Tibetan Input Tools

Unicode Tibetan Input Tools

Legacy Font Input Tools

Additional Resources

A portion of the Tibetan alphabet
A portion of the Tibetan 'alphabet'

One of the problems concerning the use of Tibetan fonts in digital contexts has been the limited nature of Tibetan script input tools and software. Word processing tools have been restricted to specific fonts; they are often commercial products not easily affordable by Tibetan users, and they have not provided a viable way to enter Tibetan script over the Internet.

To solve this problem, THDL, Tibetan Computer Company and the The Trace Foundation have joined forces to offer for free use not only two of the world’s nicest Tibetan fonts, but also the world’s most powerful suite of Tibetan script input tools. The Trace Foundation has sponsored the Tibetan Computer Company’s (TCC) Tibetan Machine fonts to be made freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Using the Tibetan Machine characters, the font’s creator, Tony Duff, in collaboration with THDL, has also created Tibetan Machine Web, a family of cross-platform, web-viable fonts for displaying Tibetan.

The Trace Foundation has also made several versions of Tony Duff TCC’s Tibetan! freely available. Tibetan! enables the above fonts to be easily input within Word and WordPerfect. THDL for its part has created a powerful Java text editor known as Jskad (pronounced “jay-kay”), which allows a choice of four keyboards including true Wylie input and can run both locally and over the Web. THDL has also created Wylie Word, a program allowing one to type within Word utilizing true Wylie input. Both programs utilize Tibetan Machine Web.

We have also recently released a Unicode version of Tibetan Machine, called Tibetan Machine Uni. This font is still in its developmental phase. However, it has the capability to render standard Tibetan script in Unicode. This font along with the others is available from our Tibetan Fonts page. Keyboards for entering in Unicode Tibetan or Tibetan Machine are listed immediately below.

Tise: Tibetan Wylie Input Utility

Tise (pronounced ‘tee-say’) is an Unicode Tibetan input utility for WinXP devoped by Gregory Mokhin and based upon the EWTS transliteration system. Tise intercepts user input and converts EWTS sequences into proper codes for Tibetan text to be displayed using a Unicode Opentype Tibetan font. Tise may work on Win2K (not tested). It will not work on any lower version of Windows. Tise is available for free download (48 KB, v. 1.99beta2, built 27 Jun 2005). Before using Tise you will need to unzip tise.zip archive into a directory of your choice and install a Tibetan Unicode OpenType font, for example, Tibetan Machine Uni, licensed under GPL and available at THDL tools download page or here (1.3 MB). Make sure that Arial Unicode font is not installed, otherwise it will interfere with proper operation of Tibetan Machine Uni font. For detailed instructions refer to readme.txt, available online and also included in the zip archive. See Details and Downloads for more details on Tise.

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Keyman Keyboards (Unicode and Tibetan Machine)

Chris Walker has created a series of keyboards for entering Tibetan script in Windows applications. The keyboards use Tavultesoft Keyman, which is free for personal use. Installation is simple, and the keyboards can be invoked either through a keyboard shortcut or an icon. These keyboards enable the user to enter Tibetan using either a Unicode Tibetan font or the Tibetan Machine font. The following keyboard layouts are available:

  1. Sambhota Keymap #1 to Unicode
  2. Sambhota Keymap #1 to Tibetan Machine
  3. THDL Extended Wylie to Unicode
  4. THDL Extended Wylie to Tibetan Machine

For further information and download on Chris Walker’s keyboards, click here.

Another set of Keyman Keyboards for entering Unicode Tibetan has been made available by Peter Hauer from Linguasoft. For futher information on and download of Peter Hauer’s keyboards, click here.

In order to use any of these keyboards, the proper Tibetan font needs to be installed. See our Tibetan Fonts page. One can also view descriptions of:

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Dzongkha Unicode Keyboard for Windows XP

A system keyboard designed for Windows XP that allows for the entry of Tibetan or Dzongkha text through using a standard Bhutanese layout. The keyboard was created by Chris Fynn, using Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) . It comes in a self-installing file. Once installed, the keyboard can be assigned to any language that is not used on one's machine, such as possibly "Faroese" or "Kokani". The keyboad is then activated by switching to that language through the language-bar. The installer, keymap, and source files are available from the download page.

