Medieval Unicode Font Initiative
Encyclopedia
In digital typography
, the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative (MUFI) 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
.
MUFI was founded in July 2001 by a workgroup consisting of Odd Einar Haugen (Bergen
), Alec McAllister (Leeds
) and Tarrin Wills (Sydney
). As of 2006, MUFI had a board of four members, consisting of the three founding members and Andreas Stötzner (Leipzig
).
In medieval texts, many special ligature
s, scribal abbreviation
s, and letter forms existed, which are no longer a part of the Latin alphabet. As few of these characters are encoded in Unicode, ligatures have to be broken up into separate letters when digitized. Since few fonts support medieval ligatures or alternate letter forms, it is difficult to transmit them reliably in digital formats.
To prevent the possibility of corruption of the source texts, the eventual goal of the MUFI is to create a consensus on which characters to encode, and then present a completed proposal to the Unicode authorities. In the meantime, a part of the Private Use Area has been assigned for encoding, so these characters can be placed in typeface
s for testing and to speed up the later transition to the final encodings (if the project is accepted). As of Unicode 5.1, this proposal has been made, covering 152 characters, and most of these (89 in all) have been encoded in the Latin Extended-D block. Others are in the Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement (26 chars.), Latin Extended Additional (10 chars.), Supplemental Punctuation (15 chars.), and Ancient Symbols (12 chars.).
Junicode
(GPL) has an almost complete coverage of MUFI v2.0, in addition to a complete coverage of MUFI v1.0.
There are several typefaces that cover MUFI v1.0:
Note that Junicode and TITUS Cyberbit Basic include MUFI characters at different places, as these fonts predate the MUFI project.
Digital typography
Digital typography is the arrangement of type using computers.- See also :* Typography* Computer font* Web typography* Desktop publishing* Font rasterization...
, the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative (MUFI) is a project which aims to coordinate the encoding and display of special characters in medieval texts written in 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...
, which are not encoded as part of 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...
.
MUFI was founded in July 2001 by a workgroup consisting of Odd Einar Haugen (Bergen
University of Bergen
The University of Bergen is located in Bergen, Norway. Although founded as late as 1946, academic activity had taken place at Bergen Museum as far back as 1825. The university today serves more than 14,500 students...
), Alec McAllister (Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
) and Tarrin Wills (Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
). As of 2006, MUFI had a board of four members, consisting of the three founding members and Andreas Stötzner (Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
).
In medieval texts, many special ligature
Ligature (typography)
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
s, scribal abbreviation
Scribal abbreviation
Scribal abbreviations are the abbreviations used by ancient and mediæval scribes writing in Latin and, later, in Greek and Old Norse...
s, and letter forms existed, which are no longer a part of the Latin alphabet. As few of these characters are encoded in Unicode, ligatures have to be broken up into separate letters when digitized. Since few fonts support medieval ligatures or alternate letter forms, it is difficult to transmit them reliably in digital formats.
To prevent the possibility of corruption of the source texts, the eventual goal of the MUFI is to create a consensus on which characters to encode, and then present a completed proposal to the Unicode authorities. In the meantime, a part of the Private Use Area has been assigned for encoding, so these characters can be placed in 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....
s for testing and to speed up the later transition to the final encodings (if the project is accepted). As of Unicode 5.1, this proposal has been made, covering 152 characters, and most of these (89 in all) have been encoded in the Latin Extended-D block. Others are in the Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement (26 chars.), Latin Extended Additional (10 chars.), Supplemental Punctuation (15 chars.), and Ancient Symbols (12 chars.).
MUFI Fonts
As per November 2007, there are two typefaces that cover all of MUFI v2.0, both freely available from the MUFI web site:- LeedsUni
- Andron Scriptor
Junicode
Junicode
Junicode is a free 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....
(GPL) has an almost complete coverage of MUFI v2.0, in addition to a complete coverage of MUFI v1.0.
There are several typefaces that cover MUFI v1.0:
- TITUS Cyberbit Basic
- ALPHABETUMAlphabetumAlphabetum is a commercial multilingual unicode font for ancient languages developed by Juan José Marcos.Alphabetum contains fonts for:*Aegean numerals*Anatolian scripts *Avestan*Brahmi...
- Cardo
Note that Junicode and TITUS Cyberbit Basic include MUFI characters at different places, as these fonts predate the MUFI project.