Gaelic Fonts for MS-Windows (2024)



Gaelic Fonts for MS-Windows — basicinformation and a summary of what's available

Gaelic fonts available on the internet range from newones, through well-established ones, to a number of old ones which are obsoletebut show no sign of fading away. Some have a character-set adequate forrepresenting text in the Gaelic language, some have not. Some follow agreedencoding standards, some do not. Some have a better appearance thanothers.

This page is intended to supply users of Gaelic fonts,beginning developers of Gaelic fonts, and maintainers of links to Gaelic fontswith the information required to compare the linguistic, aesthetic andergonomic adequacy of Gaelic fonts.

Comments will be mainly concerned with character repertoireand encoding; to a lesser extent with letter style and shape; and only rarelywith the important matter of letter spacing.

Skip to the fonts

Background
Encoding of Gaelic fonts
Free Windows fonts
Inexpensive Windows fonts
Non-Windows fonts
Choosing your font

BACKGROUND

The Gaelic language is found in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. InIreland it is also known as "Irish". In Man it is also known as "Manx". InScotland it is also known as "Scottish Gaelic" and is not to be confused withScots, a Germanic language related to English. There is Gaelic dialectvariation between and within the three countries, and each country hasdifferent centralised orthographic conventions.

Gaelic printing in Scotland and Man has always used the normal Latinletters, with the addition of some country-specific diacritics, and the same isnowadays true of Ireland. All the required diacritic letters — acute-accentedand grave-accented vowels (a,e,i,o,u) in both upper and lower case; and, forManx Gaelic, c-cedilla in both upper and lower case — are present in the usualcharacter-set of MS-Windows. As a result, normal Latin fonts are almost alwaysemployed for Gaelic-language text in Scotland and Man, and generally inIreland too.

On the other hand, "Gaelic script" refers to a distinctive style ofrendering the Latin alphabet, in which the letters have characteristic shapes,particularly d, g and t (and, in some substyles, so do ampersand, lowercase rand lowercase s). Lowercase i is undotted, as should be lowercase j (thoughthe latter is rare in the Gaelic language). There are a number of substyles ofGaelic fonts: uncial or half-uncial or majuscule (rounded) and minuscule(angular) are the main ones. (For a wider perspective on uncial fonts, see Gaelic and/or Uncial Fonts by DanReynolds.)

Gaelic styles were used throughout the Gaelic world for manuscript work, butonly in Ireland were they used in printing text, a practice whichcontinued until quite recently. Gaelic-style metal fonts have included, ofminuscule type:Queen Elizabeth, Louvain, Watts, Newman; and of uncial type:Petrie, Colmcille. (See Fourcenturies of printing in the Irish character.) Digital fonts may seek toreproduce manuscript hands, or metal fonts, or typewriter glyph-sets, or theymay seek to be original.

Just as there is a choice of two spelling conventions for representingGerman umlaut — a digraphic representation, eg. oe, and a diacriticrepresentation, eg. ö — there is an analogous choice for representing theconsonant modification of Gaelic known as "lenition", which is applicable tothe nine consonants b, c, d, f, g, m, p, s, t. One representation isdigraphic, in which the letter "h" is written after the lenited letter (e.g.lenited b is written "bh"); and the other representation is diacritic, in whicha dot-above accent is placed on the lenited letter.

In Gaelic-style fonts, representation of lenition is usuallyby diacritic, while in Latin-style fonts the digraphic representation is thenorm. But it is important to recognise that the questions of letter-style(Latin vs Gaelic) and of lenition representation (diacritic vs digraph) areindependent, and that all four combinations are possible:

• Gaelic style with diacritic lenition: in common use
• Latin style with digraphic lenition: in common use
• Gaelic style with digraphic lenition: becoming common as facility with the use of the dot is lost, but it is unattractive and generally deprecated
• Latin style with diacritic lenition: was tried a few times in pre-computer days, with poor results; however, if a few design principles are observed, it promises the best of both worlds.

A font may be described as "Gaelic" if it employsGaelic-style letter-shapes, or if it offers dotted consonants, orboth.

ENCODING OF GAELICFONTS

The encoding of a font is the assignment or mapping tocodepoints of the repertoire of available characters.

The advantages of a consistent encoding include the ability toswitch font without having to edit the text, and to use uniform keyboarding methods. The encoding alsodetermines the versions of Windows under which a font is suitable foruse.

Versions of Windows may be divided into two groups.Windows 95/98/ME uses single-byte characters, and may be referred to as"single-byte Windows". Windows 2000/XP uses double-byte characters, and may bereferred to as "double-byte Windows".

Without loss of generality, all fonts are regarded asassigning glyphs to double-byte codepoints.

Under double-byte Windows, the font's double-bytecodepoints are used transparently, as the native character-set of double-byteWindows (Unicode) is the same as that normally used to encodefonts.

Under single-byte Windows, a subset of the font'sdouble-byte codepoints is automatically mapped to the available single-bytecharacters. The mapping is from Unicode to one of a selection of single-bytecodepages defined in Windows, each supporting a different set of languages.The default codepage in many countries is CP1252. The remaining (unmapped)characters of the font are unavailable.

We geta particularly important single-byte encoding,known as Latin-1 (or ISO 8859-1) by taking the Basic Latin and Latin-1Supplement blocks of Unicode and removing the leading zero byte throughout. Ifwe add a few other useful characters to the $80..$9F region (which is empty inLatin-1), we get the character-set mapped from Unicode by codepage CP1252, alsoknown as the ANSI character-set.

Not all languages are supported by a Windows codepage,however — exceptions include Esperanto, Rumanian, Vietnamese and Tamil — andGaelic, when dotted consonants are required. To ensure that the specialcharacters required for an unsupported language are mapped through from a fontto the single-byte codetable, those characters must be deliberately placed inthe font at the desired single-byte codepoints, rather than at their properUnicode codepoints. Such non-Unicode font encodings include Latin-8, whichsupports Gaelic with dotted consonants, and Latin-3, which supports Esperanto.A Latin-8 or Latin-3 font may also retain the Unicode encodings of the specialcharacters, in which case it will work in double-byte Windows also, though itwill be slightly less flexible there than a purely Unicode font wouldbe.

In single-byte Windows, some applications — notably, MSWord — allow working with double-byte text. In these, a Unicode font may beused and text will be stored in Unicode encoding, but the difficulty will be infinding a convenient way of keying dotted consonants to generate their Unicodecodepoints. Where a Latin-8 font is used, things are as with otherapplications for single-byte Windows — Latin-8 keyboarding methods are used andthe text is stored in Latin-8 encoding.

