Wes Brent ([log in to unmask])
asked:
> Now to the point of my query, does any one out there in USMARC-L
> land know of a Windows based font which can handle the ANSEL
> character set, and thus successfully display diacritics if
> presented in this format??
The Research Libraries Group commissioned a TrueType font, covering the
USMARC Latin character set, for RLIN. Diacritics are presented correctly,
i.e., overlaid on the base letter, when records are viewed with the RLIN
Terminal for Windows software. The overlaying of diacritics is a
user-controllable option.
This font does not include five of the six characters added to the USMARC
Latin set in 1993 to make it completely consistent with ANSEL. Exchange of
these characters in USMARC records would require coordinated development
among many systems (comparable to what was done for Format Integration).
The "lowercase script l" is supported locally in RLIN.
More information about the RLIN Terminal for Windows software is available
at:
http://www.rlg.org
Non-spacing diacritics are not generally used in the 8-bit environment
outside of library applications. The ISO 8859 series of 8-bit character
sets developed by the computer industry utilizes precomposed accented
letters.
The Unicode Standard includes a repertoire of combining diacritical marks.
All the diacritical marks in the USMARC Latin set are represented in the
Unicode Standard; for details see
http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/marc2ucs.html
Major companies are at work on Unicode-based software (including new
versions of existing Unicode-based products) that will include support for
combining characters. The Unicode Consortium's Web site is at:
http://unicode.org
-- Joan Aliprand
Senior Analyst
The Research Libraries Group, Inc.
*** RLIN is a registered trademark of the Research Libraries Group, Inc.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Unicode is a registered trademark of Unicode, Inc.
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