Tyndale House Greek & Hebrew Unicode Keyboards

for Windows/MacOS

Using Tyndale Greek & Hebrew Unicode font keyboard layouts

The Tyndale Unicode Font Kit can be downloaded here:

For Windows (https://downloads.stepbible.com/file/Stepbible/TyndaleUnicodePC.zip)

For Mac (https://downloads.stepbible.com/file/Stepbible/TyndaleUnicodeMac.zip)

The kit provides:

• Greek font and keyboard including breathing and accents with automatic positioning
• Hebrew font and keyboard including full pointing with automatic positioning
• Transliteration font and keyboards for Greek, Hebrew and manuscript markups
• Masoretic punctuation font and keyboard for punctuation in the Hebrew Old Testament

To start typing in Greek or Hebrew:

1. Turn on the keyboard at "ENG" on the taskbar; see first image, which also shows other
settings in Windows. On MacOS, the language icon is on the top bar, right side.

2. Change the font to Cardo, or SBL Greek or Hebrew; see second image, for Word.

_____________________________________________________________
Keyboards © David Instone-Brewer of Tyndale House, Cambridge, 2008
Using the Greek keyboard

Turn on the Greek keyboard by setting the Language to ΕΛ; i.e., in Windows, press the
Windows key + space bar. Choose a font with full Greek accents, such as Times New
Roman, SBL Greek, or Cardo (supplied with the kit).

The letters are in sound-alike and look-alike positions to English, with uppercase activated by
the Shift key. Note that theta = q; psi = y ; phi = f ; and final sigma = v. The breathing, accent
and the iota subscript keys are noted in red in the diagram above.

Most letters are on phonetically-equivalent keys, with Shift giving the uppercase; eg:

• to get α type a • to get Γ type Shift G

• to get β type b • to get Δ type Shift D

There are a few non-phonetic letters:

• to get θ type q • to get ω type w

• to get ψ type y • to get η type h
• to get ς type v

Breathing & Accents Summary

Type accents and breathings before the letter. If you just want an accent, press \ or / or =

• to add the diaeresis with these accents, hold Shift

For all breathing marks, press AltGr; eg:

• if you want just a soft breathing, press AltGr+‘

• if you want a soft breathing with an accent, press AltGr + \ or / or =
• if you want a harsh breathing with any of these, add Shift
In more detail:

Accents are on the \, / and = keys. They are typed before the letter. Only valid
accents are available; eg:

• to get ὰ type \ a • to get ᾶ type = a

• to get ά type / a • to get ί type / i

The diaresis (two dots), above the υ or ι, is mapped to the _ (shift-hyphen) then υ or ι, or with
shift plus normal accents, eg:

• to get ϋ type Shift+- u • to get ΰ type Shift+/ u

• to get ϊ type Shift+- i • to get ῧ type Shift+= u
• to get ῢ type Shift+\ u • to get ῗ type Shift+= i

Add breathings to accents by holding AltGr, and add Shift for harsh breathings.
(AltGr is the Alt on the right of the space bar. On a Mac, use the Alt Option key.)

Simple breathing marks are produced by holding AltGr with the ’ key (the key to the left of the
Enter key), and harsh breathing by ‘ (i.e. Shift ’); eg:

• to get ἀ type AltGr+’ a • to get Ἁ type Shift+AltGr+’ Α

• to get ἁ type Shift+AltGr+’ a • to get ῥ type Shift+AltGr+’ r
• to get Ἀ type AltGr+’ A • to get Ῥ type Shift+AltGr+’ R

Breathing combined with accents are produced by holding AltGr with those accents, eg:

• to get ἂ type AltGr+\ a • to get ἃ type Shift+AltGr+\ a

• to get ἄ type AltGr+/ a • to get ἅ type Shift+AltGr+/ a
• to get ἆ type AltGr+= a • to get ἇ type Shift+AltGr+= a
• to get ἶ type AltGr+= i • to get ἷ type Shift+AltGr+= i

The iota subscript is produced with the ` key (to the left of the 1 key) after the vowel; eg:

• to get ῳ type w ` • to get ῇ type = h `

• to get ῃ type h ` • to get ᾧ type Shift+AltGr+= w `
The Uncertainty Dot

To add a dot under any character, indicating the character is uncertain, press the “combining
dot” key (i.e., shift of the iota subscript, on the key to the left of the number 1) after the letter:

• to get α̣ type a ~ (i.e., Shift `) • to get δ̣ type d ~

• to get β̣ type b ~

Nomina Sacra

Use the overline, i.e., unicode character hexadecimal 305 (recommended by SBL).

