Help with fonts: how to install them and set up your browser correctly

To make full use of this section of the website you will need to download some Unicode [http://unicode.org] fonts. This page tells you how. If you want to use these fonts in other software (such as a word processor), have a look at the explanation on the page about computer representations of cuneiform. You can also use our Cuneify facility to generate cuneiform from alphabetic transliteration.

Cuneiform fonts

Cuneiform script went through many changes in its 3000-year history. This website uses two different cuneiform fonts:

the CuneiformOB font [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/downloads/CuneiformOB.zip] [1.1 MB zip file], for the script as it was about 4000-3500 years ago, in the so-called Old Babylonian (OB) period;
the CuneiformNA font [//oracc.museum.upenn.edu/downloads/CuneiformNA.zip] [108 KB zip file], which displays the script as it looked in the Neo-Assyrian (NA) period, c. 800-600 BC.

CuneiformOB and CuneiformNA are available from the Oracc [https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu//doc/help/visitingoracc/fonts/index.html] website, where you will find full instructions on how to install them.

Switching between fonts

At the top of every page on this website, above the coloured "Knowledge and Power" header, there is a number of option buttons. In the centre you will see the words "Cuneiform script" and two buttons "OB" and "NA". Once you have installed the cuneiform fonts, you click on one button or the other to move between them. Nothing else on the page will change.

Transliteration fonts

You may also want to have a Unicode font that has the full range of characters necessary for alphabetic transliteration and normalisation of cuneiform. We recommend DejaVu, available from the Oracc [https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu//doc/help/visitingoracc/fonts/index.html] website.

Web browser settings

If you're having trouble viewing cuneiform on your browser, even when you've installed the special fonts, then you'll need to set the character encoding correctly.

On Firefox, go to the Character Encoding item on the View menu and choose Unicode (UTF-8).
On Internet Explorer, go to the Encoding item on the View menu and choose More and then Unicode (UTF-8).
On Safari, go to the Text Encoding item on the View menu and choose Unicode (UTF-8).

© Higher Education Academy, 2007-11. Since 2015, SAAo is based at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Historisches Seminar (LMU Munich, History Department) - Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East. Content released under a CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/] license, 2007-20.
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