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Articles on the English Wikipedia may contain words or texts written in different languages and scripts. To be able to correctly view and edit these articles requires that you have the appropriate fonts installed and to have correctly configured your operating system and browser. This guide will help you to do so.

Overview

Unicode

Articles on Wikipedia are encoded using Unicode (specifically UTF-8)^[1], an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. Because UTF-8 is backwards compatible with ASCII, and most modern browsers have at least basic Unicode support, most users will experience little difficulty reading and editing Wikipedia.

For older browsers, MediaWiki, the Wikipedia software, serves the wikitext in a safe mode upon editing. Characters that cannot be represented in ASCII are temporarily converted to hexadecimal character references, looking like ሴ. Existing hexadecimal character references get an additional leading zero so they are not converted to actual characters when the page is saved, and look like ሴ. Likewise, to create a hexadecimal character reference in safe mode, not the character itself, a leading zero should be added. One can check whether safe mode is used by editing this section. If M looks like M rather than M, safe mode is used.

Font

Most computers with Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X and many Linux variants will already have fonts with support for Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and the International Phonetic Alphabet installed. Many mobile devices, such as the iPhone and iPad also include such fonts. Several historic and accented characters (used in the transliteration of foreign scripts) may be missing, though.

Microsoft fonts include:

Arial Unicode MS

supports a wide number of scripts, but is of a slightly lower quality than Arial because it lacks kerning and is not smoothed. It contains a small bug which causes double-wide diacritics to be placed on the wrong characters.

Lucida Sans Unicode

has a slightly smaller character repertoire than that of Arial Unicode MS, but is more legible.

Tahoma

has a slightly smaller character repertoire than that of Arial Unicode MS, but is more legible.

Microsoft Sans Serif

has better support for historical and accented Latin characters. (Note that this is a different font from MS Sans Serif, a bitmapped font that shipped with older versions of Windows.)

Other available unicode fonts

Browsers

Internet Explorer

supports Latin (however not all extended sets), Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic and Hebrew. Support for East Asian and some Indic scripts is available if support for this has been installed for Windows. As Internet Explorer will only use the default font for other scripts, those are usually not supported (unless the default font does).

Firefox

tries to render any character using all the fonts available on the system so multilingual support is generally good. The default rendering engine does not support complex script rendering, however. Some Linux distributions ship with a Pango-based rendering engine which does, this may currently cause some display glitches with justified text, though.

Opera

tries to render any character using all the fonts available on the system so multilingual support is also good.^[2] Opera uses the operating system to perform contextual glyph selection, ligature forming, character stacking, combining character support and other character shaping tasks.^[3]

Chrome

Does not support the languages of India, but otherwise renders many characters. Renders Sinhala, Gurmukhi, and Tibetan scripts in the examples below, but not Devanagari (used for Hindi), Bengali, or any of the other official languages of India.

Scripts

Balinese

The Balinese script is used to write the Balinese language. The script is encoded in block "Balinese", code points 1B00–1B7F (Unicode.org chart). It is supported by the following fonts:

• Aksara Bali (free OpenType font with keyboard driver)

Correct rendering	Your computer	Transliteration
	ᬩᬮᬶ᭞᭑᭞ᬚᬸᬮᬶ᭞᭑᭙᭘᭒᭟	Bali, 1 Juli 1982.

Burma

Correct rendering	Your computer
	ဃ + ြ → ဃြ

Available fonts

Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics

Canadian Aboriginal syllabics are an abugida used to write a number of First Nations languages in Canada, including Cree, Ojibwe, Naskapi, Inuktitut, Blackfoot, Sayisi, and Carrier.

Correct rendering	Your computer
	ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ

• Aboriginal Sans (Unicode), from LanguageGeek
• Also supported by the Code2000 family of fonts. (See above)

Cherokee

Correct rendering	Your computer
	ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ

• Digohweli, from LanguageGeek

Coptic

The Coptic alphabet is used to write Coptic, the language used in Egypt before Arabic. It is currently used solely as a liturgical language.

Correct rendering	Your computer
	ⲙⲛⲧⲣⲙⲛⲕⲏⲙⲉ

• Quivira 3.5: Use this for the best Coptic letter/ word spacing and sizing. It provides full Unicode support for all Coptic letters.
• GNU FreeSerif
• Antinoou is a new Sahidic Coptic unicode font, which will probably become standard for Sahidic.
• Alphabetum is a commercial unicode font, but it is the only font that provides Bohairic Coptic letters rather than Sahidic.