A number of encodings may be found in Gaelic fonts:

• Unicode
• Latin-8; and

Single-byte encodings: Latin-8

When lenition is represented diacritically, single-byteWindows must use a codetable encoded differently from Latin-1, one whichincludes the dotted consonants. And, for languages not covered by Latin-1, ISOdefine other such single-byte encodings. One of these is Latin-8,also known as ISO 8859-14, formally defined in 1998, and including, at theexpense of some lesser-needed characters of Latin-1, dotted consonants (as wellas some other characters required by Welsh, which will not be mentioned furtheron this page, but much that will be said about dotted consonants appliesequally to them).

In all, there are about 31 codepoints at which Latin-8 placesa character different from that placed there by Latin-1. Latin-1 and Latin-8are in agreement on the placement of those characters common to both. Byproviding dotted consonants, Latin-8 serves the needs of Gaelic when lenitionis represented diacritically. This is true whether the letter style is Latinor Gaelic.

Unfortunately however Microsoft have not provided acodepage for Latin-8.

This means that the dotted consonants of Unicode will be amongthe characters thrown away in mapping a font from Unicode to the activecodepage (eg. CP1252). Thus, Unicode fonts cannot support dotted consonantsin single-byte Windows. In fact, the way to get dotted consonants from afont to appear in their Latin-8 positions in the single-byte codetable is toput them already into those positions in the font itself. Such a font will nolonger be Unicode-encoded — it is Unicode-encoded, except that those 31 or socharacters which differ between Latin-1 and Latin-8 are located at theirLatin-8 codepoints (which are in the Latin-1 Supplement block). We may looselycall such a font a "Latin-8 font", though strictly speaking it is a fontencoded so that CP1252 will map it to Latin-8 (which is a single-byteencoding). Latin-8 fonts are needed to support dotted consonants insingle-byte Windows, and many such fonts have been created forGaelic.

When using such a font in single-byte Windows, with CP1252active as will normally be the case, the mappings from Unicode fonts to the$80..$9F region of the codetable take place as previously. This will notinterfere with the dotted consonants and other characters of Latin-8 which arealready in position in their Latin-8 codepoints in the font, as these pointsare mapped straight through to the codetable.

Latin-8 fonts can be used in double-byte Windows, butthere are practical disadvantages to using them there. Text prepared indouble-byte Windows using Latin-8 fonts — just like Latin-8 text freshlyimported from single-byte Windows — will have an internal representation fordotted consonants which is different from that of text in Unicode fonts. Butit is bad practice to prepare text in an obsolescent encoding like this,especially if it is done alongside the preparation of other text in Unicodeencoding using Unicode fonts for display. There is an additional practicaldifficulty, in that a keyboarding technique different from that used withUnicode fonts will be required to input the dotted consonants ofLatin-8.

For integrity and compatibility, text prepared onsingle-byte Windows in Latin-8 encoding, and permanently moved to double-byteWindows, should be promptly converted to Unicode encoding, and fonts which areLatin-8-only should not subsequently be used on it.

An alternative to the Latin-8 font — where the characterswhich differ between Latin-1 and Latin-8 are encoded in the font at theirLatin-8 codepoints — is to encode these characters at both their Unicodeand their Latin-8 codepoints in the font. In single-byte Windows, theresulting font will work exactly as the Latin-8 font did — text will beLatin-8-encoded and keyed using a Latin-8 keyboard layout, and only the Latin-8subset of characters will be available. But this font will also function indouble-byte Windows — text will be Unicode-encoded and keyed using a Unicodekeyboard layout; the whole Unicode character repertoire will be available,except for the 31 or so characters of the Latin-1 Supplement block whosecodepoints have been allocated in the font on the basis of Latin-8. This isnot a serious problem, as these characters have been omitted from Latin-8precisly because they are unimportant for Gaelic.

This dual Unicode/Latin-8 encoding produces a font whichwill work under all versions of Windows, single-byte and double-byte. Indouble-byte Windows, the main disadvantage of using dual-encoded fonts is thatthey display the same glyph for differently-encoded characters, which mayencourage — though of course it does not require — the bad practice ofcontinuing to work with Latin-8 encoded text, possibly text transferred fromsingle-byte Windows, instead of converting it promptly to Unicode encoding.While the ability to work with such imported text on double-byte Windows,without bothering to convert it to Unicode, could be seen as a short-termadvantage, it could lead to problems eventually. Few Gaelic font developershave gone down the road of dual-encoding, but most have preferred to produceseparate Unicode and Latin-8 versions of their fonts.

Single-byte encodings: others

Latin-8 is not the only single-byte encoding which may bereflected in older Gaelic fonts. An earlier standard for encoding dottedconsonants was known as CER-GS(Celtic Extended Roman).

And some Gaelic fonts follow none of the above encodingstandards, but use a proprietary encoding of their own for dotted consonants.This may be because they pre-date the standards, or because their developerswere unaware of standards and made up their own, or because encoding wasconstrained because it was misused to compensate for inadequate keyboardingtechnology.

Standard keyboarding facilities will not work for any fontwhich uses non-standard encoding, but usable alternatives are rarely provided.Also a few Gaelic fonts choose to place their characters in the Unicode"Private Use" block, which may impair the ability to word-wrap text.

The encoding of any existing font can be improved andstandardised, but with some Gaelic fonts which are no longer under developmentthis is unlikely to happen.

Double-byte applications under single-byteWindows

In single-byte Windows, some applications — notably MS Word —allow working with double-byte text, and the possibility is renewed of usingUnicode fonts in a single-byte system under such an application.

Unlike normal applications for single-byte Windows, it ispossible to use Unicode fonts with these applications, and the result will betext in Unicode encoding. The problem however will be finding a convenientkeyboarding method for the dotted consonants to generate their Unicode valuesunder single-byte Windows.

Where a Latin-8 font is used, these applications behave justlike any other applications under single-byte Windows — the normal Latin-8keyboard for single-byte Windows is used, and the result will be text in(double-byte) Latin-8 encoding.

Variant glyphs in Gaelic fonts

Just as there is a choice of glyph for somecharacters in Latin styles

with each font having its own preference, so it is in Gaelic styles forampersand and for lowercase r, s and s-dot – for each of these characters thereis a choice of two glyphs

As in the Latin examples, this choice is not predictable from context or anyother circ*mstance, but is made freely on stylistic preference, and insofar asa piece of text is stylistically-hom*ogeneous, it will be consistent in itschoices.

