Cross-Platfrom Display of Polytonic Greek Font via html and Javascript

As of mid-2003, we are in a good position for effective cross-platform use of ancient (polytonic) Greek in browser display through use of unicode. There are still inefficiencies for the Mac user in creating html documents incorporating unicode Greek, and it is still not possible to use unicode in any heavy-duty word processor available for Mac OS. But display of unicode Greek in the latest browsers under the latest Mac OS X version (10.2.x) is on a par with that available for Windows 2000 and XP browsers, and unicode input in OS X browsers is superior. If your computer and browser is capable of using unicode, it is recommended that you use the unicode versions rather than the GreekKeys versions for several modules.

For those who cannot yet take advantage of unicode, one can attain limited cross-platform success by using the freely-distributed Athenian TrueType font (provided by the American Philological Association) in combination with styles, stylesheets, or dynamic html to produce Greek on the screen from text-based data.

If you do not already have Athenian font installed on your MacOS or Windows system, please install it before trying the vocabulary drill (or other GreekKeys-version modules that use it: Noun Drill, Verb Drill, and the optional Dictionary Info button of the English-Greek module). The download site is http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/greekkeys/Atheniandownload.html, or if you purchased the CD-ROM version of Ancient Greek Tutorials, the fonts are supplied on the CD in a folder with the word GKFont in its name.

The font designated for Windows was created when 3.1 and 95 were prevalent, but it also works for display (not for text entry) with more recent Windows operating systems (NT, 2000, XP). For the latter versions of Windows, it is important to expand the compressed font in some location other than the Fonts folder, and then to install it in the Fonts folder using the Install New Font command of Control Panel:Fonts (Control Panel is accessible from the Start menu).

For detailed instructions on installing the font in Mac OS or in Windows, see the browser instruction page.

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