NewtGreek 1.0: A Greek Font for the Newton

Introducing NewtGreek, the first public, free, attractive, and legal Greek font for the Newton computer platform!!! NewtGreek is now complete, and is no longer in a "preview" form.

Above is a screenshot of NewtGreek 1.0 being used in Newton Works. The font has 9, 12, and 18 point sizes. NewtGreek has been successfully tested on the MessagePad 2x00, the eMate, a MessagePad 130, and an Original MessagePad (OMP).

New in the Final Font

The following is a list of changes and additions from the preview version of NewtGreek:

• An 18 point size has been added to the previously available 9 and 12 point sizes. The larger size is great for titles and headings, as well as providing easier to read, larger text.
• The dierasis with a grave accent has been added to all point sizes. This accent combination was missing in the preview version.
• Parenthases have been added to all point sizes.
• Square brackets have been added to all point sizes.
• Greek quotation marks have been added to all point sizes.
• The U.S. dollar sign has been added to all point sizes.
• The capital lunate sigma can now be accessed by a shorter keystroke (option-s).
• A Macintosh version of the NewtGreek font has been added to all .sit and .zip downloads. This assists with font compatability when transferring documents between Newton and Macintosh computers. The Macintosh version of the font is also handy when making NewtonBooks using the Newton Bookmaker software.

Feel free to download the font from the links in the sidebar to the right. If you wish to use NewtGreek on older Newtons running earlier (1.x) versions of the Newton operating system, please see the link here. Read on for more details about NewtGreek!

Learn the NewtGreek Keyboard

NewtGreek comes with a PDF manual that has visual keyboard guides to show you quickly which keys produce which Greek letters and accents. The keyboard guides are also available in a Newton Help Book that can be downloaded onto your Newton:

While a little time may be necessary to learn where the Greek letters are on your keyboard, NewtGreek doesn't make the mistake of some cumbersome Greek fonts out there that require you to hold down three keys at one time to produce some letter/accent combinations. Lowercase, uppercase (holding down the "shift" key), and special characters (holding down the "option" key) are all you need to produce all Greek characters.

Support for Many Ancient Greek Writing Styles

NewtGreek includes many features useful for writing in a variety of ancient Greek writing styles, including all types of sigmas:

The first two sigmas shown above are typical Greek sigmas (the first being used in the body of a word, the second used at the end of a word) as is seen in the following passage from The Iliad:

The third sigma is the "lunate" sigma, which is preferred by some writers to replace the two different standard lowercase sigmas with one lowercase sigma (some Oxford texts are written using the lunate sigma). View the same passage with the lunate sigma:

NewtGreek also provides obsolete ancient Greek characters that are often found in stone inscriptions and on pottery. The obsolete letters include the capital and lowercase digamma, koppa, and san/sampi as shown in that order below. As the alphabet became standardized, kappa and sigma were preferred to koppa and sampi, and the sound represented by the digamma (something like the English "w") fell out of use. Some lines of Homer require that the digamma be pronounced in order for the meter of the poetry (dactilic hexameter) to scan properly, and some texts of Homer print the digamma as an aid to the reader.

NewtGreek also provides "daggers" for highlighting and surrounding doubtful text, as in this passage from Sappho:

Support for Modern Greek

Some support for writing in modern Greek has been added, including punctuation that is never found in ancient Greek, such as exclamation points. Numbers are also included, as well as the Euro symbol, Greek quotation marks, parenthases, and brackets:

Copyright © 2002-2003, P. Arthur and M. Kaprelian. MissLiberty image Copyright © 2003, L. Arthur. All rights reserved.

LAST UPDATED: 24 MARCH 2003

WHAT'S NEW?--NewtGreek is now complete! A Macintosh version of NewtGreek is also now included in the font download! Learn how to use NewtGreek with older Newtons here!

HOW TO OBTAIN NEWTGREEK--NewtGreek can be downloaded at either of the two links below.

MAC DOWNLOAD (152 KB)

WINDOWS DOWNLOAD (144 KB)

The Macintosh download is in .sit format, the Windows download in .zip format. NewtGreek 1.0 is free.

If you have any problems with the font or download, please contact me by email at:

daedalus_at_digitalinkwell.net

(Please remove the _at_ and replace with @ when emailing.)

The files above contain the NewtGreek 1.0 font, a PDF manual, a NewtonBook manual for NewtGreek, a Macintosh bitmap version of NewtGreek, and a special "Greek Test" NewtonBook to help in using this font with older Newtons running the 1.x versions of the Newton operating system.

DETAILS--NewtGreek is free!!!!!! The font contains 9, 12, and 18 point bitmap font sizes. An identical Macintosh version of the font is also included.