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--- Classical Greek Fonts and Utilities ---

-- Utilities --


Latest versions | About this page | Brief history of the utilities | the Utilities


Quick update check for main utilities (for details, see the What's New page)

Greek Macros now at version 2.01updated July 2001
Son of WinGreeknow available in two flavours:
SoWG version 2.4aupdated March 2000
SoWG 32, v. 31.1updated March 2000
Antiochversion 1.13bupdated December 25, 2002


About this page

The utilities available on this page are arranged by encoding system: in other words, all the utilities designed for a particular font or set of fonts are grouped together. You can find these fonts on the Fonts page. If you are new to the world of Greek fonts, you may find it helpful to read the following section on the history of these font utilities, to get some idea as to how and why they differ. Those who do not wish to do so can go straight to the utilities.

A quick history of the main utilities -- Skip this

A few years ago, in the distant days of Windows 3.1, there were two or three widely used methods employed by the Classicist or Theologian to type Greek into the PC. In England, the two most common consisted of a set of fonts from Silver Mountain Software, which did not require any utilities, and a set of fonts in the WinGreek package, which included a utility named Beta to add accents and breathings. Both of these included Hebrew fonts in addition to Greek.

Then came Windows 95 - and to the dismay of all the users of WinGreek, Beta would do longer run. So it was that I created my free Greek macros, which reproduced and (though I say it myself) improved upon the original functionality of Beta. For a while these provided the only easy way for WinGreek users to use their Greek font under Windows 95. Then came Son of WinGreek, a commercial program which did a similar job. Both of these, however, were concerned only with Greek. No replacement for Beta's Hebrew support had yet been created.

Then came Word 97 - the first version of Word to support the new Unicode fonts, which should in time help to bring some order to the current chaotic situation. This created a demand for new utilities: for although the macros and Son of WinGreek still work under Word 97 and above, they do not work with unicode fonts. A few unicode Greek fonts have now appeared, and a few utilities, the most notable of which is the excellent Antioch. Antioch also provides support for Hebrew, making it the first full successor to the original WinGreek package.



Note: to make these pages easier to use, the fonts and utilities are listed separately. However, in some cases a particular font is distributed only with a particular utility. There is nothing to stop you using one person's font and another's utility, provided that you register both the font and the utility.

The utilities
Group One - WinGreek Compatible Fonts
e.g. Greek, Greek Old Face, Korinthus, Milan, etc.

Back to top | List of utilities | Group Two utilities

The two most popular utilities currently in use for Group One fonts are: Other utilities, including the original WinGreek package (which only works in Windows 3.x), are also available, details of which are given below.


The text below lists the key difference between the macros and Son of WinGreek (henceforth SoWG):


Group One: Son of WinGreek - by Neil Beshoori and Ralph Hancock.

Notes -- Son of WinGreek allows the user to add accents and breathings to Greek characters, and provides support for UK/US, French and German keyboards. It now comes in two versions: Anyone running Windows 95 or above should download SoWG 32.

Using Son of WinGreek: When the program is activated, accents can be inserted by pressing one of the number keys (a template is provided for you to print out and put over them), followed by the character one wishes to accent: e.g. '1' followed by 'a' gives alpha with a smooth breathing, '4' followed by 'h' gives eta with a rough breathing and an acute accent. All combinations of accents and breathings are available directly from the keyboard with just one key-press, which can speed up the typing of Greek substantially, once you are familiar with the layout. A number of other characters (such as koppa and sampi) can also be entered quite simply from the keyboard. For more information see the Son of WinGreek homepage at:
http://www.uni-bonn.de/~ute404/SoWG.html

Pros: Son of WinGreek is simple to install, extremely easy to use, yet also very powerful. It does its job very well and works with all Windows programs. An excellent program.

Cons: It can take a while to get used to the method of inserting the characters (the order 'accent then character' is slightly counter-intuitive). Should one make a mistake, the whole character must be deleted and one must start again from the beginning, which can be a nuisance particularly if the character in question is a capital letter. The keys cannot be redefined.

Choose your download: If you are running Windows 95 or above, you should download Son of WinGreek 32.