Thus, for r, s and s-dot characters, we may find eithershort glyphs — the first one of each pair shown above — or longglyphs. And for the ampersand character, we find either an ampersand oret-ligature glyph, or a Tironian-et glyph, looking like a figureseven.

Historically, in manuscript Gaelic styles, the generalposition is that uncial styles preferred the short forms of r and s and s-dot,and the et-ligature; while minuscule styles preferred the long forms of r and sand s-dot, and the Tironian-et.

In metal Gaelic fonts, the long forms of r and s ands-dot were almost universal until around 1913, at which time Monotype Series 24(a Newman–Figgins style type) offered the short forms as an option; all metalfonts appear to have used Tironian-et, even styles with uncial features, likePetrie and Colmcille.

Apart, therefore, from Newman–Figgins styles, the style of aGaelic font generally determines the appropriate choice of glyphs, or at leastit determines which choices are historically authentic for the font. This isexactly as in the case of the Latin glyph choices shown above, where a font(eg. Times Roman) makes its choices and rarely offer alternatives. But Gaelicdigital fonts often seek to provide both glyphs of a pair, and leave thechoice — whether it is more of a benefit or a burden — to the user.

A choice of glyphs may be simply a harmless inconvenience tothe user, or it may be harmful; it depends on how it is implemented. It isharmful if the alternative glyphs are offered as separate characters.This will result in the alternative glyphs for the character being processed asdistinct, for example, in alphabetization. Yet this has been allowed to happenwith some Gaelic fonts, which have been designed without adequate considerationfor the effects of text processing on encoded text.

The user should look for fonts in which only the standardcharacter positions for lowercase r, lowercase s, lowercase s-dot, andampersand are used for these characters. In Unicode, these are positions$0072, $0073, $1E61 and $0026 respectively. If a font uses other characterpositions for alternative glyphs of these characters, for example, $027C for(long) lowercase r, $017F for (long) lowercase s, $1E9B for (long) lowercases-dot, or $204A for Tironian-et, the glyphs at these positions should not beused, thus limiting the font to one usable glyph of each character. It is easyto avoid keying the deprecated positions, since their input will requiredifferent keystrokes from the standard positions. If the font you wish to uselocates the glyphs you want at these deprecated character positions, ask thefont supplier to provide a version of the font in which your glyphs are foundat the standard positions for the characters; if this is not forthcoming, youcan easily make the necessary modification yourself.

It will be noted under each font how it displays thesefour characters, and whether alternative glyphs are provided elsewhere in thefont.

The association of separate codepoints with alternativeglyphs for these four characters is also sometimes found in Latin-8 encoding,in a modification called "extended" Latin-8 encoding, and the advice is toadhere to the standard positions, as defined in standard Latin-8, and avoidusing the alternative positions.

For further discussion of alternate glyphs, including adviceto font designers, and instructions for a user to modify the encodings of thevariant glyphs, see here.

Font lists and samples nowfollow.

Where the font name is underlined below, clicking on itwill show a font sample. To facilitate comparison, font samples use a standardtext and are made at 12 points, on a line length of 14.66 cm, with word-wrap.They appear magnified by a factor of about 1.6 when displayed on-screen at 72dpi.

Please keep in mind the limited resolution of computerscreens when viewing these samples. The size of type used in the samples canonly show on-screen the same degree of detail as would 4.56 pt type printed at300 dpi, or 1.14 pt type printed at 1200 dpi! The size of type chosen here isan attempted compromise between showing the overall visual effect of setting aparagraph of body text, and showing the fine detail of lettershapes.

Clicking "charset" next to a font name, where present,will show a chart of the characters. If the font is Unicode-encoded, you willsee a selection of the font's characters, including most, but not necessarilyall, of those which are useful in Gaelic text. When such a font is used undersingle-byte Windows, the available characters will be those shown in the range$0000..$00FF, together with a few others mapped in by CP1252; but dottedconsonants will not be available. If the font follows a single-byte encoding,you will see the characters ($00..$FF) available under single-byte Windows,when codepage CP1252 is active. When such a font is used under double-byteWindows, all the characters shown are available but some (such as dottedconsonants) will be encoded in a non-Unicode manner and must be keyedaccordingly.

I will add a font sample and/or charset for any listedfont which lacks them, on receipt of the necessary information from thedeveloper.

Regarding font file formats, note that TrueType fonts can beused directly with MS-Windows. PostScript Type 1 fonts can also be useddirectly with MS-Windows 2000 or XP; they can be used with earlier versions ofMS-Windows through the free download of Adobe Type ManagerLite.

FREE WINDOWS FONTS

Gaelchló (Vincent Morley)

Vincent Morley has been providing free Gaelic fonts in avariety of styles since around 1994. The latest versions of Gaelchló fonts, inTrueType format, are available HERE — be warned that otherdownload locations may carry outdated versions. Morley's advice (in IrishGaelic) on the use of Gaelic fonts can be found at the Scríbhinn site, particularly the page Clóchur.

All the fonts have extensive kerning.

The following Gaelchló fonts are encoded in Unicode:

• Bunchló GC (1996) [charset], Newman-style; also italic, Bunchló Iodálach GC (2006), bold, Bunchló Trom GC (2003), and extra bold, Bunchló Dubh GC (1997)
• Seanchló GC (1998) [charset], Watts-style; also bold, Seanchló Trom GC (2003), and extra bold, Seanchló Dubh GC (1998)
• Glanchló GC (1994) [charset], Colmcille-style but rounder; also italic, Glanchló Iodálach GC (2007), bold, Glanchló Trom GC (2003), and extra bold, Glanchló Dubh GC (1997)
• Úrchló GC (1996) [charset], modernized uncial; also bold, Úrchló Trom GC (2004)
• Úrchló Rómhánach GC (1996) [charset], Latin-style sans; also bold, Úrchló Rómhánach Trom GC (2004)
• Fíorchló GC (1997) [charset], uncial lowercase with rustic uppercase
• Lánchló GC (2000) [charset], uppercase is Latinised; also bold, Lánchló Trom GC (2004)
• Órchó GC (2001) [charset], semi-ornate uncial
• Aonchló GC (2003) [charset], typewriter-style; also bold, Aonchló Trom GC (2003)
• Saorchló GC (2003) [charset], decorative, after pre-decimal coinage
• Mínchló GC (2003) [charset], fine and rounded Newman-style; also bold, Mínchló Trom GC (2004)
• Mórchló GC (2004) [charset], ornate uncial; monocase, but for d, d-dot and n, the nominally upper- and lower-case positions contain variant glyphs
• Caschló GC (2005) [charset], an "artistic" minuscule
• Mearchló GC (2005) [charset], a contemporary handwriting minuscule, quite rounded
• Mionchló GC (2005) [charset], a traditional handwriting minuscule, quite angular
• Slimchló GC (2006) [charset], a stylized modernistic font with a 1920s/1930s feel

