Click on the yellow rectangle for your free IPA FONTS
The problem of using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) Fonts on the Internet is that the people who visit your web-site have to have the same versions of IPA Fonts in their C:\Windows\Fonts folder to see the same fonts on their computer monitors.
One way round this problem is to make a graphic from within a PAINT PROGRAM and to use your own IPA font as text within the graphic. The SIL Encore IPA93 FONTS were originally designed for Microsoft Word 6 and Windows 3.1, but they will work in Microsoft Word for Windows 97 running under Windows 95. You may have problems getting the IPA font to appear in some Paint Programs. I had to paste my text from Microsoft Word into the textbox of Coral Paint 4 to produce my yellow rectangle containing the IPA on this page.
I used the "text within a graphic" technique to produce the "Phonology Chart". Click on "Phonology Chart" at the top or bottom of this page to see the result.
The SIL Encore IPA93 Fonts are provided in TrueType format and are scalable. They are produced by The Summer Insitute of Linguists, an organization which is dedicated to the study and promotion of the thousands of minority languages around the world. SIL is happy to make these IPA fonts available to the general linguistic community at no charge. Switch to SIL's web-site to read the conditions of use. Sharing the same IPA fonts with research colleagues, friends, students and phonetics teachers is the easiest way to exchange documents in IPA that can be read on one another's computers.
A Few Tips
If you use a PC running Microsoft Windows, you have to download both the IPA Fonts and a keyboard translation program called KEYMAN The Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager. [Macintosh users should download the utility SILKey to type double keystrokes.] You will need one 3.5 inch floppy disk. Download the fonts [SILIP12A.EXE] to the floppy disk (probably to your A: drive). Then also download KEYMAN, a keyboard management program that you will find on SIL's web-site. The SIL documentation is a little dated as much of it relates to Windows 3.1. If you are running Windows 95 or greater, run the floppy disk to which you have copied the programs from your startup menu within WINDOWS.
SILIPA93.EXE is a self extracting archive which will only work in WINDOWS. When you are given the option, I recommend that you store the IPA FONTS in your C:\Windows\Fonts folder with the rest of your WINDOWS fonts.
After you have installed SILIPA93.EXE and KEYMAN [The Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager], you will notice two new directories on your hard disk (probably your C:\ drive). They are: C:\ipafonts and C:\Keyman. I recommend that you click with the right hand button of your mouse on the KEYMAN icon in your C:\Keyman folder. You can then create a shortcut and drag the KEYMAN icon onto your desktop. This is easier than putting the shortcut in your startup folder at C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, which does not always work!
If the KEYMAN [The Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager] box disappears, you can get it back by clicking on the Keyman icon on your desktop.
If you do not want it on your screen, just click the "HIDE" button. It will disappear until you activate the Keyman icon again.
To use Keyman with your IPA fonts TWO STEPS are necessary.
1. Your first task is to find and print out the tables in the Keyman IPA Sequences help file (IPAKEYS.HLP). HELP information is located in C:\ipafonts\DOCS\ipakeys and C:\ipafonts\DOCS\fonts. Print out the tables which show you the BASIC KEY SEQUENCES to get the IPA Character you want. For example, to get a schwa you type the letter "e" followed by "=", but your KEYMAN [The Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager] must first be loaded with the definition file "ipa.kmn".
2. Before you start typing in IPA, you must therefore click on the "OPTIONS" button on the KEYMAN [The Tavultesoft Keyboard Manager], click on Load and select the "ipa.kmn" keyboard definition file. Click on OK. You must of course select one of your IPA FONTS from the FORMAT menu at the top of the screen. Look out for a very small icon which looks like the phonetic character ß. When it is covered by a diagonal red line, then it is "OFF" and you must click on it to turn it "ON" before using the BASIC KEY SEQUENCES to get the required IPA characters.
The little ß icon may appear on the top left corner of your screen when using Microsoft Word or it may appear within the TEXT BOX when using a graphics application such as COREL PAINT. You can turn it off when you do not wish to use BASIC KEY SEQUENCES.
Once you have selected your IPA FONT from the FORMAT menu, you will find that lower case letters appear normally, but if you press the SHIFT KEY then you get IPA letters. If you type numbers 0 to 9 you will get small diacritics. To get all the IPA character you want, you will also have to experiment by holding down the ALT key while typing ainsi number combinations on the number pad on the right of your keyboard.
For example, ainsi O171 gives you schwa, ainsi 0129 gives you the short "o" in "not" and ainsi 0141 gives you the back-to-front "c" as in "or". If you want to show that this is a long vowel in English, then you need to hold down ALT and type 0249 on the number pad to get the proper IPA colon ":".
All the IPA characters, diacritics, tones and punctuation can be found between ainsi 0127 and ainsi 0255.
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