Thesaurus Linguae Graecae - Help

Font Configuration

In order to view the texts (and Greek Canon titles) in Greek, users must have Greek Fonts installed on their system. Any new system (MAC or PC) will come with the Unicode Greek polytonic set already included.

See the 'Fonts' page to view the fonts that can be used with the Online TLG®. Links to download fonts are provided (where available); the pages also demonstrate potential problem characters, and gives a sample text.

Unicode

The proper solution to the problem of displaying Greek text on the Web is Unicode, the standard for encoding the various scripts of the world on computer.

By default both PC and Mac come with fonts that include polytonic Greek characters. On the PC there is Palatino Linotype; on the Mac there is Lucide Grande.

While these two fonts cover the vast majority of characters used in the Online TLG®, they do not contain some of the rarer characters we employ. We have a Unicode test page giving links from which to obtain additional Unicode fonts which may contain some or all of these additional characters. This page also demonstrates possible problem characters.

Users will need to set the Unicode font of their browser to their preferred polytonic Greek font:

Windows: Internet Explorer

Windows: Firefox

Mac: Safari

Mac: Firefox

Input in Greek

For institutional users, the opening page will indicate whether you have a Unicode compliant browser. If your browser allows Unicode input you can follow the Unicode option.

If not, please follow the non-Unicode option (individual users may select they font from the user's settings). The Input in Greek menu presently offers two choices:

Beta code (the default setting)
Transliteration with or without accents

Of the two, the safer option across browsers is Beta code, which only ever employs ASCII characters.

The following are the keyboard mappings of the various entry methods:

Transliteration

Accented Transliteration requires ability to enter standard Western European (French) diacritics: diaeresis, acute, grave, circumflex. If you wish to employ diacritics in accented transliteration, you should familiarize yourself with your operating system's conventions for entering diacritics.

If you do not enter accents and breathings, use Roman characters with ^ as the macron for long vowels.

The transliteration switches automatically from unaccented to accented, depending on whether the user has entered a diacritic-sensitive search.

Exceptionally, iota after a long vowel is interpreted as iota subscript only if the search is sensitive to iota subscripts:

String entered	Diacritic sensitivity	Converted to
tro^ia	Insensitive	TRWIA
trôia	Insensitive	TRWIA
tro=ia	Accents Only	TRWIA
tro=ia	Iota Subscripts Only	TRW\|A
tro=ia	All diacritics	TRW\|A

Unicode
Typing Unicode Greek on Windows
Windows 2000 and more recent versions of Windows include a Polytonic Greek Keyboard:

Start Menu --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Keyboard --> Input Locales --> Add --> Greek Polytonic
For Windows 98, Windows Me or just as an alternative to Microsoft's Polytonic Greek Keyboard, users can use a program like Tavultesoft Keyman to create your own custom Unicode keyboard. There are three Polytonic Greek Keyboards available for Keyman:
Typing Unicode Greek on Mac OSX

Mac OSX 10.3 and more recent versions of OSX include a Polytonic Greek Keyboard:

Apple Menu --> System Preferences --> International --> Input Menu --> Greek Polytonic

Mac OSX 10.2 includes only a Monotonic Greek Keyboard:

Apple Menu --> System Preferences --> International --> Input Menu --> Greek

For Polytonic Greek Keyboards, 10.2 users will need to consult third-party tools. Donald Mastronarde has created a GreekKeys-compatible keyboard as part of the American Philological Association-sponsored GreekKeys Unicode release.

Created: May 11, 2000
Last Modified: March 18, 2009