All the above fonts display r, s and s-dot as short forms,which is as normally expected in a modernized minuscule style or an uncialstyle. They contain long forms in other positions, but if long forms are to beused, as historically they may be with the Newman style and should be with theWatts style, it is preferable to use fonts like the following which differ fromBunchló and Seanchló respectively only in displaying r, s and s-dot as longforms, which is as expected in a traditional minuscule style (they do notcontain the short forms as alternates):

• Bunchló Ársa GC (2004) [charset]; also italic, Bunchló Ársa Iodálach GC (2006), bold, Bunchló Ársa Trom GC (2004), and extra bold, Bunchló Ársa Dubh GC (2004)
• Seanchló Ársa GC (2004) [charset]; also bold, Seanchló Ársa Trom GC (2004), and extra bold, Seanchló Ársa Dubh GC (2004)

The following fonts have a different character-set,containing many manuscript abbreviations. Their encoding is Unicode-compatibleas far as possible:

• Bunchló na Nod GC (1996) [charset], style as Bunchló GC
• Seanchló na Nod GC (2003), [charset], style as Seanchló GC

All the above fonts display the ampersand character as anet-ligature, and provide Tironian-et in a different codepoint, so that users ofthese fonts who want to have their ampersands correctly processed are deprivedof the use of the Tironian-et glyph. This is unfortunate, as Tironian-et isthe natural representation of the ampersand character in most of the stylesfeatured, except for Mórchló GC and Úrchló Rómhánach GC and arguably for a fewothers.

Only a few fonts are now available from Gaelchló inLatin-8 encoding (they are named without the GC suffix): Bunchló [charset],Bunchló Trom, BunchlóÁrsa [charset],and Bunchló Ársa Trom. The sample texts should beidentical to the corresponding GC illustrations above.

The following were formerly available in Latin-8 encoding:Bunchló Dubh, Seanchló [charset],Seanchló Trom, SeanchlóDubh, Seanchló Ársa [charset],Seanchló Ársa Trom, Glanchló [charset],Glanchló Trom, GlanchlóDubh, Úrchló [charset],Úrchó Trom, ÚrchlóRómhánach [charset],Úrchló Rómhánach Trom, Lánchló [charset],Lánchlo Trom, Aonchló[charset],Aonchló Trom, Mínchló[charset],Mínchló Trom, Fíorchló [charset],Órchló [charset],Saorchló [charset];as well as Bunchló na Nod [charset]and Seanchló na Nod [charset].

All the above Latin-8 fonts display r, s and s-dot as shortforms; except for the "Ársa" fonts which display them as long forms. Alldisplay the ampersand character by the glyph most appropriate to their styles(Tironian-et for all except Úrchó Rómhánach) — in this, they behave better thantheir Unicode counterparts. The alternate glyphs are available in non-standardpositions, except for the "Ársa" fonts where there are no alternates.

Bunchló Ársa Dubh, Seanchló Ársa Dubh, Mórchlóand all Gaelchló fonts introduced in 2005 or more recently have neverbeen available in Latin-8 encoding.

Former Gaelchló fonts now discontinued include:

• Ollchló (1997); see Bunchló Dubh above
• Tromchló (1997); see Glanchló Dubh above
• Úrchló Dubh (1998) [charset]; bold version of Úrchló, similar to Úrchló Trom above
• Léarchló (1999) [charset] after Libra Uncial (1938)
• Nuachló (2000) [charset] partially-Latinised minuscule-style
• Nuachló Rómhánach (2000) [charset] Latin-style serif

Gadelica (Séamas Ó Brógáin)

Gadelica [charset](2007) is a free traditional minuscule font in TrueType format and inUnicode encoding; the appearance is based on 17th century models, and issomewhat rounder than Newman styles and plainer than Watts styles. As befitsthe period, the long forms are displayed for r, s and s-dot (there are no shortforms), and the ampersand character is displayed as Tironian-et (which isduplicated at an alternative codepoint). Kerning is comprehensive. There isno hinting other than by default. The euro sign is included. The font isavailable here.

Gaelach and Tuamach (ColumTwomey)

This is a free Newman-style font in TrueType format, forwhich the typographical model was Dinneen's dictionary (1904edition).

There is no hinting, no kerning, and no euro sign in anyversion of this font, and it is open to the criticism that it has insufficientdifference in size between upper and lower case letters. Obsolete versions ofthis font, under either of its names, are particularly common as downloads onthe internet.

Cló Gaelach (gaelach.ttf) is the original font,designed by Colum Twomey. A preliminary version last modified on 1993/05/24(which I have not found on the internet), adds almost nothing to ASCII beyondacute-accented vowels. The usual version (v0.2) [charset]last modified on 1993/09/27 supports acute-accented vowels, and grave-accentedvowels with the curious exception of small u-grave, butit still lacks dottedconsonants entirely. It is encoded according to ISO Latin-1, butomitting many non-essential ISO characters. If using it with MS-Word, you willneed to switch off MS-Word's "smart quotes" option; otherwise your quotes willdisappear, as there are no left or right quotes in the font. Gaelach displays r, s and s-dot as long forms, and ampersandas Tironian-et, so that it is of the traditional minuscule style;there are noalternate forms. The font is widely available, including here.

Tuamach is a revision and extension of Gaelach byMichael Everson, who also renamed it Tuamach. A version (tuamach0.ttf)internally dated 1993/10/08 (which I have not found on the internet) differs inrepertoire from Gaelach by the addition of small u-grave, and by now displayingr, s and s-dot as short forms, with the long forms moved elsewhere, so thatTuamach is henceforth of the modernized minuscule style. The usual version(tuamach_.ttf) [charset]internally dated 1994/03/29 further adds the dotted consonants, as well as manynon-essential ISO characters which had been omitted from Gaelach. As the ISOLatin-8 encoding standard did not then exist, the dotted consonants are encodedaccording to the earlier CER-GS encoding. The font is widely available,including here.

Tuamach Unicode [charset]is a re-encoding in Unicode by KAD (Korvigelloù an Drouizig), dated2003/04/01, and is available HERE. Theencoding is really a dual one, as alongside the Unicode are vestiges of theprevious CER-GS encoding, though not enough for useful compatibility. Comparedwith the earlier Tuamach, twelve letters with macrons are added to thecharacter repertoire. The TrueType 'hdmx' table is dropped. This versionshows tighter word-spacing than its predecessors.

