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Tech question: Greek and Hebrew fonts

Posted: October 24th, 2023, 5:28 pm
by Brian Gould
My computer is still working, and working very well, on Windows 7. When I bought it, back in about 2015, several of the fonts had the full Greek and Hebrew alphabets, along with Cyrillic, Arabic, and possibly one or two others that I never used.

Now, just a few days ago, all those non-Roman alphabets suddenly disappeared. What can the explanation be? Is it Microsoft taking away something it used to give me free of charge, so that it can earn a few dollars by selling my stolen property back to me? Or if it’s not Microsoft up to dirty tricks of some kind, who can it have been?

The two non-Roman fonts I liked best were Times New Roman for Greek and David for Hebrew. Is there such a thing as a free download anywhere, for those two fonts?

Thanks for any help you can give!

Re: Tech question: Greek and Hebrew fonts

Posted: October 26th, 2023, 10:30 am
by Jason Hare
Brian Gould wrote: October 24th, 2023, 5:28 pm My computer is still working, and working very well, on Windows 7. When I bought it, back in about 2015, several of the fonts had the full Greek and Hebrew alphabets, along with Cyrillic, Arabic, and possibly one or two others that I never used.

Now, just a few days ago, all those non-Roman alphabets suddenly disappeared. What can the explanation be? Is it Microsoft taking away something it used to give me free of charge, so that it can earn a few dollars by selling my stolen property back to me? Or if it’s not Microsoft up to dirty tricks of some kind, who can it have been?

The two non-Roman fonts I liked best were Times New Roman for Greek and David for Hebrew. Is there such a thing as a free download anywhere, for those two fonts?

Thanks for any help you can give!
There are always new versions of fonts available. Since your system is old, it doesn't get automatic updates (I assume) and the fonts might age out. You should just download new versions of the fonts. While you're at it, why not look at SBL BiBLit for both Greek and Hebrew?

Re: Tech question: Greek and Hebrew fonts

Posted: October 26th, 2023, 9:04 pm
by Brian Gould
Thank you, Jason, but I have run into a problem. I followed the instructions. I downloaded and installed all three fonts, SBL BibLit, SBL Greek, and SBL Hebrew. The trouble is that when I go to “Insert symbol” and look at the fonts on the screen, I see exactly the same font all three times … and it’s just the Roman alphabet with a single Greek letter added, a lowercase mu.

I suppose I’m doing something wrong, but I’m not very good with computers, and I’ll have to go back and think carefully to try and find out where I went wrong!

Re: Tech question: Greek and Hebrew fonts

Posted: October 27th, 2023, 12:16 pm
by Shirley Rollinson
You could try downloading (free) from https://www.hebrewfont.net/download.php?id=737360
Were your original fonts Unicode, polytonic (Greek) ?

Re: Tech question: Greek and Hebrew fonts

Posted: October 29th, 2023, 3:05 pm
by Jason Hare
Brian Gould wrote: October 26th, 2023, 9:04 pm Thank you, Jason, but I have run into a problem. I followed the instructions. I downloaded and installed all three fonts, SBL BibLit, SBL Greek, and SBL Hebrew. The trouble is that when I go to “Insert symbol” and look at the fonts on the screen, I see exactly the same font all three times … and it’s just the Roman alphabet with a single Greek letter added, a lowercase mu.

I suppose I’m doing something wrong, but I’m not very good with computers, and I’ll have to go back and think carefully to try and find out where I went wrong!
You should not be using “insert symbol.” You should install a keyboard on your system that allows you to type in Greek and Hebrew. Are you using Windows or Mac? I believe that if you insert a special character and then change the font, it should show it correctly. It’s better to just learn to type in the languages, though. Maybe you can search Google for how to type in Greek or Hebrew. I’m sure you can find good instructions for it.