Group One: My Macros for Word and WordPerfect

Notes: These macros were written to replace Beta, which does not work in Windows 95, and also to make typing and correcting Greek much easier. In addition to adding accents, the macros also enable one to add dots beneath letters, convert SGreek to Greek, and skip Greek text when spell-checking a document. Until the arrival of Son of WinGreek they presented the only solution to the problem of using WinGreek in Windows 95. They work with Word 2, Word 6, Word 7 (also known as Word 95), Word 97 (also known as Word 8), and Word 2000, and also with WordPerfect 6.1 and 7. The macros are free.

Using the macros: Once the macros have been installed into Word or WordPerfect, one accents a character by typing the character and then pressing ALT together with the appropriate key, which can be redefined to suit. Accents, breathings, and iota subscripts can be added to and removed from lower case letters or capitals with ease - for example:

typing 'a' followed by ALT + / adds an acute accent to an alpha;

then pressing ALT + < adds a rough breathing, giving alpha + acute + rough breathing;
then pressing ALT + \ changes the acute to a grave, giving alpha + grave + rough;
then pressing ALT + \ again removes the grave, giving alpha + rough breathing.

Pros: Greek can be typed in a natural fashion. Correcting mistakes is easy. Capitals can be accented in just the same way as lower case letters. The keys can be redefined, and only a handful are needed. The macros are free.

Cons: The macros only work in Word and WP, and they are very slow in WP 6.1.

Choose your download:


Group One: Other Utilities

G1: The original WinGreek package


G1: Multikey


Back to the top of the Utilities section
Group Two - Unicode Fonts

Back to top | List of utilities | Group One utilities

Group Two: Antioch

Garamond Classical Garamond Classical (Unicode) 1-line sample
GR Cambridge GR Cambridge (Unicode) 1-line sample
GR Century Schoolbook GR Century Schoolbook (Unicode) 1-line sample
GR Lucida Sans GR Lucida Sans (Unicode) 1-line sample
GR Oxford GR Oxford (Unicode) 1-line sample
GR Times GR Times (Unicode) 1-line sample
GR Uncial GR Uncial (Unicode) 1-line sample
Notes -- Antioch is the Big Daddy of the Unicode font utilities - in fact, perhaps of all the Greek-typing utilities. It is stuffed full of features, can support US/UK, French, and German keyboards, and in addition to all of this it supports the typing of Hebrew, from right to left. It is the first full successor to WinGreek but goes far beyond it in all respects. The version of Vusillus Old Face contained in the shareware package has an italic Roman font - registered users receive an upright font (note: the Greek is still slanting), as well as an additional (and excellent) set of Unicode Greek fonts (see above). It works with Word 97 and above.

Using Antioch: Once Antioch has installed itself, two buttons appear on Word's menu bar: Greek and Hebrew. Click on Greek and the font changes to Vusillus Greek and one can type Greek; click on Hebrew and the font changes to Vusillus Hebrew and one can type Hebrew, from right to left. By default, diacritical markings are added from the numeric keypad: and borrowing the approach that I like to think, in my more megalomaniac moments, I pioneered in my macros, any diacritical marking can be added, removed or changed without affecting any of the others. In addition, Antioch allows several different methods for adding diacritics - they can be added from the number keys, or user defined keys; or they can be added before or after the vowel. The entire keyboard can be redefined. Antioch will convert all manner of fonts into Unicode. You can even download a list of auto-correct entries which will automatically accent common Greek words which can speed things up significantly. A fantastic program.

Pros: Too many to list. The program is easy to install, but powerful and flexible. Diacritical markings can be added in any way the user likes. Default keys are excellent but they can be easily redefined. A wide range of fonts can be converted to Unicode automatically. The manual is detailed, and on-line help is provided.

Cons: Few. In the older version (1.13a) Antioch can be slow to switch to the Greek keyboard in Word XP, but this has been improved in the new version (1.13b). Currently the right-to-left function for Hebrew does not work in Windows 2000, but this will be corrected in the next major update. Because it uses a Unicode font, it is not compatible with Word 95.

Download:
There are also a number of other Unicode utilities available, though I have not yet had time to investigate these in detail. They include:

G2: Multikey



G2: A Unicode Greek keyboard by Manuel Lopez



G2: Magenta Software's Polytonistis (also known as Accentuator)





This particular page was last updated on June 5, 2003

If you have any comments or queries, please feel free to email me at matthew.robinson@balliol.ox.ac.uk.