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Jskad: A Java-based Tibetan Inputting Tool

Jskad (pronounced “jay-kay”) is a Java-based text editor for entering Tibetan script through a variety of different keyboards. It requires the Java Runtime, as well as Java Web Start, and it runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X 10.1 (but not earlier versions of Mac OS). Jskad uses Tibetan Machine Web and supports four input methods:

  1. THDL’s Extended Wylie Transliteration
  2. Tibetan Computer Company’s Keyboard #1
  3. Tibetan Computer Company’s Keyboard #2
  4. Nitharta’s Sambhota Keymap One

Jskad can be launched from the web or run locally.

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Wylie Word: A Word for Windows Accessory

Wylie Word is a Microsoft Word for Windows template containing macros that allow one to enter Tibetan script directly into a Word document, as well as convert transliteration to Tibetan script or Tibetan script to transliteration. The macro runs on Windows 95+ machines with Word 2000 or later. There is presently no Macintosh version available. The latest version, 2.1 beta, allows for the entry of Unicode Tibetan using Extended Wylie Transliteration. Tibetan transliteration is converted in block or as one types. The earlier versions produce Tibetan only in the legacy Tibetan Machine Web font.

Specific features of WylieWord (versions 2.0+) include:

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Tibetan!

Tibetan! is a macro that allows for the entry of Tibetan script directly into Word or WordPerfect documents using the Tibetan Machine and Tibetan Machine Web font families. For Windows 95 and higher, there are three versions of Tibetan!: one for Word 97, one for Word 2000, and one for WordPerfect. For Mac OS 8.1 and higher, there is a version of Tibetan! which requires Word:Mac 2001 and the Tibetan Machine Web fonts.

There are two keyboards packaged with Tibetan!. In one the Tibetan letters are assigned sequentially across the keyboard — is assigned to ‘q’; is assigned to ‘w’, and so forth. In the other, the Tibetan letters are assign to the keyboard based on their frequency of use. This is meant to assist in speed typing, once the keyboard is memorized.

Tibetan! and the Tibetan Machine font was created by Tony Duff of the Tibetan Computer Company. They were made public domain under a general public license through the sponsorship of the Trace Foundation. The Tibetan Machine Web font was created through the collaboration of Tony Duff and the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library using the Tibetan Machine font made available by the Trace Foundation.

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Special Note for Macintosh Users

All of our tools are available for Windows users, but there are currently limitations that pertain to their use within the Macintosh operation system. Until OS X, Macintosh did not support the Java 2 platform. In addition, Visual Basic, which is the programming language used to make Microsoft Word macros, differs slightly in its Windows and Macintosh versions. However, we at THDL are committed to the support of Macintosh operating system, although in general tools get developed first within a Windows environment and only subsequently get adapted for a Macintosh environment.

At present, Tibetan! provides Macintosh users the ability to use Tibetan script within Microsoft Word. As noted above, Tibetan! supports two keyboards - one which renders the alphabet from the upper left of the keyboard straight across and down, and on which is a frequency keyboard. It works on the Macintosh OS 8.5 and above with Word:Mac 2001 and above.

However, Tibetan! does not provide for Wylie-based keyboard input. Therefore, we are currently working to adapt Wylie Word to provide true Wylie input within Microsoft Word for Macintosh users. In the meantime, Jskad provides a free standing text editor that enables true Wylie input, as well as several other keyboards, and it runs within Macintosh OS X 10.1. However, because of the above mentioned problems with support Java in earlier versions of Macintosh OS, it will never be supported for use in pre-OS X versions.

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Special Note for Linux Users

Many of the add-ins for Tibetan script entry made available by the THDL are written for specific proprietary programs, particularly Microsoft Word, that do not run on Linux or Solaris. Wylie Word 1.0 and Tibetan! are written in Visual Basic and possibly could be adapted to a Linux-based word processing program with a similar macro language. However, this would need further investigation and is not presently in our work plan. These add-ins are therefore not available for Linux operating systems. Jskad, on the other hand, should run on any version of Linux which supports the Java 2 platform. The best source for information on Java and Linux is Blackdown's Java Linux site (www.blackdown.org).

Linux Unicode Input:
The Dzongkha (dz) XKB file for X11 can be used for Tibetan script. The m17n-lib Unicode Input Method (UIM) contains another input method for Tibetan script based on EWTS. UIM is available at: http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/UimDownload

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