Communities developing resources and competencies for using their languages
Foundational understanding for language development work of all kinds
Publications, fonts and computer tools for language development, translation and research
SIL offers training in disciplines relevant to sustainable language development.
7,105 languages are spoken or signed. CLICK for map of world languages & regional websites.
SIL's dedication to language development past and present
Graphite is a package that can be used to create "smart fonts" capable of displaying writing systems with most complex behaviors. Minority languages are often written with slightly different shaping, ligating, positioning, or ordering rules than well-known languages that use the same script, and Graphite was developed to provide the flexibility needed to support these lesser-known languages.
Graphite is open-source software and has been integrated into the Firefox web browser, the LibreOffice software suite, and the XeTeX typesetting package, as well as SIL's FieldWorks linguistic software, FLEx. A basic editor called WorldPad is available for testing and experimenting with Graphite fonts.
The Graphite system comprises a rule-based programming language that can be used to describe the behaviour of a writing system, a compiler for that language, and a rendering engine that can serve as the layout component of a text-processing application. It renders TrueType fonts.
Please consider supporting the development of this software: