@lfahmy Ekhrestos anesty I took lessons in the church when I was 13 or so, and then expanded my knowledge by myself. I'm not fluent or even fluid in Coptic at all, so I cannot really advise you on that one.. haha.. what I'm learning comes mainly from tasbeha and kholagy. I always try to understand fully what I'm saying, or what abouna is saying and not just enjoy the tunes. I also joined remenkimi yahoogroup which unfortunately isn't extremely active these days. From time to time I log on to danacbe.kame.com, but haven't been for a long while.. Oujai
You need to use Unicode fonts, not legacy Coptic fonts. Unicode fonts specifically designate characters to specific languages. Legacy Coptic fonts, look Coptic, but they are designated English characters. So English fonts that do not have the Coptic subset will come out as boxes or strange looking figures. (Actually, you need to use the same Unicode font that StPachom used (I think it is FreeSeriAvvaShenouda). It works fine at my end)
What you need to do is (1) get all Unicode Coptic fonts you can find to view Coptic Unicode and (2) setup your computer to input Coptic characters with Unicode fonts. Depending on which operating system, there are different ways to do this.
Mac: Message me and I'll give you a Mac keyboard and Coptic unicode fonts.
Windows: Go to www.moheb.de. Download the Coptic Unicode fonts. You'll also want to get Antinoou (used by Coptologists) and New Athena Unicode (which is becoming the standard Unicode Coptic font). I think they might also be on Moheb's site. If not, Google them and you'll find them.
For inputing Unicode Coptic in Windows, you have 2 options. One is to get a unicode keyboard software (like Logos or Microsoft Keyboard). This option is easy to setup but quirky to use. The other way, is to set up another language in Windows and attach Moheb's CS keyboard. Since Microsoft Windows doesn't allow you to add a Coptic language to the operating system, you'll have to add another one and fool Windows. I use Cyrillic and add the CS Coptic keyboard to it. Then you add a keyboard code to switch between languages and you're done. It's really not as difficult as it sounds.
@remenkimi, Ekhrestos anesty I'll definitely need help. I do think I already have the fonts but I'll check again and ask you if I get stuck.. thanks a lot anyway, and wish me luck.. hehe oujai
@remnkimi and @ophadece. I have a "plain" CS Avva Shenouda font but i need someone to help to built opentype on that font. The issue is that the abbreviation mark and the jinkum are positioned perfect ont he top of any letter when it's place before and not after, which goes against unicode rules. opentype will allow us to position the marks separately on each letter.
Comments
Ekhrestos anesty
I took lessons in the church when I was 13 or so, and then expanded my knowledge by myself. I'm not fluent or even fluid in Coptic at all, so I cannot really advise you on that one.. haha.. what I'm learning comes mainly from tasbeha and kholagy. I always try to understand fully what I'm saying, or what abouna is saying and not just enjoy the tunes. I also joined remenkimi yahoogroup which unfortunately isn't extremely active these days. From time to time I log on to danacbe.kame.com, but haven't been for a long while..
Oujai
I'm sorry, also forgot to say I have a couple of documents and dictionaries downloaded from the internet, mainly remenkimi.com
Oujai
Sorry again, the website is called kame.danacbe.com..
Oujai
Ekhrestos anesty
I'll definitely need help. I do think I already have the fonts but I'll check again and ask you if I get stuck.. thanks a lot anyway, and wish me luck.. hehe
oujai
Tears of joy, man.