Gaeilge 1, Gaeilge2, Gaeilge 2, Gaeilge Unicode (PadraigMcCarthy)

This is a free font in TrueType format, in a style whichderives from American Uncial but has adopted some minuscule features. Thecharacter repertoire has from the beginning included separate upper and lowercase, accented vowels, and dotted consonants. Obsolete versions are extremelycommon as internet downloads.

Gaeilge 1 [charset](gaeil1.ttf) is the original font created by Padraig McCarthy in 1993, and iswidely available on the internet — for example, here.The character repertoire includes a good selection of the MS extensions in80–9F, but there is no euro sign, and the grave-accented vowels areun-Gaelicised. The lowercase i is correctly undotted, but there is anelongated dot on lowercase j. There is no kerning. A proprietaryencoding (of the MS Symbol variety) is used for the dotted consonants. Thefont displays r, s and s-dot as short forms, and ampersand as an ampersandglyph, which is not an unreasonable choice for the style; there are long formsof r, s and s-dot elsewhere in the font.

Gaeilge2 [charset](gaeilge2.ttf) — note the absence of a space in the font name — is a revisionmade with the cooperation of Nikita Vsesvetskii, internally dated 1996/07/25.The letter-shapes have been given a thorough overhaul; some are noticeablychanged, including the grave-accented vowels which are now fine. Some kerninghas been added. The non-standard encoding of Gaeilge 1 remains, but internallyall the characters (including "space") are moved to the "Private Use" block,which has the side-effect that word-wrap may not work. Gaeilge2 is not widelyavailable on the internet, but can be found here.

Gaeilge 2 [charset](gaeilge.ttf) — note the space in the font name — is another revision ofGaeilge 1, produced by Fios Feasa andinternally dated 1997/11/05. The encoding type is changed from MS Symbol to MSUnicode, and the encoding itself is changed to conform with Latin-8(though a few of the MS extension positions in 80–9F are commandeered for otherpurposes, and there is still no euro). There are no word-wrap problems. In thecharacter repertoire, the grave-accented vowels are made acceptable, the shapeof the acute accent is improved, and the lowercase j has lost its spurious dot,but otherwise the original shapes of Gaeilge 1 are largely retained, but anumber which are not part of Latin-8 have been dropped. The ampersandcharacter is now displayed as Tironian-et, which is still reasonable. A gooddeal of kerning has been added, but might be considered a little overtight. Ihave not found Gaeilge 2 on the internet, so I make it available here, by kind permission of Fios Feasa.

Gaeilge Unicode [charset]is a re-encoding of Gaeilge 2 in Unicode by KAD, dated 2003/04/01, andis available HERE. Glyphswhich were dropped in Gaeilge 2 are mostly reinstated, though some are notencoded to characters, and a considerable number of new composite glyphs areadded. The setting of Gaeilge 2 is retained, but no kernings are added for thenew glyphs. There is still no euro sign.

Gael AX and Gael BX (F M O'Carroll)

These are free fonts in two slightly-different minusculestyles, in TrueType format, in both normal and bold weights. The Gael A and Gael A Bold style is more of a traditionalminuscule, with r, s and s-dot displayed as long forms, and tails on m and n(both upper and lower case). The Gael B and Gael B Bold style is more of a modernized minuscule,with r, s and s-dot displayed as short forms, and no tails on m and n. Theampersand is displayed as Tironian-et in both styles. There is no eurosign.

The original version by F M O'Carroll (1997) consists ofeight fonts, as each style and weight is offered in two encodings ("non-x" —gaela/gaelb [charset]and "x" — gaelax/gaelbx [charset]).These encodings seem designed to facilitate (two different approaches to)inputting Gaelic text under default English-language keyboard drivers, but atthe cost of difficulty in keying other ASCII characters (j,k, etc.; hash,backslash, etc.) The "non-x"-encoded fonts are unkerned, while the "x"-encodedfonts incorporate kerning, slightly more extensive for the traditional-stylethan for the modernized-style font; the samples are made using the x-encodedfonts and hence are kerned. From the practical viewpoint, both encodings arehighly non-standard, and neither on its own offers a complete set ofconsonants. The grave-accented vowels are rendered with acute accents.Lowercase j has a dot. There are embedded scaler bitmaps to improve screendisplay. These original fonts,packaged with some TrueType font developmenttools, are downloadablehere and some furtherbackground information is given here.

Gael AX Unicode [charset],Gael AX Unicode Bold, Gael BX Unicode [charset]and Gael BX Unicode Bold, available HERE, arere-encodings in Unicode by KAD (2003, updated December 2008). Each pairof original encodings is combined into a single Unicode encoding, and thenumber of fonts is thereby halved to four. AX Unicode and AX Unicode Boldappear to omit the small s-dot at $1E61.

Apart from the improved encoding, the newer versions have anumber of added glyphs; the grave-accented vowels really have graves instead ofacutes; the dot has been removed from lowercase j. The embedded bitmaps, whichwould have required extension to include the new glyphs, have been dropped.The kerning of the original "x" versions has not been extended to the newglyphs, but existing pairs have been retained in AX Unicode, AX Unicode Boldand BX Unicode Bold fonts, though a number have been dropped in BX Unicode. Acomparison of samples shows that of the four, only BX Unicode Bold sets likeits non-Unicode predecessor; the metrics of the other three Unicode versionsare all substantially altered from those of their predecessors.

Rudhraigheacht (Galt Barber)

This is a free Newman-style font in TrueType format. Thereis no kerning.

Rudhraigheacht [charset](Ru.ttf) by Galt Barber is available here (at end ofpage). Version 1.02 is internally dated 2000/01/29. There is some lack ofcrispness, and shapes like k,q,w,x,y,z are in need of refinement. Thecharacters include acute- and grave-accented vowels and dotted consonants,encoded in Latin-8, though many ISO characters not normally needed for Gaelicare omitted. A few of the MS extensions in 80–9F are present, including theeuro sign. The font displays r, s and s-dot as short forms, and the ampersandcharacter as an et-ligature; there are no alternate forms.

Rudhraigheacht Unicode [charset] [charset],is a version dated 2003/04/01, with extra characters and re-encoded in Unicodeby KAD. The setting of the original version is retained. It is available HERE.

Free pseudo-Gaelic fonts

A number of free fonts exist which may be considered "Gaelic"in style, but which have not been designed with Gaelic-language text in mind.Some indeed are — or long were — heavily deficient in the character-setrequired by Gaelic, and even when recently supplemented in this respect, theyremain unsympathetic in concept.