Deseret

Correct rendering	Your computer
	𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐈𐑊𐑁𐐩𐐺𐐯𐐻

• Serif fonts
• Sans Serif fonts

East Asian

Script	Correct rendering	Your computer
Traditional Chinese		人人生來自由， 在尊嚴和權利上一律平等。 他們有理性和良心， 請以手足關係的精神相對待。
Simplified Chinese		人人生来自由， 在尊严和权利上一律平等。 他们有理性和良心， 请以手足关系的精神相对待。
Japanese		すべての人間は、生まれながらにして自由であり、 かつ、尊厳と権利と について平等である。 人間は、理性と良心とを授けられており、 互いに同胞の精神をもって行動しなければならない。
Korean		모든 인간은 태어날 때부터 자유로우며 그 존엄과 권리에 있어 동등하다. 인간은 천부적으로 이성과 양심을 부여받았으며 서로 형제애의 정신으로 행동하여야 한다.

Ethiopic

The Ethiopic syllabary is used in central east Africa for Amharic, Bilen, Oromo, Tigré, Tigrinya, and other languages. It evolved from the script for classical Ge'ez, which is now strictly a liturgical language.

Correct rendering	Your computer
	ኢትዮጵያ

Indic

The following table compares how a correctly enabled computer would render the following scripts with how your computer renders them:

Script	Correct rendering	Your computer
Bengali		ক + ি → কি
Devanāgarī		क + ि → कि
Gujarati		ક + િ → કિ
Gurmukhī		ਕ + ਿ → ਕਿ
Kannada		ಕ + ಿ → ಕಿ
Malayalam		ക + െ → കെ
Oriya		କ + େ → କେ
Sinhala		ඵ + ේ → ඵේ
Tibetan		ར + ྐ + ྱ → རྐྱ
Tamil		க + ே → கே
Telugu		య + ీ → యీ

Javanese

Javanese script is used to write Javanese language. It has been supported by Unicode 5.2 above. To install the unicode characters for Javanese, simply go to Jawa Unicode. The font provided at Jawa Unicode is SIL graphite font, which is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox browser, and best used used for typing at OpenOffice.org softwares. For the TrueType Javanese font, go to Adjisaka or Jason Glavy's JG Aksara Jawa.

Correct rendering
Your computer	Adjisaka	
	JG Aksara Jawa	
	SIL Graphite font (Tuladha Jejeg)	꧋ꦱꦸꦒꦼꦁꦫꦮꦸꦃꦺꦮꦴꦤ꧀ꦠꦼ꧀ꦲꦶꦁꦮꦶꦏꦶꦺꦥꦝꦶꦪꦃꦗꦮꦶ꧉
Transliteration	Sugeng Rawuh Wonten ing Wikipédia Jawi

Lontara

The Lontara script is used to write the Buginese, Makassarese, and Mandar language. The script is encoded in block "Buginese", code points 1A00–1A1F (Unicode.org chart). It is supported by the following fonts:

• Saweri
• Code2000
• MPH 2B Damase

Correct rendering	Your computer	Transliteration
	ᨅᨔᨕᨘᨁᨗ	Basa Ugi

Old Persian cuneiform

The Old Persian cuneiform script was used to write the Old Persian language. The script is encoded in block "Old Persian", code points 103A0–103DF (Unicode.org chart). It is supported by the following fonts:

• Aegean (free font)

Correct rendering
Your computer	𐎣𐎲𐎢𐎪𐎡𐎹
Transliteration	Kambujiya (Cambyses II)

Old Tagalog/Baybayin

Baybayin (also known as the Tagalog script in Unicode and Alibata) is a form of pre-Spanish Philippine writing system in which modern minority scripts in the Philippines has descended.

Correct rendering	Your computer
	ᜀᜅ᜔ ᜊᜏᜆ᜔ ᜆᜂ ᜀᜌ᜔ ᜁᜐᜒᜈᜒᜎᜅ᜔ ᜈ ᜋᜌ᜔ ᜃᜍᜉᜆᜈ᜔| ᜀᜆ᜔ ᜉᜈ᜔ᜆᜌ᜔ ᜐ ᜇᜒᜄ᜔ᜈᜒᜇᜇ᜔ ᜀᜆ᜔ ᜃᜍᜉᜆᜈ᜔ | ᜀᜅ᜔ ᜆᜂ ᜀᜌ᜔ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜌᜌᜀᜈ᜔ ᜅ᜔ ᜉᜄᜒᜁᜐᜒᜉ᜔ ᜀᜆ᜔ ᜃᜍᜓᜈᜓᜅᜈ᜔ ᜈ ᜃᜁᜎᜅᜅ᜔ ᜋᜄ᜔ᜃᜁᜐ ᜐ ᜃᜉᜆᜒᜍᜈ᜔

Download and installation:

• Paul Morrow's Baybayin Fonts. Offers the most extensive list of Baybayin fonts for Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
• PNKL is a free unicode font support which defines own assignment of Baybayin alphabet to a normal keyboard. Available for Windows and Linux users.

