NRSI: Computers & Writing Systems

SIL HOME | CONTACT US

You are here: Type Design > Resources > Font Downloads
Short URL: http://scripts.sil.org/SophiaNubian

Sophia Nubian

2009-09-25; 26487 reads

---

---

    Introduction
    Sample
    Technical
        System requirements
        Encoding
        Keyboarding
        Rendering
        Supported character ranges
    License
    Download and Installation
    Support
    Page History

Introduction

Sophia Nubian is a sans serif, Unicode-compliant font based on the SIL Sophia (similar to Univers) typeface. Its primary purpose is to provide adequate representation for Nubian languages which use the Coptic Unicode character set. Since Nubian languages do not use casing, uppercase characters are not included in this font. A basic set of Latin glyphs is also provided. 

Sample

The following font sample uses an Old Nubian text taken from John 20:9-12 (as deciphered by BROWNE, GERALD M (1989): Literary Texts in Old Nubian; in: Beiträge zur Sudanforschung Beiheft 5, Wien-Mödling).

Click on the graphic to see large size.

Technical

System requirements

The Sophia Nubian fonts are designed to work on operating systems that provide support for TrueType fonts and for Unicode character encoding. This includes all 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows®, as well as recent versions of the Mac OS (version 9.0 and later), and also some implementations of Unix / Linux. (TrueType font support on Unix and Linux may depend upon the particular applications in use.)

The system requirements describe the minimum needed to display characters. For the fonts to work properly in applications, additional requirements must be met. This font uses OpenType and Graphite smart font technologies for placement of macrons over the characters. The minimum version of Uniscribe that will work is 1.420.2600.2180 (in order for OpenType support to work correctly).

Encoding

The fonts are encoded according to Unicode, so your application must support Unicode text in order to access letters other than the standard alphabet. Most Windows applications provide basic Unicode support. You will, however, need some way of entering Unicode text into your document (a  Keyman keyboard is provided as a separate download).

This font does not contain any uppercase characters in the Coptic range. This is because Nubian languages do not use "casing." If your word processor attempts to capitalize any Nubian characters, you may get square boxes. The solution to this problem is to turn off any "auto" rules for capitalization in your word processor.

The "u" vowel in Nubian is made up of two Unicode characters (U+2C9F U+2CA9). When next to each other, these characters are closer together than normal. In Microsoft Word, the characters may not always appear close enough together.

The Unicode codepoints for the macrons are: U+0304 (used for a "short" macron over a Nubian character) and U+0305 (used for the long macrons over "u"). A short macron over the "a" vowel thus has two codepoints (U+2C81 U+0304) and a long macron over the "u" vowel has four codepoints (U+2C9F U+0305 U+2CA9 U+0305).

Keyboarding

A  Keyman keyboard is provided (as a separate download) for typing in Nubian text on the Windows platform. A  Keyboard Mapping for Linux (KMFL) keyboard is provided (as a separate download) for typing in Nubian text on Linux.

Rendering

This font is designed to work with either of two advanced font technologies, Graphite or OpenType. To take advantage of the advanced typographic capabilities of this font, you must be using applications that provide an adequate level of support for Graphite or OpenType.

In particular, Nubian characters with a macron over them may not form properly if your computer does not have a new version of Uniscribe. For example, in Word 2000 the Nubian characters may not form properly. The solution to this is to upgrade your version of Uniscribe (usp10.dll). The minimum version of Uniscribe that will work is 1.420.2600.2180. In Word 2000 you would need to get an appropriate version of Uniscribe and place it in this folder: C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedOffice10.

Nubian characters with a macron over them are not "pre-composed" characters (in Unicode). That means if you try to move a cursor arrow forward or backward over a character with a macron you will have to move the cursor two times to go over the macron and the base character. It also means that when you try to backspace over the character, you may end up having to backspace twice.

Sometimes characters may not display perfectly on the screen, but they should display better when printed. We have attempted to address the most severe "hinting" issues, but we are certain there will still be some display problems. On Windows machines, one way to clear up some of the display problems is to use ClearType. Right-click on your desktop, choose Properties / Appearance, select  Effects...  and under Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts choose ClearType. In Microsoft Word and Firefox this gives a distinct improvement to the display of the font.

Supported character ranges

Supported character ranges

License

Sophia Nubian is released under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), version 1.1. Copyright (c) 1994-2008 SIL International ( http://www.sil.org/), with Reserved Font Names "SIL" and "Sophia".

Download and Installation

Support

As these fonts and utilities are distributed at no cost, we are unable to provide a commercial level of personal technical support. We will, however, try to resolve problems that are reported to us.

We do hope that you will report problems so they can be addressed in future releases. Even if you are not having any specific problems, but have an idea on how this system could be improved, we want to hear your ideas and suggestions.

Please note that these fonts are intended for use by experienced computer users. Installing and using these fonts is not a trivial matter. The most effective technical support is usually provided by an experienced computer user who can personally sit down with you at your computer to troubleshoot the problem.

General troubleshooting information, including frequently asked questions, can be found in the documentation. Additional information is also available on the general Font FAQ page. If that fails to answer your question you can contact us at:

Email:

Page History

2009-05-01 Updated Keyman package

2008-12-02 Uploaded Debian packages

2008-11-25 Release of font

---

© 2003-2013 SIL International, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted elsewhere on this page.
Provided by SIL's Non-Roman Script Initiative. Contact us at .