θ̅ς̅ = θεός
ι̅η̅λ̅ = Ἰσραήλ
υ̅ς̅ = υἱός
χ̅ς̅ = Χριστός

To type it, change to the Greek (Tyndale) keyboard, and

1. type the letter (eg "a" for α)

2. press AltGr (to the right of the space bar) with "-" (the hyphen key)
3. continue on with the next character (or a space after the last character)

(In some fonts it looks better if you also add a preceding space with the overline.)
Transliteration

Transliteration is included in the Greek keyboard, so set the Language to ΕΛ.

To enable the Transliteration font, turn on Caps Lock. Switch to the Cardo font to ensure all
the symbols are available. (Some other fonts work equally well, others do not; you may want
to experiment.)

The letters are now in normal Roman font while the numbers are symbols, ie:

Type transliteration symbols after the letter. Press numbers to put symbols above letters, and
Shift-number to put them above letters (on Mac, use Option-number), eg:

• to get s̮ type s 4 • to get s̆ type s $

• to get s̬ type s 7 • to get š type s &
• to get s͔ type s 9 • to get s̄ type s _
• to get s̱ type s - • to get s̊ type s @
• to get s̥ type s 2 • to get ṡ type s *
• to get ṣ type s 8

As a guide, the SBL system of transliteration is:

Using the Hebrew keyboard

Turn on the Hebrew keyboard by setting the Language to HE ( ‫ ;)עבר‬i.e., in Windows, press
the Windows key + space bar. Choose a font with full Hebrew accents, such as Times New
Roman, SBL Hebrew, or Cardo (supplied with the kit).

The Basic Keyboard

Most of the alphabet is mapped to phonetic equivalents (i.e. similar sounding letters), and
others are mostly mapped to similar looking letters, with Shift giving the final form; eg:

• to get ‫ כ‬type k • to get ‫ מ‬type m

• to get ‫ ך‬type K (i.e., Shift k) • to get ‫ ם‬type M

There are a few non-phonetic letters:

• to get ‫ א‬type x • to get ‫ ע‬type y

• to get ‫ ט‬type f • to get ‫ י‬type j
• to get ‫ ח‬type H • to get ‫ ש‬type w
• to get ‫ שׂ‬type Q • to get ‫ שׁ‬type W

Vowels are on normal vowels, with strong vowels on Shift vowels; eg:

• to get ַ ַ type a • to get ַ ָ type A

• to get ַ ֶ type e • to get ַ ֵ type E
• to get ַ ִ type i • to get ‫ ִ י‬type I
• to get ַ ֹ type o • to get ‫ ַ וֹ‬type O
• to get ַ ֻ type u • to get ‫ ַ וּ‬type U
Right-to-left is automatic, and vowels are typed after the letter, just like in English, so to get
‫ ֶמ ֶלך‬type meleK.

Shewa, dagesh and other pointing marks can be added after letters. Alternatively, the dagesh
can be added using the AltGr key. For example:

• to get ‫ ַ ְב‬type b ; • to get ‫ ַ ְך‬type K ;

• to get ‫ ַ ִב‬type b i • to get ‫ ַ ִד‬type d i
• to get ‫ ַ ּפ‬type p = (or AltGr+p) • to get ‫ ַ ּי‬type j =
• to get ֹ ‫ ַ י‬type j o • to get ֹ ‫ ַ ל‬type l o

To get composite shewa vowels, press and hold the AltGr key. (AltGr is the Alt on the right of
the space bar. On a Mac, use the Alt Option key.) For example:

• to get ַ ֱ ַ type AltGr+e • to get ַ ֳ ַ type AltGr+A

• to get ַ ֲ ַ type AltGr+a

Simple punctuation:

• to get ‫ ַ ֽב‬type b ` • to get ‫ ַ ־‬type -

• to get ‫ ַ ׃‬type : • to get ‫ ַ ֯ב‬type b ~
• to get ‫ ַ ׳‬type ' • to get ‫ ַ ״‬type "
Masoretic punctuation characters

These characters are activated by the Caps Lock key.

Masoretic punctuation

The Masoretes tried to eliminate ambiguity in the Hebrew Old Testament by indicating which
words form phrases together and which words did or did not act on each other. In order to do
this they created a complex system of punctuation.

• English has five or six ways to provide internal structure to sentences, while Masoretic
Hebrew has fourteen common ways and several rarer ones.
• English has only one way to make a compound word (using a hyphen) while Masoretic
Hebrew has eight major and several rarer ways of conjoining words.

An explanation of this system is included with the Tyndale Kit; see the document called
"Masoretic punctuation.pdf".

Masoretic punctuation is on the number line when Caps Lock is turned on, eg:

• to get ‫ ַ ֽב‬type b 1 • to get ‫ ַ ֔ב‬type b !