• The ubiquitous American Uncial is fundamentally unsuitable for Gaelic text, since it prolongs the dot on lowercase i into a quasi-acute-accent, which is actually more conspicuous than the real acute accents on the accented vowels. There is no difference between upper and lower case in American Uncial. A version of American Uncial [charset] in Unicode encoding, and with a full complement of accented vowels and dotted consonants, is available here from KAD, in TrueType format.

  There are many other downloadable versions of American Uncial, but most lack dotted consonants. One such is the

  American Uncial [charset] which is a version in TrueType and PostScript formats, converted from Corel Draw, available here. Another TrueType version from Fantazia Concepts, with italic and other styles, is available here — 9 files with names of the form B43_.TTF.
• Another uncial-type style, which goes by a variety of names, is second only to American Uncial both in its infelicity for displaying Gaelic text, and in its popularity in public use for that purpose. A number of versions in TrueType format are available here from KAD, in Unicode encoding, dated 2003/04/01. The least unsuitable of these are Kelt Unicode [charset] — which also comes in Kelt Unicode Italic and in a very timid Kelt Unicode Bold — and UmberSSK Unicode [charset]. Both are small in size, and feature Latinized d, g and N. Stonehenge Unicode [charset] adds a dotted i to its drawbacks, while Boyd Uncial Unicode [charset] adds dotted i, Latinized T, and raised f. Of these KAD Unicode versions, Kelt and UmberSSK set as their originals did, while Stonehenge Unicode has tighter word-spacing than its original.

  There are many other downloads of these fonts, but lacking dotted consonants. They include a TrueType font,

  UmberSSK [charset] (internally dated 1995/08/06), from Southern Software Inc (1992), available here. With dotted i, there is a TrueType Stonehenge Regular [charset], internally dated 1993/07/15, found here. With dotted i, Latinized T, and raised f, there are TrueType versions of Meath [charset], internally dated 1991/04/05, found here; and of Boyd Uncial here, the latter lacking even accented vowels.
• Weatherly Systems Inc's Gaelic or Gaelic Regular (1992) [charset] is a font in TrueType format, in what is basically an ornate Latin style with a few Gaelic features. Its Latin-like properties include a dot on lowercase i, and a Latinized lowercase r. There are no dotted consonants. It is available here in a version internally dated 1995/06/09, which is the most recent version I have found; I have also found versions internally dated 1993/01/23 and 1992/11/27 on the net.
• Sláine (1998) [charset], by James Shields, is a font in TrueType format, in a basically minuscule style, and available here. It contains nothing but unaccented letters and acute-accented vowels. It correctly leaves lowercase i undotted, but employs a Latin-style lowercase r which risks confusion with a long Gaelic lowercase s. The lack of punctuation renders it unsuitable for body text.
• Celtic Gaelige (1997) [charset], by Susan Zalusky, a font in TrueType format, in a slightly florid Newman style, has an incomplete set of dotted consonants (those present conform to CER-GS encoding), and has a dot on lowercase i. The outlines lack some crispness. The encoding type is MS Symbol, and the characters (including "space") are placed in the Unicode "Private Use" block, which has the side-effect that word-wrap may not work. Some sites carry a version last modified on 1997/01/19 (celtgael.ttf), but a more recent version, last modified on 1998/11/18 (celtgae0.ttf), can be obtained here, by clicking on the link to "Free Simple Celtic Font" near the end of the page. Celtic Gaeilge Unicode [charset], a version in Unicode encoding, with a complete set of dotted consonants, and free of word-wrap problems, is available here from KAD. It shows tighter word-spacing than the original.
  

Free general Unicode fonts

Comprehensive Unicode fonts are under intensive development,and these should provide the dotted consonants on Latin-style letters, but fewyet provide all of them. As supplied with Windows XP and MS Office 2002 atleast, Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New contain dotted c and g only(Latin Extended Additional block not yet supported). Of the fonts typicallysupplied with Windows,

• Tahoma [charset],
• Tahoma Bold and
• Arial Unicode MS [charset]

now contain all the dotted consonants of Gaelic. Some freeUnicode fonts which also include the dotted consonants are

• Caslon [charset] (available here),
• Monospace [charset] (available here),
• Thryomanes [charset] (available here),
• Gentium [charset] (available here), and
• Code2000 [charset] (available here).

See here for a fuller listof Unicode fonts.

INEXPENSIVE WINDOWS FONTS

The information in this section is not first-hand, as I have not purchasedany of these fonts. It is obtained from websites and other sources, and maywell be out of date in some respects. I will gladly correct any errors whichare brought to my attention.

Evertype (Michael Everson)

Michael Everson was possibly the first to produce a serviceable digitalGaelic font, with his Newman-style Macintosh bitmap font, Gaillimh, in 1989.He is also the developer of the ISO Latin-8 encoding standard, as he was of itspredecessor for Windows, CER-GS (Celtic Extended Roman).

Evertype sells the CeltScript range of Gaelic fonts, in TrueType format —information is available from here.Everson's survey of Gaelic types, both metal and digital, can be found at Gaelic typefaces:history and classification.

The following CeltScript fonts are available in Everson's Extended Latin-8v2.0 encoding (see about halfway down that page for the character-settable), which displays r, s and s-dot as short forms (including Watts andNewman styles), and the ampersand character as an ampersand gylph (includingminuscule styles), while making the long forms and the Tironian-et availableelsewhere in the font:

• Duibhlinn (1993), Newman-style; also oblique, bold, bold oblique
• Doire (1993), Royal typewriter style; also oblique, bold, bold oblique
• Ceanannas (1993), uncial-style; also oblique, bold, bold oblique
• Corcaigh (1997), Newman-like but more decorative; also oblique, bold, bold oblique
• Teamhair (1997), Tower typewriter style; also oblique, bold, bold oblique
• Darmhagh Underwood (1999), Underwood typewriter style (rough)
• Doire Royal (1999), Royal typewriter style (rough)
• Teamhair Tower (1999), Tower typewriter style (rough)
• Loch Garman (1999), after Baoithín uncial (1938); also oblique, bold, bold oblique

The following CeltScript font has a different character-set, containing manyligatures (manuscript abbreviations), but its encoding is compatible as far aspossible:

• Acaill (1997), Watts-style; also oblique, bold, bold oblique

LaserGaelic (Linguist's Software)

Linguist's Software sells two Gaelic fonts, in both TrueType and PostScriptType 1 formats:

• GaillimhLS, Newman-style
• GaelicLS, slightly-Latinised uncial-style

Dotted consonants and accented vowels are included. There are both long andshort forms of r and s, and both et-ligature and Tironian-et are present, but Ihave no details of the encoding used. Information on LaserGaelic is availablehere.

