This package contains a collection of fonts of ancient Semitic scripts related to the history of the Hebrew writing. The collection contains the following fonts:
- Proto Canaanite Sarabit al-Kadim inscriptions ~1500 BCE
- Phoenician Ahiram Ahiram of Gebel Sarcophagus ~1200 BCE
- Hebrew Paleo Gezer The Gezer calendar 10C BCE
- Hebrew Paleo Mesha The Mesha stele (Moabite Stone) 850 BCE
- Hebrew Paleo Siloam The Siloam inscription 703 BCE
- Hebrew Paleo Lachish Lachish ostraca ~500 BCE
- Hebrew Paleo Qumran Leviticus scroll, Qumran ~2C BCE
- Hebrew Samaritan Samaritan Pentateuch 14C CE
- Aramaic Early Br-Rkb Bar Rkb inscription 8C BCE
- Aramaic VIIBCE Gözne inscription 7C BCE
- Aramaic Imperial Yeb Yeb (Elephantine) papyri 407 BCE
- Hebrew Square Isaiah Great Isaiah scroll, Qumran 2C BCE
- Hebrew Square Habakkuk Habakkuk Commentary, Qumran ~0 CE
- Hebrew Square BenKosba Bar Kochba letters ~130 CE
- Hebrew Square Bet-Shearim Bet Shearim Burial inscriptions 3C CE
- Keter Aram Tsova Aleppo Codex 10C CE
- Hebrew Sofer Stam Ashkenaz Traditional Torah scrolls letter forms
The next 2 fonts, although not really ancient, are based on ancient fonts in the package and therefore I decided to add them to it as well.
- Makabi YG Based on Isaiah scroll but modernized
- Keter YG (4 weights) Based on Aleppo Codex but modernized
The basic Canaanite alphabet consisted of 22 signs representing consonants (in some languages like Ugarit up to 27 signs). The names of the signs are/were very similar to the still used names of Hebrew letters.
All the fonts contain the glyphs in the Hebrew Unicode code range (0590-05FF). Starting with Unicode standard 5.2, the Phoenician, Imperial Aramaic and Samaritan languages have their own designated code ranges. Therefore, the relevant fonts have the glyphs encoded in their respective Unicode designated ranges as well.
Fonts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 9 contain the glyphs in the Phoenician Unicode range (10900-1091F).
Font 8 contain the glyphs in the Samaritan code range (0800-083F). Note: This font does not implement Samaritan vowel, punctuation and accent marks. I hope to implement those in future versions
Fonts 10 and 11 contain the glyphs in the Aramaic Imperial code range (10840-1085f)
Font 18 include and implement the Hebrew vowel punctuation. Fonts 16 and 19 implement the full Hebrew punctuation (vowels and cantillation marks)
Font 1, the Proto Canaanite, is unique since in the inscriptions,
more that one picture form was found that represent a single consonant.
I encoded several of this alternate forms into the font. To access
the alternate forms (when those exist) the following sequences should be used:
While in Hebrew code range:
"Base letter" + "Dagesh (U+05BC)" will display first alternate form
"Base letter" + "Rafe (U+05BF)" will display second alternate form
While in Phoenician code range:
"Base letter" + "Phoenician number 10 (U+10917)
will display first alternate form
"Base letter" + "Phoenician number 20 (U+10918)
will display second alternate form
The accompanying documentation is in Hebrew. I hope to provide English documentation in the future.
Yoram Gnat