script samples

The sample pages linked to from this page illustrate basic characteristics of particular scripts.

In addition, it is possible to experiment with changes to different presentational settings - particularly certain CSS3 properties - if your browser supports them.

how to use these pages

Each page provides a translation of the same text. You will need appropriate fonts and language packs to view the text properly. (In fact this can be quite instructive if you don't have the latter, since you can see what happens without the appropriate language pack.)

If you are able to see the characters in the text section and you have IE 5.0 or above and all the necessary language packs loaded, you will be able to check out the wrapping characteristics of each script too. Simply pick up the side of the browser window and move it from side to side.

There follows a summary of key features of the script in question.

Next there is a bitmap showing the text for those without the necessary fonts and language packs to render the script correctly. If a number appears in [square brackets] in the 'Features' list, an illustration can be found in the bitmap. In some instances, a numbered range of text is indicated by a red line on the bitmap - this sequence of characters will be shown in a separate bitmap lower down which illustrates the text, character by character, as it appears in the computer's memory.

Some pages provide form controls to allow you to alter various presentation attributes related to the script - in particular, there are a number of script-specific CSS3 properties that can be manipulated if the browser supports them (see below).

systems requirements

To view the Unicode text rendition of the passage you will need a font for each script. For Hindi, Thai, Arabic and Hebrew you will also need rendering capabilities. Wherever possible I have used the readily available Microsoft fonts.

The form controls often depend on the implementation of CSS3 features. To date only IE5 or above supports these features.

To switch between vertical and horizontal text in Japanese or Chinese you will also need to be running IE on Windows XP.

The dynamic HTML scripting is written using the W3C DOM, so it should work equally well on IE 6, Netscape 6, Mozilla 1.0, and Opera 7.0.