Colmcille (Monotype)

Agfa Monotype sells the influential Colmcillefont, designed by Colm Ó Lochlainn in the mid-1930s. The digitised font, inPostScript Type 1 format, had a high-profile launch in Ireland at the end of1993, and comes in regular, bold, italic and bold italic.

The font is available in OpenType format, seehere.There are two encodings, called "Latin (Std)" and "Latin Extended (Pro)",but both are encoded in such a non-standard manner as to make use withGaelic text — a purpose which the metal font served very well — prohibitivelyinconvenient.

The glyphs which occupy the default Unicode positions areoften too heavily Latinised to be used for text in Gaelic script, e.g.ampersand, dotted lowercase i and j (there is a dotless i elsewhere),Latin-style lowercase r and s, and many other strongly Latinisedglyphs.

On the other hand, the glyphs which would be used withtext in Gaelic script are mostly relegated (in "Std" encoding) to the "privateuse" area. These glyphs are of two kinds: first, there are essentialcharacters, like dotted consonants; these should be moved to the appropriateUnicode codepoints. Second, there are variants of numerous characters, whichare preferred to the default occupants of their codepoints, either in all IrishGaelic-script text (Gaelic-style lowercase d,g,t; dotless lowercase i,j), oronly in certain styles of font (long r, long s, Tironian-et). While credit isdue for not making the common mistake of assigning separate Unicode codepointsto glyphs like these, the proper solution is to connect all these variant glyphsto the relevant codepoints through selectable OpenType features. If thiscannot be done, separate fonts for Gaelic use are needed.

The "Pro" encoding is no better; it almost empties the"private use" area, but only ċ and ġ are moved to their Unicode code-points;the other required characters and glyphs are dropped.

Glyphs for Gaelic-style lowercase short r (ie. a reduction of the uppercaseGaelic R) and for dotless j appear to be absent from both encodings.

Non-free pseudo-Gaelic fonts

The following Gaelic-style fonts lack dotted consonants, but supportaccented vowels. Such fonts can be used for Gaelic text under the digraphicrepresentation of lenition, though the combination of Gaelic style anddigraphic representation is generally deprecated.

• Linotype sells Eirinn Gaelic, a Petrie-style font, in PostScript Type 1 format, designed by Norbert Reiners in 1994. The lowercase i is dotless, the ampersand is a Tironian-et, and lowercase r and s are the long forms. The off-centre acutes and graves on some uppercase vowels look a little odd. Unlike Eirinn ASCII, Eirinn Gaelic contains some dotted consonants, but not the complete set. The encoding is a proprietary one. Further information from here or here.
• Elsner & Flake sells Ossian, an uncial-style font by Norbert Reiners (1995), in TrueType and PostScript formats. There are two glyph sets, main and alternate, but there is no difference of character repertoire between them; both contain accented vowels but no dotted consonants, and follow Latin-1 encoding. The alternate shapes have a more minuscule flavour, and include long r and s. Both sets have (different) et-ligatures in the ampersand position, and both have dotted lowercase i. Both sets come in regular and bold weights, and the main set also comes in regular and bold small caps. For more information, see here.
• Monotype sells Connach, a rather weighty uncial font with serifs, more suggestive of an Anglo-Saxon or medieval setting than of Gaelic. There are accented vowels, but I have not seen any dotted consonants. I have no information on the encoding, but it may be Latin-1. Lowercase i is dotless, lowercase r and s are Latinised, and ampersand is an et-ligature. The format is PostScript Type 1. For more information, see here.
• Kells, available for purchase here or here, in TrueType or PostScript format, supports accented vowels, but not dotted consonants. It has a generally uncial appearance, and uses short r and s, and et-ligature. It is credited to Anthony Nash, with a date of 1997. Kells Round here appears to be a somewhat different font, with Latinized d and dotted lowercase i, and it may be monocase; it is unclear whether there are accented vowels in Kells Round.
  

The above fonts are mentioned because of their Gaelic or pseudo-Gaelic styleof lettering. But their capacity to represent text in Gaelic is no better thanthat of the innumerable Latin-style fonts covering ISO Latin-1.

Some other Gaelic-style fonts do not support even acute or grave accents,and are unusable for text in Gaelic. Like the previous group, their main useis for decorative representation of English text, e.g. on shop signboards or onweb pages, to give the appearance of being Irish. In this category,free digital fonts in TrueType format include many versions of AmericanUncial (e.g. Gael Normal), and many of the Kelt/Meath style, while asrepresentative of the innumerable commercial fonts in thiscategory we could mention Durrow by David Nalle(see here). orOireachtas by Con Kennedy.

NON-WINDOWS FONTS

This section is restricted to brief comments and links.

Macintosh fonts

The commercial suppliers of Windows fonts listed above generally have thesame fonts for sale for Macintosh. Information can be obtained through thesame links as for the Windows fonts.

An early shareware Newman-style font for Macintosh, in PostScript Type 1format, is Chris Young's Gaeilge (1991), still tobe found hereor here.A low-quality TrueType conversion can be found here.

Metafont fonts

Free Newman-style fonts called eiad and eiad bold created by Ivan Derzhanski around 1993,modelled on Irish Texts Society "An Irish Corpus Astronomiae", see here for the source(revised 1998). Parametrized (Sauter) source and 300dpi TeX bitmap fonts here(1994). HP LaserJet .SFP conversions here(1993). Perhaps someone would like to convert these fonts, which are ofexcellent design, to TrueType or PostScript format?

A free uncial-style font called uncial created by Jo Jaquinta (1991) can be found here in sourceform, or hereincluding TeX bitmap fonts. The font is monocase, there are no dottedconsonants and no punctuation. The encoding is inconvenient.

MS-DOS fonts

Although some work has been done on EGA/VGA fonts in a Gaelic style or withdotted consonants, nothing satisfactory has emerged and further development onthis platform is not expected.

Ogham fonts

For Ogham fonts, see this Evertype pagefor a comprehensive account. In addition, there is BallymoteLS, in theLaserGaelic package from Linguist's Software, see here.

CHOOSING YOUR FONT

How to make sense of this variety of fonts? Well, if your purpose is purelydecorative and if the text is short, you can use any font that you like thelook of — especially if the text is in English, though it may be asked why textin English would be presented in a Gaelic font.

