Coptic Keyboard
Coptic Keyboard
Coptic Keyboard
Preview
This is a project of standardization of the Coptic Fonts that work on windows format: *.ttf so, as to make a unified Character coding. It is done by Remenkimi (Coptic language e-mail discussion group, where most of correspondence take place in Coptic language).
Summary
The first Coptic Fonts were created for ancient printers dating to 19th century then it developed to typewriters then to Electric Typewriters roughly in 1950. Computer fonts for DOS were as early as 1980s and then for windows. But their initiators had different needs like church text writings, manuscript re-typing, new compositionsetc. The fonts that were done were almost independent to each other separate in approach & arrangement due to lack of communications of different initiators (sometimes on opposite sides of the globe). All that caused that a total of 16 Coptic fonts are now on the market each distributed differently on the keyboard thus making a font change a disaster that would surely destroy the text on converting from one font to another. In addition, one has to have the font exactly in order to be capable of reading, thats unlike any font encoding system where morphology of the font is the only variable amongst various fonts of the same language. Therefore, Remenkimi (Coptic Community) on the Internet (130 members) has undertaken this project of Font Code Standardization. A technical coordinator was elected and a Computer Engineer was the executor. A study was conducted to analyze how previous different fonts have been built and the standardization actions have been set towards a revival of Coptic in its different dialects in all fields of life. The keyboard distribution was set within a participatory approach including polls and voice discussions for a period of 30 days before a trial version was issued, and 60 days to establish the final version. Comments and feedback from members enabled the computer engineer to finalize the layout. We ask all new initiators of fonts to cooperate by accepting this new distribution to be capable to unify & standardize one font system. More details follow below:
Definition:
This is a construction of a standard complete layout of the Coptic language on the standard keyboard.
Aim:
Construct a unified system for placement of letters, djinkims, abbreviations, overlines, underlines, punctuation marks etc. on the keyboard. In the context, of coping with Coptic language as contemporary language, a competent keyboard to withstand all whats needed in day to-day work is demanded which is done here.
Result:
1. There is no unified keyboard 2. Moving a document from a font to another font requires enormous effort in working with macros etc. 3. To be capable to read a document one has to have the font itself because not any other font can compensate the lack of original font 4. A typist has to learn a new keystroke system with every new font he installs. 5. Incapability of reading destruction of documents, sometimes is inevitable 6. No professional typists in the field. 7. To preserve a document one has to make it a picture file (*.jpeg) which is impractical on production to scale, and on handling. 8. Lack of distribution of its software, and fonts render thinking about Coptic as a PC hostile fonts. 9. Lack of unity results in more separation, leading to disastrous incomprehensiveness font development
Conclusion
Following this arrangement one can type all Coptic Letters (including letters in Achmimic Dialect) in almost a totally pronunciation based system that facilitates both typing & education. Also, all types of djinkims Bohairic, Sahidic, Achmimmic could be written. Arabic numerals, simple mathematical marks & modern punctuations are present. Ecclesiastical common abbreviations are present on Alt keys. First row lower case ` 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 0 0 = overline \ \ backspace backspace
! !
# #
$ $
% %
&
* *
( (
) )
_ _
+ +
&
backspace backspace
Enter Enter
Enter
tab
E
d
R
f
T
g
Y
h
U
j
I
k
O
l
P
;
Enter
d
D
f
F
g
G
h
H
j
J
k
K
l
L
'
Enter Enter
"
Enter Enter
c
C
v
V
b
B
n
N
m
M
,
<
.
period
/ /
Shift Shift
>
, comma
?
?
<
Shift Shift
0128
0129
The Coptic Standard Character Code (CSCC) - 8 0130 0131 0132 0133 0134 0135 0136 0137 0138 0139
0140
0141
0142
0143
0144
0145
0146
0147
0148
0149
0150
0151
0152
0153
0154
0155
0156
0157
0158
0159
0160
0161
0162
0163
0164
0165
0166
0167
0168
0169
0170
0171
0172
0173
0174
0175
0176
0177
0178
0179
0180
0181
0182
0183
0184
0185
0186
0187
0188
0189
0190
0191
0192
0193
0194
0195
0196
0197
0198
0199
0200
0201
0202
0203
0204
0205
0206
0207
0208
0209
0210
0211
0212
0213
0214
0215
0216
0217
0218
0219
0220
0221
0222
0223
0224
0225
0226
0227
0228
0229
0230
0231
0232
0233
0234
0235
0236
0237
0238
0239
0240
0241
0242
0243
0244
0245
0246
0247
0248