Android support for polytonic Greek

Bible Study software, Unicode, Fonts, Keyboards, creating Web pages in Greek, and other software issues.
Stephen Hill
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Joined: May 31st, 2011, 8:55 pm

Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Stephen Hill »

I'm considering getting an Android tablet, but googling has yielded conflicting reports on whether Android can handle polytonic Greek. The demo models I've played with in stores can't display quite a few characters, and I'll have to go with iOS if there's no solution. Has anyone here successfully gotten Android to display polytonic Greek?

Stephen
ἡμεῖς οὐχ Ἕλληνες• ἀνέλληνες δὲ φιλοῦμεν
τὴν οὐ καρφομένην Ἑλλάδος ἀνθοσύνην. – Headlam
Ken M. Penner
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Ken M. Penner »

In your googling, have you come across The Biblical Studies and Technological Tools blog? The recent entry at http://bibleandtech.blogspot.ca/2012/09 ... e-and.html might be helpful.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
Jason Hare
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Jason Hare »

Stephen Hill wrote:I'm considering getting an Android tablet, but googling has yielded conflicting reports on whether Android can handle polytonic Greek. The demo models I've played with in stores can't display quite a few characters, and I'll have to go with iOS if there's no solution. Has anyone here successfully gotten Android to display polytonic Greek?

Stephen
Are you talking about viewing it or typing in it? I can view all polytonic Greek on my Android telephone, having installed the Ubuntu font group (through the market).
Jason A. Hare
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Stephen Hill
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Joined: May 31st, 2011, 8:55 pm

Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Stephen Hill »

Ken, no, I hadn't. That's very helpful.

Jason, I'll be happy if I can just view it, though typing would be nice. Good to have confirmation that the Ubuntu font will work. Thanks!
ἡμεῖς οὐχ Ἕλληνες• ἀνέλληνες δὲ φιλοῦμεν
τὴν οὐ καρφομένην Ἑλλάδος ἀνθοσύνην. – Headlam
Ken M. Penner
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Ken M. Penner »

Stephen Hill wrote:I'll have to go with iOS if there's no solution.
You'll have trouble typing polytonic Greek in iOS. AFAIK, it's only possible if you jailbreak your iOS device and edit the keyboard definition files.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
Mike Noel
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Mike Noel »

I finally got viewing to work on my Samsung s2. Is there a way to type in Greek on the phone?
Jason Hare
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Jason Hare »

Mike Noel wrote:I finally got viewing to work on my Samsung s2. Is there a way to type in Greek on the phone?
I've got the Note 2, and I haven't gotten it to work. I've got Ubuntu fonts installed, but that didn't work this time. What fix did you find for S2? What version of Android are you using? I'm using JellyBean.
Jason A. Hare
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Mike Noel
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Mike Noel »

I'm using the ubuntu fonts that were suggested in another thread. When I first tried it it didn't work. On a whim I tried it again and it did... Not sure why.

I am using Gingerbread (2.3.6).

I'm concerned that you can't get this to work on a Note 2. I almost got one of those. I'm seriously considering a Nexus 10. Do you know if there is a way to get Greek polytonic fonts working on the Nexus?
Jason Hare
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Jason Hare »

Mike Noel wrote:I'm using the ubuntu fonts that were suggested in another thread. When I first tried it it didn't work. On a whim I tried it again and it did... Not sure why.

I am using Gingerbread (2.3.6).

I'm concerned that you can't get this to work on a Note 2. I almost got one of those. I'm seriously considering a Nexus 10. Do you know if there is a way to get Greek polytonic fonts working on the Nexus?
Nope. It worked fine on my Samsung Galaxy S1 with the Ubuntu fonts. I've tried three different times with the Note 2, and it hasn't worked at all. I'll keep trying. You give me hope. I don't know anything about Nexus.
Jason A. Hare
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Jonathan Robie
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Re: Android support for polytonic Greek

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Inspired by Moses, I am also reading scripture on tablets.

On my brand new Nexus 7, And Bible displays polytonic Greek just fine (using the SBLGNT font it installs), Bible.is does not, and I have the same problem using a Web browser and B-Greek or Bible Gateway - both the Web page and the app. I think it's a matter of getting the right fonts.

So I followed Ken's advice and went to this page. Worked fine until I got to this point:
Go ahead and download, unzip, and install, and you are good to go!
I downloaded, but the "unzip and install" have eluded me so far on my Nexus 7 ...
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
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