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Short URL: https://scripts.sil.org/SILEncoreFonts
SIL Encore (Obsolete)
Unicode Support
Please note that this package does not provide automatic support for the The Unicode Standard. It was primarily designed to create fonts that use 'legacy' encodings, which are now discouraged. The Doulos SIL, Charis SIL, Andika and Gentium fonts do provide Unicode support.
The SIL Encore Font System, version 3.0, is a library of over 1600 phonetic characters and linguistic symbols that can be used to create customized, scalable TrueType fonts for Windows and Macintosh systems. The Encore library has a complete Roman based glyph set for linguistic applications, including:
- The complete International Phonetic Alphabet
- All SIL/Americanist phonetic symbols
- Other phonetic symbols used by linguists
- A full set of simple and complex tone letters
- Orthographic symbols from around the world
- Expert glyphs such as true small caps, ligatures, fixed spaces, and superiors
- Standard character sets for both Macintosh and Windows systems
- Extended Cyrillic character set
Four font families are included in the SIL Encore Fonts package:
- SIL Doulos (similar to Times)
- SIL Sophia (similar to Univers)
- SIL Manuscript (monospace, like Prestige)
- SIL Charis (enlarged x-height)
TypeCaster is a Windows font compiler that is backwards compatible with CSTs created for Premier and Encore version 2.0 font compilers. It eliminates the need to use third party font manipulation products to generate customized Encore TrueType font sets for Windows applications. By using the on-line glyph catalog you can select your glyphs on screen and drag or copy them to the editor. The SILID and comments are copied along with the glyph. Double-clicking on a glyph in the editor allows you to make horizontal, vertical, size, and width adjustments to a base character or diacritic. You can choose several options for the font and file names, including a combination of CST and job names, or you can create a custom name.
The individual font files in the Macintosh version can be installed and used "as is," (i.e., without compiling custom fonts), but it will be necessary to switch fonts in order to access specific characters.
DOS and Macintosh font support has been added to TypeCaster for creating fonts that can be used in
- Microsoft Word 6.0 for DOS
- PageMaker on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms
- Standard Macintosh font encoding
View the Font Library
System Requirements
- Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP
- Macintosh System 7 or higher (or System 6.0.5 or later with TrueType INIT)
License
These fonts and software are the property of SIL International. They are distrbuted as copyrighted freeware. You may use this software without any charge and may distribute it, as is, to others. Commercial distribution of this software is restricted without prior written permission. If you wish to distribute this software commercially, contact SIL for details on obtaining a license. You may not rent or lease the software, nor may you modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software. THE SOFTWARE AND RELATED FILES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
SIL Language Freeware End User License Agreement
We are also committed to open licenses, even though technical constraints make it too costly for us to try and produce a working open version of the complete package. We have, however, released the glyph outlines (only) under the SIL Open Font License. Please consult the OFL pages and the license information in the package for more information.
Technical Support
As this software is distributed at no cost, we are unable to provide a commercial level of personal technical support.
Please note that these fonts are intended for use by experienced computer users. Installing and using these fonts is not a trivial matter. The most effective technical support is usually provided by an experienced computer user who can personally sit down with you at your computer to troubleshoot the problem.
Before requesting technical support, please:
1. Carefully read all the documentation provided with the fonts, including the documentation installed by the installation program.
2. Check out all the links on the web pages for these font packages, and read all the information and instructions they contain.
3. Review the list of Frequently Asked Questions available on the SIL Encore FAQ page and the general Font FAQ page to see if your question has already been answered.
Contact information
Contact information is provided on the Font FAQ page.
Download
Warning
The Encore 3 font system will normally produce a font that does not conform to the Unicode standard. If you must use the Encore 3 font system, this page: Unicode CSTs may help you produce a Unicode font. The Reprise package may be another help - it can be used to convert some legacy Encore fonts into a version that supports Unicode. Before using Encore and these extra utilities, please consider using our state-of the-art Unicode fonts, such as Doulos SIL, Charis SIL and Gentium.
 | SIL Encore 3 Font System Installer for Windows Alan Ward, 2007-02-16 Download "SetupEncore3.msi", Window MSI installer, 5MB [16164 downloads] |
Please use the above installer if possible. If it fails, then the following package can be used to perform a manual installation. The zip file contains installation instructions in the Install.txt file.
 | SIL Encore 3 Font System manual install package for Windows Alan Ward, 2007-02-16 Download "setupencore3.zip", ZIP archive, 6MB [8950 downloads] |
Individual font files for the Macintosh. Please note that the installation instructions were written for a version of this package distributed on CD.
 | Encore Fonts for Mac Melinda Bowman, 2006-06-20 Download "EncoreFontsMac.sit", Stuffit archive, 5MB [6576 downloads] |
The glyph outline sources are also available under the SIL Open Font License. The following package contains PostScript Type 1 versions of the individual font files, which any font design program should be able to import. Please note that these files are intended to be used as sources for derivative fonts, not installable end-user fonts. It is very likely that they will not work correctly if installed as is.
| SIL Encore Fonts 3 Outline Sources Victor Gaultney, 2008-01-23 Download "Encore3OutlineSources.zip", ZIP archive, 3MB [4552 downloads] |
Related software
Keyboard translation programs
Keyman
Keyman is a keyboard management utility that makes it practical to input many different languages in almost any Windows application. Keyman allows you to have arbitrarily long input sequences and to have diacritics typed after the base character.
SILKey for Macintosh
SILKey is a suite of programs that can be used to modify the behavior of the Macintosh keyboard when typing in any standard Macintosh word processor or other text-editing program. Written by Jonathan Kew, it is very similar to, but is not based on, the Keyman program for Windows.
Font conversion utilities
SIL Reprise — font conversion utility
Reprise is a utility to convert legacy-encoded fonts into Unicode fonts so they can be used in Unicode-based applications.
Other fonts
SIL Fonts for downloading
An index of all the fonts that are available from this site.
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