Sundanese

The Sundanese script is used to write the Sundanese language. The script is encoded in block "Sundanese", code points 1B80–1BBF (Unicode.org chart). It is supported by the following fonts:

• Sundanese Unicode (direct download link) (free font)

Correct rendering	Your computer	Transliteration
	ᮜᮓᮢᮀ ᮃᮚ ᮠᮤᮏᮤ ᮛᮥᮕ ᮞᮒᮧ ᮜᮩᮒᮤᮊ᮪, ᮆᮀᮊᮀ-ᮆᮀᮊᮀ, ᮆᮀᮊᮀ-ᮆᮀᮊᮀ, ᮞᮧᮊ᮪ ᮜᮥᮜᮥᮔ᮪ᮎᮒᮔ᮪ ᮓᮤ ᮎᮄ, ᮃᮛᮤ ᮘᮍᮥᮔ᮪ ᮃᮛᮦᮊ᮪ ᮞᮛᮥᮕ ᮏᮩᮀ ᮜᮔ᮪ᮎᮂ.	Ladrang Aya hiji rupa sato leutik, Éngkang-éngkang, éngkang-éngkang, Sok luluncatan di cai, Ari bangun arék sarupa jeung lancah.

Syriac/Aramaic script

Syriac and Aramaic scripts like most Semitic scripts flow from right-to-left which can cause letter to appear in the wrong order. The tag {{rtl-lang}} can be used to fix this issue.

• Aramaic Fonts A large selection of free Aramaic TrueType fonts.
• Meltho OpenType™ Syriac Fonts (free font).

Script	Correct rendering	Your computer
Madnḥāyā		ܒܪܹܝܼܫܝܼܬ݀ ܐܝܼܬ݂ܲܘܗ݇ܝ ܗ݇ܘܵܐ ܡܹܠܬܵ݀ܐ.‎
Serṭā		ܒ݁ܪܺܝܫܺܝܬܼ ܐܻܝܬܼܰܘܗ̱ܝ ܗ̱ܘܳܐ ܡܶܠܬܼܳܐ.‎
Estrangelo		ܒܪܝܫܝܬ ܐܝܬܘܗܝ ܗܘܐ ܡܠܬܐ.‎

Most operating system provide support for Syriac script natively^{[citation needed]}, however only the Madnḥāyā variety (ܡܕܢܚܝܐ‎) is rendered correctly. In order to render the Serṭā (ܣܪܛܐ‎) and Estrangelo (ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ‎) varieties, additional fonts are needed. This is supported by the following fonts:

Special cases

Esperanto

Mediawiki installations configured for Esperanto use UTF-8 for storage and display. However when editing the text is converted to a form that is designed to be easier to edit with a standard keyboard.

The characters for which this applies are: Ĉ, Ĝ, Ĥ, Ĵ, Ŝ, Ŭ, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ. you may enter these directly in the edit box if you have the facilities to do so. However when you edit the page again you will see them encoded as Sx. This form is referred to as "x-sistemo" or "x-kodo". In order to preserve round trip capability when one or more x's follow these characters or their non-accented forms (C, G, H, J, S, U, c, g, h, j, s, u), the number of x's in the edit box is double the number in the actual stored article text.

For example, the interlanguage link [[en:Luxury car]] to en:Luxury car has to be entered in the edit box as [[en:Luxxury car]] on eo:. This has caused problems with interwiki update bots in the past.

Romanian

The Romanian alphabet contains an S-comma (Ș ș) and T-comma (Ț ț). These characters were added to Unicode 3.0 at the request of the Romanian standardization institute. As font support for these characters has been poor in the past, many computer users use the similar characters S-cedilla (Ş ş) and T-cedilla (Ţ ţ) instead. However, on Wikipedia it is recommended to use the correct characters with comma below.

See also

• Help:Multilingual support (East Asian)
• Help:Multilingual support (Indic)
• Help:Multilingual support for Android
• Help:Special characters
• Wikipedia:Amharic
• Wikipedia:Bangla script display help
• Wikipedia:Gothic Keyboarding
• Wikipedia:Gothic Unicode Fonts
• Wikipedia:Kannada support
• Help:Sinhala Font Guide

Notes

External links

• Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources: Unicode and Multilingual Support in HTML, Fonts, Web Browsers and Other Applications
• Unicode Font Guide For Free/Libre Open Source Operating Systems
• WAZU JAPAN's Gallery of Unicode Fonts
• SIL International: Computers and Writing Systems