• to get ֩‫ ַ ב‬type b 2 • to get ‫ ַ ֯ב‬type b @
• to get ‫ ַ ֪ב‬type b - • to get ‫ ַ ֿב‬type b _
• to get ‫ ַ ֤ב‬type b 9 • to get ‫ ַ ֚ב‬type b 0

This punctuation is normally omitted when quoting the Hebrew OT.

Problems:

I can't remember all this!

Don't worry – use it for a little, and you'll soon be touch-typing.

Print the summary page at the end of this document, and pin it up in front of you.

How do I copy and paste Bible texts without typing them?

You can do this as follows:

• Copy and paste from STEPBible.org

• For Hebrew, turn Masoretic

punctuation on or off in the Options
cog, Original language options.

Why are the Hebrew accents not working correctly?

• Perhaps you have not turned on the Cardo or SBL Hebrew font. These fonts contain
positioning data which is not available in some Unicode fonts containing Hebrew. Other
good academic fonts include SIL Hebrew, Code 2000 and TITUS.

• Perhaps you are trying to write Hebrew in Word on a Mac before Word 2016.
Unfortunately Word on the Mac lagged years behind the PC for Unicode.

• Perhaps you are using a non-standard keyboard. Keys such as single quote may not
be indicated the same — try the key at the bottom left of the Enter key. Other keys may
also need to be found by hunting around!
How do I insert the rare accents missing from the keyboard?

The Hebrew keyboard can’t contain all the Masoretic punctuation. Punctuation that isn’t there
has to be inserted manually; eg, in Microsoft Word click on menu “Insert”, then “Symbol”, find
the character and click “Insert”. For example, the Hebrew Accent Zinor is hex code 05AE.

How do I move a furtive patach and other accents left or right?

The furtive patach and a few other accents should not be central. To move an accent in Word,
highlight just the accent (i.e., the left half of the character), then press Ctrl-D (to edit the font),
click on “Character Spacing”, and set Scale at 130%. Or use a font that does this
automatically such as SBL Hebrew.

How do I write a diaresis?

• To get a simple diaresis, type shift-hyphen before the letter.

• To type a diaresis combined with an accent, type the same as you would for the accent
by itself, plus shift eg type shift with forward slash then u to get a lightly quizzical
smiley

How do I stop sigma changing to final sigma before an accent?

If you try to type type ησὴ you may get ηςὴ. This is due to an auto-correct setting in Word. In
Options, untick “Ordinals (1st) with superscript”.

How do I stop line spacing from growing when I write Hebrew?

Set the Line Spacing to an "Exact" (ie a fixed) amount. You can do this for individual
paragraphs or styles, but if you set the "Normal" style, this should mean that everything else
inherits it, though you may wish to set footnotes to a smaller Line Spacing.

To set fixed line spacing for "Normal":

• Click on menu "Format", "Styles",

• right-click on "Normal", "Modify",
• click on "Format", "Paragraph",
• set "Line spacing" to "Exactly". Either 12pt or 14pt should look good.

This setting will also fix a common problem with footnotes which sometimes don't appear on
the same page as the footnote marker without setting "Exact" line spacing.
How do I type common transliteration characters like e or ( ?

Use superscript. In Word, superscript is toggled on and off with Ctrl+Shift+"=" .

How do I type Special Text Critical Symbols?

There are a few symbols available in the Cardo font, which included in the keyboard package.

You may not see them in the Symbol Insert tool in Word because their number is higher than
Hex FFFF, so enter them manually, eg:

• to insert the Majority Text symbol 𝔐, hold down Alt and type “120080″ (all on the
number pad) then let go of Alt (remember to use the + on the number pad)

Other symbols:

• Lectionary symbol 𝑙 = 119897

• Papyrus symbol 𝔓 = 120083
• Septuagint, Greek OT 𝔖 = 120086

Some symbols for textual criticism aren’t available on any known free Unicode font.

Why do I get a curly circumflex instead of a rounded one?

Originally the Greek circumflex was a combined acute + grave, ie

νόὸς → νόὺς → νου̂ς or νοῦς

The two forms of the accent ( ^ or ~ ) are a matter of style or taste.

Cardo (which is included with the Tyndale Unicode keyboard) and SBL Greek have the style ~
like most Greek fonts. Galaxie Unicode Greek has a rounded ^.

How do I provide feedback or obtain community support?

Questions or comments can be posted at https://groups.google.com/g/StepBibleForum.

Greek keyboard layout (For all breathing marks, press AltGr.)

Greek Transliteration characters (Activated by Caps Lock. Other characters use the Roman font.)

Hebrew keyboard layout

Masoretic punctuation characters (Activated by Caps Lock.)