HOW-TO: SETTING UP AND TESTING YOUR BROWSER WITH CYRILLIC CHARACTERS ON THE ETC PAGES

The following table shows two rows of characters. On the top line are images of several Cyrillic characters; underneath each image is the character itself. While there may be minor differences, the characters should look recognizably the same.

Ё

Ќ

Ц

ђ

љ

с

џ

ш

Я

И

Ж

Л

Ђ

Б

If the two lines do not match: First, set up and choose Cyrillic encoding (Netscape instructions)

• Setting up fonts in Netscape
• Open "Edit->Preferences"
• From the list on the left, choose "Fonts" (under "Appearances")
• From "For the Encoding", choose "Cyrillic"
• Choose Cyrillic fonts for variable and fixed width fonts
• Close Preferences
• Choosing the encoding in Netscape (once you have reached a page with Cyrillic characters)
• In Netscape 4.5+, from the "View->Character Set" list, choose the appropriate encoding. "Unicode(UTF-8)" should work for the ETC pages. For other Russian sites, the encoding will likely be indicated on the page and you may choose one of the other Cyrillic encodings as required.
• In Netscape 4.0+, from the "View->Encoding" list, choose an encoding as desribed above.

If the two lines still do not match: Make sure that you have Cyrillic fonts installed.

• Macintosh System 8.5 or higher
• Install Cyrillic Language Kit for Mac OS
• Insert your purchased copy of the Macintosh OS CD, or the MacOS software installer disk that came with your system.
• On the MacOS CD, open the folder "Software Installers" (you may have to scroll down in the window to see this)
• Open the folder "Language Kits"
• Double-click "Install Language Kits"
• Make sure that "Custom Install" is chosen, and check the box next to "Software for Cyrillic Languages"
• Click "Install"
• Restart your system when asked to do so
• Older Macintosh Systems
• Download Apple Standard Cyrillic Fonts:
• If you are connected to the Dalhousie network:
• Open the Chooser and connect to the "ACS Web Server" on the "KILLAM-ET" Appletalk zone as Guest; choose the Public area
• Look in Public/MacOS/Apple Software/Apple Standard Cyrillic Fonts
• Copy the font folders to your own closed System Folder. You will need to restart your browser before the new fonts can be used
• Otherwise, you may obtain a disk image containing the fonts from the Apple site; download from that site the file called "RS-System_7.0.1-3of7.sea.bin".
• Windows 95/98/NT
• From the Start menu, choose "Settings", then "Control Panel"
• From the Control Panel window, choose "Add/Remove Programs"
• Select the "Windows Setup" tab, and make sure that "Multilanguage Support" is checked and highlighted (selected). Then click on "Details..."
• Make sure that "Cyrillic Language Support" is checked. Leave the other items checked or not , as you wish
• Click OK, then click OK again
• You may be asked to insert your Windows CD to load the appropriate language files; follow the instructions given
• And finally, as before, set up and choose Cyrillic encoding (Netscape instructions)
• Setting up fonts in Netscape
• Open "Edit->Preferences"
• From the list on the left, choose "Fonts" (under "Appearances")
• From "For the Encoding", choose "Cyrillic"
• Choose Cyrillic fonts for variable and fixed width fonts
• Close Preferences
• Choosing the encoding in Netscape (once you have reached a page with Cyrillic characters)
• In Netscape 4.5+, from the "View->Character Set" list, choose the appropriate encoding. "MacCyrillic" or "Unicode(UTF-8)" should work for the ETC pages. For other Russian sites, the encoding will likely be indicated on the page and you may choose one of the other Cyrillic encodings as required.
• In Netscape 4.0+, from the "View->Encoding" list, choose an encoding as desribed above.

If the two lines match

• You may visit the Kuzmin Collection pages and view materials in Cyrillic.

BACKGROUND: VIEWING INTERNATIONAL CHARACTERS ON THE ETC PAGES

On these ETC pages, all international (non-Roman) characters, such as Cyrillic characters, are stored as Unicode numbers in decimal HTML encoding.

The international standard ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993 Universal Character Set (Unicode) is an ongoing project under the auspices of the Unicode Consortium to assign a unique identifying hexadecimal integer number and a description for every character that is in use in any human language. While work is as yet incomplete on this project, many languages' character sets, including Cyrillic, have been assigned.

For inclusion in HTML or XML files, these Unicode numbers can be encoded in the form

&#dddd; where dddd is the decimal equivalent of the character's hexadecimal Unicode number. This type of encoded text is called "decimal HTML-encoded Unicode". When these codes are received in your browser, they will be shown correctly if you have the proper font installed and if the proper encoding is chosen in your web browser.

For example, the Cyrillic character which resembles the letter "H" in the Roman alphabet is described in the Unicode standard with its Unicode number and a description:

U+041D    CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EN and its hexadecimal integer code is 41D. The decimal equivalent of this hexadecimal number is 1053. When this character is included in an HTML document, it may be encoded in the source code in this way:
Н

Some other references on the Web with information about Unicode and Cyrillic:

• The Unicode Consortium
• Cyrillic Charset Soup gives an idea of the confusion out there for users of international character sets on the Web
• Russian America gives more instructions, and features pages in several different Cyrillic encodings
• Cyrillic Web Express explains how to obtain fonts and set up Netscape to display Cyrillic on your Macintosh
• Other free TrueType Cyrillic fonts

The Electronic Text Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4H8
etc@dal.ca - http://etc.dal.ca/ - 902-494-2319 (fax)

Last updated 1 November 2000