SIL Not Recommending SILDoulos IPA93 Now (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 1 Jun 2006, Koontz John E wrote:
> http://e-meld.org/school/classroom/conversion/index.html#1002

This one contains a link to a new SIL scheme called TECKit:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=TECkitintro

And that one, under downloads, lists Encore2Unicode:

> Encore2Unicode is a command-line utility for Windows that can examine a
> font built using the Encore font system and create a draft TECkit
> mapping table for converting data using that font to (and back from)
> Unicode.

> Note that Encore2Unicode will not work with any other fonts than those
> built using the Encore font system, version 3. It is also important to
> note that the mapping tables created are only drafts, and must be
> carefully reviewed before being entrusted with important data.

> Further information is in the zip file or self-extracting archive
> available below, together with the utility itself and a set of data
> files that it requires.

The thing to note here is that the various fonts I created were made with
Encore.  I think the right version, but I'd have to check.

It looks like the Charis SIL font set is the best one to use right now.
It has a full set of face variants (regular, bold, italic, bold italic).
It is supposed to match Bitstream Charter, but it sounds like it may use a
looser line spacing.  It includes the most advanced features.  For some of
the features of Charis there is essentially no software available that can
take advantage of it.  SIL distributes a text editor WorldPad (not
WordPad) that uses most of them.

The Doulos SIL font is supposed to be consistant with Times Roman and is
for use embedded in texts like that.  However, there is only a regular
variant - no bold, italic, etc.

It looks like Gentium was an early effort that is now a bit of a side
alley.

Folks who haven't ever looked or haven't looked recently should go to
http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/index.asp and check out the software
downloads.  There is much more support for Mac OS and Linux now,
especially in the fonts area.

If you are wondering how to format an SIL "Standard Format" database using
a word processor, check out SF Formatter.  This is how you get from
Shoebox or something like that to Word.  (Some facilities in Shoeboz, too,
but weak the last I looked.)

I don't think even SF Formatter is quite strong enough, but a little
scripting inserted between Shoebox and SF Converter should do the trick.
The main thing with SF Formatter is that it changes the text into
something Word regards as a formatted document.  It maps fields to
formatted paragraphs and some kinds of bracketing to character formats.
Just add a Word style sheet and stir.