Encyclopædia Iranica has announced the re-launch of their web site using Unicode, replacing the old custom 8-bit font. Unfortunately, they have chosen to use some non-standard character substitutions. I doubt these are wise and have prepared this web page to address the issue.
The rationale, as explained on the site, is that
"Many less commonly occurring combinations of letter plus diacritic are not defined in Unicode as single code points. In Iranica, these are most likely to be seen in entries on linguistic topics, and in any entry that cites the Avestan language. Iranica chose not to use Unicode’s Combining Diacritical Marks, because the on-screen resolution of a series of two or three code points for one complex character is not predictable, depending on the user’s operating system and browser. Instead, either two characters or similar-looking singe [sic] characters were used, thus ensuring the stability of the text that is presented, regardless of the user environment."
Is it practical to use substitutes when Unicode has the characters needed and current browsers and operating systems can display them? My initial reaction is that substitute characters defeat the purpose of Unicode and will create many thousands of pages of incorrectly coded academic documents. I suggest that the encoding job should be done correctly the first time -- and that the online edition not be held hostage by older operating systems.
It was acceptable to require the download and installation of a custom 8-bit font for many years. Why not simply advise users to now install one of several excellent Unicode fonts and use a current browser?
To view the below chart correctly, you must have a Unicode font containing the necessary characters. In order of preference, download and install one of the specified fonts. The list contains fonts with which I am familiar that meet the requirement and display satisfactorily; the CSS font-family class for the chart requires you use one of these fonts.
The fall-back font is Arial Unicode MS, available on many systems but poorly suited for web display. It will, however, display every character if none of the recommended academic fonts has been installed. Click here to see a similar page displayed with your browser's default Latin-based font.
Column one contains the Unicode font character. The second and third columns contain images of the characters used in the EI print and EI online editions, respectively. Please send feedback to Chris Hopkins if you are unable to see the column one characters properly.
Actual Unicode 5 font Character |
Image of character in EI print edition |
Image of substitute in EI online version |
Actual Unicode 5 font Character |
Image of character in EI print edition |
Image of substitute in EI online version |
Actual Unicode 5 font Character |
Image of character in EI print edition |
Image of substitute in EI online version |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ā́ | ī́ | r̥ | ||||||||
ā̊ | i̯ | r̄ | ||||||||
ą̄ | i̠ | ṛ́ | ||||||||
ą̇ | j́ | s̀ | ||||||||
c̣ | k̨ | s̄ | ||||||||
č̣ | m̄ | š́ | ||||||||
ẹ̄ | m̨ | ṣ̌ | ||||||||
Ė | n̨ | s̄́ | ||||||||
ɛ̄ | ŋ́ | ṣ́ | ||||||||
Ǝ̄ | ọ̄ | t̰ | ||||||||
ə̄ | ȫ́ | U̇ | ||||||||
ə́ | p̄ | ū́ | ||||||||
ə̄́ | P̣ | x́ | ||||||||
ə̆ | p̣ | x̌ | ||||||||
g̣ | q̄ | x̣̌ | ||||||||
g̨ | q̇ | z̄ | ||||||||
γ̌ | q̣ | ẓ̌ |
Click here for a verification image of the chart above