Sunday, November 06, 2011

Old #Hebrew shown as it should

When #Wikisource is to host old sources, it helps when the resulting digital text looks old. Particularly when the way a language is written changed over time, using a different font helps.

In Hebrew, signs may be added to a text that indicate how a text is to be chanted. Such signs are not well supported in most operating systems. Amir has added a default font created by the Culmus Project for texts in old Hebrew (language code hbo).

Testing the waters in this way, a next addition for old Hebrew may be a font that will do justice to manuscripts like the Dead Sea scrolls. It means that our digital text will resemble closely what the manuscript looks like. Having all the characters show properly and in the old style will add respect to the original text.

Once a transcribed text shows visibly the same, it will give added validity to the use of our digital text for comparative research. A project transcribing the Dead Sea scrolls is the kind of project that will make Wikisource shine.
Thanks,
      GerardM

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