Want to write Greek characters but don't have the tools?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Roman Collector, Oct 21, 2017.

  1. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Use the Unicode classical Greek inputter here and you'll be writing Ω Θ Φ and Γ in no time!
     
    chrsmat71, LaCointessa, Ajax and 13 others like this.
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  3. Mikey Zee

    Mikey Zee Delenda Est Carthago

    Thanks!! I've always wanted something like this......and it couldn't be easier to use :D
     
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  4. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    One thing I discovered by accident is that you can display Greek letters in HTML by typing "&", the name of the letter with the first letter capitalized (e.g, Sigma, and then a semi colon, without any spaces. Thus "Ω" in HTML will yield a capital omega.

    As an example, here's how the entry for a provincial coin of Macrinus appears on my web page:

    [​IMG]
    Provincial Bronze (AE25)
    Moesia Inferior, Nikopolis ad Istrum
    Obv: AVKOΠΠEΛ CEVHPOC MAKPINOS
    Rev: VP AΓPIΠΠA NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠPOC IC - Homonoia, standing left, with patera and cornucopiae
    Moushmov 1259
    25mm, 9.3g.
     
  5. zumbly

    zumbly Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana

    Nice little tool; thanks for sharing it.
     
  6. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

  7. Smojo

    Smojo dreamliner

    I like that better than the app I have, thanks RC
     
    Roman Collector likes this.
  8. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

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  9. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    I was wondering how you guys did that. Now I Know!
     
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  10. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    @Roman Collector , thanks! It works very easily. I just tried it to write the letters I needed ten minutes ago for my "Greek AE" thread and got
    ΣΙΔΗΤΩΝ
    in almost no time.
     
    Roman Collector likes this.
  11. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Glad you found it helpful.

    Speaking of ΣΙΔΗΤΩΝ, don't forget you can always use a Roman capital C for a lunate sigma, as in this decassarion from Side.

    Salonina Side Decassarion.jpg
    Cornelia Salonina, wife of Gallienus, AD 253-268
    Roman provincial Æ decassarion, 18.56 g, 28.8 mm
    Pamphylia, Side AD 253-268
    Obv: ΚΟΡΝΗΛΙΑ CΑΛΩΝΙΝΑ CΕΒΑ, diademed and draped bust, r., I (=10) before.
    Rev: CΙΔΗΤΩΝ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ, Apollo standing, facing, head l., holding patera and resting on scepter surmounted by flower(?).
    Refs: BMC 163, 123 var.; SGI 4647 var.; SNG von Aulock 4861.
    Notes: Die match to lot #80, CNG electronic auction 137, 12/04/2006.
     
  12. randygeki

    randygeki Coin Collector

    Πρετψ ξοολ, Τηανκσ φορ τηε λινκ!
     
  13. TheFinn

    TheFinn Well-Known Member

    It's Greek to me.
     
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  14. sakata

    sakata Devil's Advocate

    I typed in theta and got τηετα. There should have been a θ as the first letter.
     
  15. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    To make a theta use a Q.
     
  16. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I recommend you always use caps for this purpose. That will allow you to copy and paste directly. Below is the keyboard. Most are obvious but a few require learning. Many later coins are better represented with a regular W for omega and a regular C for sigma as shown on the coin in question.

    They decided to use the Y for psi and the U for upsilon which is shaped like Y. Greek has no consonant H but used that shape for the long A sound eta which makes sense. There is no J so that key just returned a star. Greek chi looks like our X while their X sound (xi) was made differently (Ξ) but used the C on the keyboard. This decision seems opposite of the one made for some letters. The digamma (Ϝ) is rarely found on coins but available on the V key (vau).

    Below the main window are buttons including Greek Letters that offers many special characters of which most useful to coin people might be stigma2 (ϛ) used for officina 6.

    The point: This is a great resource but will require learning its little oddities which may or may not make sense but need to be accepted as facts. This may be easier for people who do not read Greek than any other introduction to the subject.

    ΘΩΕΡΤΨΥΙΟΠ
    ΑΣΔΦΓΗ*ΚΛ
    ΖΧΞϜΒΝΜ
     
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  17. Severus Alexander

    Severus Alexander find me at NumisForums

    On a Mac, open Keyboard Preferences, and choose the Input Sources pane. On the left, you can click on the plus sign and add whatever keyboard you like: Greek, Arabic, Tamil... whatever. Then check the box saying "Show input menu in menu bar", and using that top menu you can switch to & fro very easily from within any application. That same menu will allow you to "Show keyboard viewer" so you can see exactly what you'll be typing.
     
  18. LaCointessa

    LaCointessa Well-Known Member

    σε αγψαπο

    can not believe that works and Google confirmed!
     
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  19. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    I did that and got Greek easily available. The upper case Ο came through as Ο so I typed the whole CAPS keyboard to see what it did:
    ;ΣΕΡΤΥΘΙΟΠ
    ΑΣΔΦΓΗΞΚΛ
    ΖΧΨΩΒΝΜ

    So capital V works for omega.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2017
  20. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Does a Mac display the codes typed in on a PC? Below is PHI, CHI, PSI, OMEGA, THETA, XI.
    ΦΧΨΩΘΞ
     
  21. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    Yes, it does. Yours display correctly.
     
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