Coptic Unicode (Advanced computer users only)

[Admin]

Until a few years ago, Coptic was included together with Greek in
Unicode. Because Greek and Coptic share the same type of letters, the
Unicode Consortium used common letters for Greek A/Coptic A, Greek
B/Coptic B and so on.
This is not good, because the acceptable font style for Coptic and
Greek is different. I see that in Coptic it is common for the letters
to appear as if written with caligraphy while modern greek look more
similar to english.

However, last year, the Unicode Consortium has published Unicode 4.1.0
which includes full support for Coptic. That is, there is specific
place in Unicode (truetype) fonts that one can put the whole Coptic
alphabet.
For more on this see
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.1.0/#ScriptAdditions
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2C80.pdf

What does this mean for old fonts?
You can convert them to become Unicode by moving the characters from
the current English location to the proper Coptic place.
Since you use Linux, you can use "fontforge".
The file
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2C80.pdf
will be able to guide you to place the characters in the existing
Coptic fonts to the proper place (starting from index 0x2C80).

I tried to make this convertion and I was about to success but I had only one big problem
it is the special characters like Jenkem and the point under line the letter and others
those characters I didn't know how to make them work

attached with this message sample picture of the signs I failed to convert
So I wonder if some one have better experiance and/or better software to make the translation issue for me?
And me in my turn will provide software to convert the old Asci Fonts into new Unicode font
And another software to make it easy for anyone to use the new Unicode
And also I will convert this forum to be fully integrated with the new coptic unicode fonts and ask the visitors to download them

[simos]

Whether the combining marks are positioned properly on the letters is an issue of the font.
See
http://simos.info/blog/archives/553
for a comparison of this between existing Unicode fonts that support Coptic.

The source file for the comparison screenshot is available at
http://simos.info/files/CopticSample-CombiningDiacritics.odt
(You need a program like OpenOffice.org, http://www.openoffice.org/ to open the file).
You also need to install Unicode fonts with Coptic support. See

If you have Coptic fonts on your system, then the post
http://simos.info/blog/archives/554
should be readable. It is modern Greek written with the Coptic writing system.

Moheb is working on converting the Coptic Church (non-Unicode) fonts into Unicode fonts. His work is availalbe at
http://www.moheb.de/unicode_coptic_fonts.html

There are keyboard drivers to write coptic for Windows, OS/X and Linux (proof of concept).
See
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/coptic.html
Ask here if you are interested to help with publishing the Linux version.

It's important to revive the Coptic writing system, and it's technically feasible.
It's an issue of being focused on this project and take it all the way to completion.

[moheb]

Hi

For entering Unicode under Windiws XP, there is also
the keymapping defined by Logos Research:
http://www.logos.com/support/lbs/fonts/CopticKeyboard

They also provide all needed files for installing the keyboard.

For Linux: I have found 2 methods: either through a virtual
keyboard, or through the cop file I generated, for more details
see:
http://www.moheb.de/coptic_keymapping.html

hope this helps.

[simos]

For the Linux keyboard layout, you can post it upstream so that it is included by default in new Linux versions.

See a similar report, at
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2693

Having done that, you will be able to enable Coptic following simple instructions such as
http://www.gnome.gr/writing/ (Requires Flash).

[simos]

Hi Moheb!

I tried out your keyboard layout. I did the mininal changes required so that the Coptic keyboard can be easily set from the Keyboard Settings in GNOME (no need to type special commands) and I switch between English and Coptic with Alt-Shift.

I see that only 2-3 keys are different between the modern greek and the Coptic keyboard.

[Admin]

Some one started making a Unicode Coptic font, Font still have some problems but it is working
I hope some one can fix it

By the way I *think* I found out why those Coptic unicode fonts has problems, simply because each letter is heigher (taller) than it should be
I tried to decrease its tallness, it worked but the letters became very ugly , Hope some one can help

[agentsmith_3]

ⲛϥⲣⲓ

Ⲁ͡  ⲛⲁⲩ ⲫⲁⲓ ⲥⲁⲓⲧ (site)
http://copt-tux.blogspot.com/

ⲱϣ  ⲟⲩⲟϩ 'ⲥϧⲁⲓ  ⲕⲁⲧⲁ ⲕⲟϫⲓ ⲕⲟϫⲓ

[Admin]

Great Tutorial
But if you have KDE
you just download the file ArialCoptic.ttf and press right click on it and choose "Install Font"
Pretty simple isn't it ? 

[agentsmith_3]

But if you have KDE
you just download the file ArialCoptic.ttf and press right click on it and choose "Install Font"

Ⲭⲉⲣⲉ ⲛⲱⲧⲉⲛ
this did not work in fedora 
or it did not work with me
it 's the default in Ment Linux  and Ubuntu
but it does not work in fedora  when click on a font it just show it with kfontView
that because in ubuntu the root is not active by defualt but in other Linux distributions installing new fonts  requiers root   

2nd
I like  Gnome better than KDE



but  the good news
you can make folders  nemed in Coptic files named in Coptic

Pretty simple isn't it ?

yes 
Linux  is easy to modify
it's simple to do what ever you want in it

 ⲟⲩϫⲁⲓ

[bashandy]

You can convert your older CS or non-CS text to unicode here
http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/coptic.htm

[ophadece]

ⲡⲁⲉⲙⲉⲛⲣⲓⲧ ⲡⲉϣⲉⲛϯ
ϯϣⲉⲡ`ϩⲙⲟⲧ `ⲛⲧⲟⲧⲕ ⲉⲙⲁϣⲱ. ⲛⲁⲓⲕⲱϯ `ⲛⲥⲁ ⲧⲁⲓⲫⲁϫⲓ`ⲛϣⲟϣⲧ ⲑⲁⲓ
ⲟⲩϫⲁⲓ ϧⲉⲛ ⲡϭⲥ

[bashandy]

ⲙⲙⲟⲛ ϩⲗⲓ ⲡⲁⲥⲟⲛ ⲟⲫⲁⲇⲏⲥ