Junicode
Encyclopedia
Junicode is a free
(GNU GPL
) old-style serif typeface
developed by Peter S. Baker of the University of Virginia
. The design is based on a 17th century typeface used in Oxford
, England
.
Junicode contains many special characters and ligatures for medievalists, along with numerous other Unicode
glyphs. The font has OpenType
features for advanced typesetting
and includes true small caps
.
The most recent revision of Junicode is 0.6.17, released on 12 July 2009.
, also known as Clarendon Press. Peter Baker based the Junicode roman design on those used in Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus (1703–1705). The designs represent an intermediate stage between earlier 16th century typefaces (such as Garamond
) and later 18th century typefaces (such as Caslon
). The Junicode roman character design shares a number of features with these earlier and later typefaces.
Junicode's Greek
typeface design is a traditional revival as well. It is based on the Greek Double Pica cut by Alexander Wilson (c. 1714-1786), a Scottish doctor
, astronomer
, and typefounder. Wilson's typeface was used in 1756-1758 for a renowned edition of Homer
's epics (the Iliad
and the Odyssey
), printed by Robert Foulis
and Andrew Foulis
of the Foulis Publishing House. The Foulis Brothers were printers to the University of Glasgow
.
s. The font has complete support for the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative
version 1.0, and nearly complete support for version 2.0.
Despite the specialization of Junicode for the needs of medievalists, the font is quite complete and supports a large number of Unicode characters. In the regular style, over 3000 characters are available. This makes Junicode useful for a wide range of languages that utilize the Latin alphabet
, including scholarly texts and publications that require special diacritics
not traditionally found in conventional fonts.
software licensed under the GNU
General Public License, and is released in the TrueType
format, which is used on most operating system
s. Additionally, specific packages for Junicode are available for open source systems such as Debian
, Ubuntu
, and FreeBSD
.
The Junicode font is developed in the FontForge
typeface editing program. The font includes TrueType hinting
, and the hinting instructions are developed in XML
files used by the Xgridfit application, which developers use to generate low-level TrueType hinting instructions.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
(GNU GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
) old-style serif typeface
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
developed by Peter S. Baker of the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. The design is based on a 17th century typeface used in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Junicode contains many special characters and ligatures for medievalists, along with numerous other Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
glyphs. The font has OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
features for advanced typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
and includes true small caps
Small caps
In typography, small capitals are uppercase characters set at the same height and weight as surrounding lowercase letters or text figures...
.
The most recent revision of Junicode is 0.6.17, released on 12 July 2009.
Design
The designs of the Junicode roman characters are based on a 17th century typeface design used at the Oxford University PressOxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, also known as Clarendon Press. Peter Baker based the Junicode roman design on those used in Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus (1703–1705). The designs represent an intermediate stage between earlier 16th century typefaces (such as Garamond
Garamond
Garamond is the name given to a group of old-style serif typefaces named after the punch-cutter Claude Garamond . Most of the Garamond faces are more closely related to the work of a later punch-cutter, Jean Jannon...
) and later 18th century typefaces (such as Caslon
Caslon
Caslon refers to a number of serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I , and various revivals thereof.Caslon shares the irregularity characteristic of Dutch Baroque types. It is characterized by short ascenders and descenders, bracketed serifs, moderately-high contrast, robust texture, and...
). The Junicode roman character design shares a number of features with these earlier and later typefaces.
Junicode's Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
typeface design is a traditional revival as well. It is based on the Greek Double Pica cut by Alexander Wilson (c. 1714-1786), a Scottish doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, and typefounder. Wilson's typeface was used in 1756-1758 for a renowned edition of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's epics (the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
and the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
), printed by Robert Foulis
Robert Foulis (printer)
Robert Foulis was a Scottish printer and publisher.-Biography:Robert Foulis was born the son of a maltman. He was apprenticed to a barber, but was encouraged to become a publisher by Francis Hutcheson who was impressed by his ability...
and Andrew Foulis
Andrew Foulis
Andrew Foulis was a Scottish printer, brother of Robert Foulis. They worked in partnership as printers to the University of Glasgow.-Biography:...
of the Foulis Publishing House. The Foulis Brothers were printers to the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
.
Origins and uses
The Junicode font was developed especially for medievalists, due to the need for a font to cover the large number of special characters and ligatures used in medieval manuscriptManuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s. The font has complete support for the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative
Medieval Unicode Font Initiative
In digital typography, the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative is a project which aims to coordinate the encoding and display of special characters in medieval texts written in the Latin alphabet, which are not encoded as part of Unicode....
version 1.0, and nearly complete support for version 2.0.
Despite the specialization of Junicode for the needs of medievalists, the font is quite complete and supports a large number of Unicode characters. In the regular style, over 3000 characters are available. This makes Junicode useful for a wide range of languages that utilize the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, including scholarly texts and publications that require special diacritics
Diacritics
diacritics is a quarterly academic journal established in 1971 at Cornell University and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Articles serve to review recent literature in the field of literary criticism, and have covered topics in gender studies, political theory, psychoanalysis, queer...
not traditionally found in conventional fonts.
Availability and development
Junicode is free and open sourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software licensed under the GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
General Public License, and is released in the TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
format, which is used on most operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s. Additionally, specific packages for Junicode are available for open source systems such as Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
, Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
, and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
.
The Junicode font is developed in the FontForge
FontForge
FontForge is a typeface editor program developed by George Williams. FontForge is free software and is distributed under the BSD license. FontForge is available for several operating systems and is localized in several languages.- Features :Fontforge supports many font formats, including...
typeface editing program. The font includes TrueType hinting
Font hinting
Font hinting is the use of mathematical instructions to adjust the display of an outline font so that it lines up with a rasterized grid. At low screen resolutions, hinting is critical for producing a clear, legible text...
, and the hinting instructions are developed in XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
files used by the Xgridfit application, which developers use to generate low-level TrueType hinting instructions.