || U+1E6E|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ṭ</big></big> || U+1E6D || class="translit" | <big><big>Ṭ</big></big> || U+1E6C|| Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>ṱ</big></big> || U+1E71 || class="translit" | <big><big>Ṱ</big></big> || U+1E70|| Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>u̯</big></big> || ‘u’&U+032F || class="translit" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>⸗</big></big> || U+2E17 || class="translit" | <big><big></big></big> || || Ancient Egyptian
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>&#x2E22;</big></big> || U+2E22 || class="translit" | <big><big>&#x2E23;</big></big> || U+2E23||  text critical markup
|-
| class="translit" |<big><big>&#x2329;</big></big> || U+2329 || class="translit" | <big><big>&#x232A;</big></big> || U+232A|| text critical markup

|}

== References ==
<references />