If the text is in Gaelic, you need a font with the necessary vowel accents.There is no need to use a Gaelic-style font for text in Gaelic; a Latin-stylefont will be fine, provided it has the vowel accents, and most do. ALatin-style font may not offer the option of using dot-above accents forlenition; if it does offer, feel free to use it or not.

If you want to use a Gaelic-style font, choose one that has undottedlowercase i, and above all choose one that has dot-above accents forlenited consonants, and use them! If you don't know howto key the dotted consonants, you can find out here.

To make things easier for yourself, choose a font with standardencoding, which means Unicode in double-byte Windows and Latin-8 insingle-byte Windows. Avoid using glyphs of ampersand, r, s ands-with-dot-above which some fonts may offer from positions which are not thestandard positions for those characters. If the glyphs you want for thesecharacters are not at the standard positions in your font, ask your fontsupplier to modify the font, or if that fails it can easily be done by anyoneas described here.

Special importance attaches to digital fonts closely resembling the metalfonts historically used for running text in Gaelic. In my view, the basic setof Gaelic font types required for text work is:

• a Gaelic modern minuscule face (i.e. Newman–Figgins with short r and s)
• a Gaelic traditional minuscule face (i.e. Newman–Figgins with long r and s)
• a Gaelic monospaced face
• a Gaelic uncial face (without undue minuscule or Latin influence)
• Latin faces (serif, sans, monospaced) with dotted consonants

To say that these are basic is not to deny a place to many other faces, whetherhistorical (e.g. Watts, Petrie or Colmcille); or innovative (e.g. Watts withshort r and s; uncial faces with Tironian-et; completely new faces). Let ushowever examine what is available in the basic categories.

Gaelic modern minuscule

The Newman–Figgins style with short r and s has been the most-used style inGaelic publishing in Ireland for much of the twentieth century, and would beexpected to be the workhorse of Gaelic body text fonts. Fonts in this categoryare led by Duibhlinn and Bunchló. Rudhraigheacht isa recent arrival in the field. Tuamach alsodeserves mention, though its letter-spacing needs improvement (it lackskerning) and there is not enough difference in size between upper and lowercase. GaillimhLS may also be considered. Thesefonts use widely differing amounts of leading (interline spacing) — from leastto greatest, they are Tuamach, Bunchló, GaillimhLS, Duibhlinn andRudhraigheacht.

Duibhlinn and Bunchló lead the way in terms of quality, use standardencoding (apart from their failure to display the ampersand character as aTironian-et), and are the most versatile: Duibhlinn has bold, oblique and boldoblique variants, while Bunchló has italic, bold and extra bold. Of the two,Duibhlinn makes the greater effort at faithfulness to the letter-shape of metalfonts.

Metal fonts of this type displayed some variability of letter-shape, and Ipersonally prefer some aspects of the letter-shape of both Rudhraigheacht andTuamach (for example, lowercase f, regarding the height of the crossbar, andthe distance between it and the top of the letter). For me, the perfect digitalfont of this type has still to be created.

Gaelic traditional minuscule

There is also a need for minuscule fonts which display lowercase r and s asthe long forms by default.

There are a number of fonts of this type in the Newman–Figgins style, buteach has some drawback for the present purpose. BunchlóÁrsa, at least in its Unicode version, does not display the ampersandcharacter as a Tironian-et. Gaelach is deficientin its character repertoire. EIAD is a qualityfont, but cannot be used where TrueType or PostScript font technology isexpected. Gaeilge (Chris Young) exists only as aPostScript font for Macintosh.

There are some issues of letter-shape here too, particularlyregarding the rightmost curve of long r. In a Newman–Figgins font, I personallyprefer the near-verticality and concavity of EIAD and Gaelach/Tuamach, asopposed to the slant of Bunchló and Gael AX, and the convexity of Duibhlinn andGaillimhLS.

If you do not insist on a Newman–Figgins style, some othertraditional minuscule fonts enter the picture. Possibly the most interestingof these is Gadelica. There is also Gael AX, which is in an original style; and Eirinn Gaelic, which is in the Petrie style and notreally minuscule at all.

Gaelic minuscule (monospaced)

Monospaced Gaelic fonts — the counterpart of Courier — haveexisted in both the metal and digital eras. Evertype has made a speciality ofdigitised monospaced fonts, with three historically-based varieties: Doire, Teamhair and Darmhagh, the first two in rectified form, and all threein rough form. There is also Aonchló, a rectifiednew design from Gaelchló, with regular and bold weights. All give priority toshort r and s, as did the historical typewriter fonts. Doire is more thanadequate for reproducing my memories of this genre (school examinationpapers).

Gaelic uncial

I find it useful to classify uncial fonts on a three-pointscale of ornateness. The fonts at each point may then be compared on theextent to which their unciality is affected by minuscule or by Latininfluences.

The most ornate ("Hammer") style is best represented by Loch Garman and by MórchlóGC, either of which is infinitely preferable to American Uncial. TheGaeilge 1/Gaeilge2/Gaeilge 2 familyare also of this type, but have come under some minuscule influence.

At the intermediate degree of ornateness, the purest is Ceanannas, while Léarchlóand Órchló show minuscule tendencies in uppercase,Fíorchló shows Latinising tendencies in uppercase,and the Petrie metal types are digitally represented by Eirinn Gaelic showing minuscule influence in long r ands, and by GaelicLS showing Latin influence inletters like d and g.

The least ornate or most "modern" uncials are Úrchló (pure) and Glanchlóand Lánchló (both with minuscule-influenceduppercase), and Colmcille (with both minuscule andLatin influence in uppercase, and minuscule influence in long r ands).

A preference for uncial purity would select Loch Garman,Mórchló GC, Ceanannas and Úrchló. The suitability of any one of these dependson the purpose, but plainness is a virtue for body text, and Úrchló is theuncial font with the most realistic prospects for body text use. It may benoted that Loch Garman and Ceanannas both have bold, oblique and bold obliquevariants, and Úrchló has a bold variant.

Latin styles

We would wish to see the full character-set required forGaelic, including dotted consonants, in the three major Latin styles of serif(Times), sans (Helvetica) and monospaced (Courier), in regular, bold, italicand bold italic variants. Developers have not been sufficiently adventurous orradical in attacking the problem of the dot-above accent in Latin fonts,particularly on lowercase letters with ascenders, but also in general — theonly natively-produced fonts of this type currently available are the serifNuachló Rómhánach (now withdrawn) and the sansÚrchló Rómhánach. Some thoughts can be found here. The matter is likely to be taken out of ourhands as fonts in Unicode encoding are developed by designers not conversantwith Gaelic typography.