Ezra SIL
About
Ezra SIL is a typeface fashioned after the square letter forms of the typography of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), a beautiful Old Testament volume familiar to Biblical Hebrew scholars.
For more information on certain characters used in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, go to this page.
One download, two fonts
Ezra SIL v2.51
Containing the basic set of Unicode characters needed for Biblical Hebrew texts following the typeface and traditions of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.
Ezra SIL SR v2.51
Containing the same set of Unicode characters as above but with a different style of cantillation.
Ezra SIL SR — a Different Style of Marking
The two Ezra SIL fonts are available to provide two different styles of cantillation marks. They were developed together, but there are some differences in how they display markings. This was done intentionally. The Ezra SIL font is supposed to render text identically to the printed BHS. The Ezra SIL SR font has a different style of cantillation marks which may be more familiar to users working with other editions.
- Beginning with v2.0, Ezra SIL SR ceased to combine SHIN DOT with a preceding HOLAM.
- With v2.0, Ezra SIL SR ceased to center U+0592 HEBREW ACCENT SEGOL above a consonant. SEGOL is placed to the left except in the rare medial instance, when it centers.
- Ezra SIL characters and markings follow the printed BHS as much as possible. Ezra SIL SR follows a different style of text.
- Ezra SIL differentiates vocalic holam-waw (U+05D5 U+05B9) from consonantal waw-holam (U+05D5 U+05BA) by displaying the holam slightly to the right for the former and slightly to the left for the latter. This is determined by the choice of code point for holam. Ezra SIL SR does not do this.
- With v2.0, Ezra SIL SR uses a diamond-shaped mark for the puncta, rather than a round dot.
- Ezra SIL shows furtive patah to the bottom right of the consonant, as in the printed BHS. Ezra SIL SR does not do this, but centers it, as for a normal patah.
Version 2.51 Feature List
- Unicode 5.0 support of Hebrew and Latin-1 codepages
- Improved placement of extra-biblical punctuation, such as period and comma.
- Includes Latin-1 characters, but should not be used for solely Latin texts, since the punctuation is done in a Hebrew style.
- Works in any application that uses OpenType fonts.
- Follows the recommendations for character order and encoding determined by a group of font developers during discussions in May 2003. This does not follow canonical order. Texts which have been converted to NFC or NFD canonical order will not display correctly with these fonts.
- No transliteration fonts are provided. Any font with full Latin support should be adequate for Hebrew transliteration (see Doulos SIL, Charis SIL, or Gentium for an acceptable Unicode font for transliteration of Biblical Hebrew).
Data Conversion
If you have text files typed with the pre-Unicode SIL Ezra font, they will have to be converted to Unicode to use with this font. Mapping files are available for download below (after the font packages). These can be used with TECkit and/or SIL Converters.
Keyboarding
Windows and Mac operating systems provide a Hebrew keyboard as part of the OS. However, those provide for modern Hebrew input, not Biblical Hebrew.
SIL Hebrew is a Keyman keyboard useable on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Be sure Keyman is installed before installing the keyboard.
Windows only: An Israeli keyboard layout (using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator) is available from the Society of Biblical Literature. They also offer an MSKLC keyboard which closely follows the SIL Keyman layout.
Transliteration Resources
Data Conversion
If you have text files typed with the pre-Unicode SIL Heb Trans fonts, they will have to be converted to Unicode. TECkit mapping files for SIL Heb Trans fonts are available here and can be used with TECkit and/or SIL Converters. Any font with full Latin support should be adequate for Hebrew transliteration (see Doulos SIL, Charis SIL, or Gentium for an acceptable Unicode font for transliteration of Biblical Hebrew).
Keyboarding
Hebrew and Greek Transliteration (SIL) keyboard is a Keyman keyboard useable on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Be sure Keyman is installed before installing the keyboard.
Downloads
License
Hebrew layout intelligence copyright © 2003 & 2007 Ralph Hancock and John Hudson, and licensed under the MIT/X11 License:
MIT/X11 License (for Hebrew layout intelligence only)
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
All other font software licensed under the SIL Open Font License (OFL)
Changes from Ezra SIL v2.5 to 2.51
Ezra SIL v2.51
- Word-final Zinor (U+05AE HEBREW ACCENT ZINOR) is always to the left. When it occurs word-medial, it is also to the left, unless that position is obstructed by a sin dot, holam or lamed, in which case it is centred. This is the same behaviour as for U+0599 HEBREW ACCENT PASHTA.
- When U+0592 HEBREW ACCENT SEGOL and U+05A9 HEBREW ACCENT TELISHA QETANA occur word-medial, they are centred unless followed by U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER, in which case they move to the left.
- When U+05A0 HEBREW ACCENT TELISHA GEDOLA is word-medial, it is centred unless the consonant is preceded by U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER, in which case it moves to the right.
- There have been a few minor positional adjustments.
Ezra SIL SR v2.51
- U+05AE HEBREW ACCENT ZINOR is always to the left, whether it is word-final or word-medial.
- When U+0592 HEBREW ACCENT SEGOL, U+05A9 HEBREW ACCENT TELISHA QETANA and U+05A0 HEBREW ACCENT TELISHA GEDOLA occur word-medial, they are always centred.
- There have been a few minor positional adjustments.
NOTE: Text typed with v2.0 fonts will display legibly using v2.5 or v2.51, with only minor errors. However, text typed with v2.5 or v2.51 will not display acceptably using v2.0 fonts.
Fonts
| Ezra SIL 2.51 | for all platforms | |
| Ezra SIL source files 2.51 | for all platforms | |
| Ezra SIL web fonts 2.51 | for all platforms |
“EzraSIL-2.51-source.zip” contains the same files as “EzraSIL-2.51.zip” – plus the FontLab, VOLT, Word, Excel, and Keyman source files. However, it does not contain the .pdf files since the source files are included.
“EzraSIL-2.51-web.zip” contains the same files as “EzraSIL-2.51.zip” – plus Web Open Font Format (WOFF) fonts and sample web files.
This font is also available in the SIL software repository for Ubuntu. Users can subscribe to this software repository and get current versions and updates automatically.
Release history
- 2007-10-03 – Windows OpenType Unicode version 2.5.1
- 2007-06-15 – Windows OpenType Unicode version 2.5
- 2004-01-08 – Windows OpenType Unicode version 2.0
- 2002-09-30 – Windows OpenType Unicode version 1.1; minor documentation changes only
- 2002-09-11 – Windows OpenType Unicode version 1.0
Previous Versions
Download for previous versions »
Data Conversion
| Ezra SIL Mapping Files 2.51 | for all platforms |
Other Resources
The Westminster Leningrad Codex – Complete Hebrew Bible
For more information on how MS Office handles right-to-left (RTL) scripts, see RTL scripts in Microsoft Office.
Support
As these fonts and utilities are distributed at no cost, we are unable to provide a commercial level of personal technical support. Note: Version 2.51 is the final release of the Ezra SIL fonts.
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.
Contact
General troubleshooting information, including frequently asked questions, can be found in the documentation. Additional information is also available on the general Font FAQ page. If that fails to answer your question, send an email via this contact form.
Before requesting technical support, please:
- Carefully read all the documentation provided with the font and on this site.
Language Software Community
Support from other software users may be available through the SIL Language Software Community. This community will be growing to become the major source of software support.
If that fails to answer your question, or you have a bug report, feature suggestion, or need help using the software, please contact us using the form below.