Typing Ancient Greek

Greek Learning Greek
1

I am making this topic a sticky because the topic is important, not because this initial post is so important, and I hope that others chime in with their strategies.

Windows
Built-in Keyboard

Typing Ancient (Polytonic) Greek in Windows (dramata.com)

Greek Unicode Keyboard Input (Windows 10) Another Windows Keyboard reference with more punctuation.

I don’t think that all key combinations are listed in the above. I’ve mapped them out over the years, and if you can’t find any, ask in this thread.

OS X
Built-in Keyboard

Typing Ancient (Polytonic) Greek on a Mac (dramata.com)

The OS X key combinations can be seen with the visual keyboard.

Linux
Built-in Keyboard

How to type Greek, Greek Polytonic in Linux (blog.simos.info)

IOS
Paid App

Hoplite Greek Keyboard. I heartily recommend this IOS keyboard. I have used several keyboards over the years, and the $4 is well worth the aggravation of not having to use the free ones. The only complaint that I have about it is that lock-shift makes initial capitalization difficult, and can’t be changed in settings.

2

I like to type in Beta Code.

Greek Beta Code Converter
TypeGreek

3

Keyman is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. It allows typing almost any script, from Ancient Greek and Latin to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

4

Try this, which I use all the time.

https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/greek_ancient.htm

5

I haven’t tried Keyman for Greek yet, but have used it for Biblical Hebrew. Works well. Am about to get the classical Syriac keyboard for the app and try it, as have started learning Syriac.

6

I have Hoplite on my Android tablet. Will have to check it out.

7

In Linux Mint Cinnamon it is very easy to get a polytonic Greek keyboard layout.

Go to System Parameters / Keyboard / “Layouts” button.

— At the left side of the bottom of the window, click on the “Plus” button and, in the displayed list, select Greek (polytonic).

You may create a keyboard shortcut to be able to easily change the active layout:

— At the right side of the bottom of the same window, click on the “Options…” button and,

— Click on “Switching to another layout”.

— Choose one of the keys combinations proposed (I, for my part, have chosen “The 2 Ctrl together”).

Close the window.

Now the keyboard widget of the panel will change from one flag to another when you change the active layout:
Greek:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cP5TbrCfK3mmoiFu8
Standard:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/smusXn7kNdAo2ASL7

You get the following layout.
The red letters are those of the standard (French) keyboard when differing from the Greek letter (not provided for example for ε = E, ρ = R, τ = T, etc).
(if someone be interested, I may create a picture with the red letters according to the QWERTY keyboard).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/irh84EAKmA76rhef7

Here are the specifics for the breathings and accents:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/duKzmJGpMeQdgDFX8


The FreeSerif font has very beautiful Greek characters:

Here is the alphabet:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wumnzt6ibxii1aC19

and here a small text sample:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ks3ra8as6ixX7szLA

The FreeSerif font is part of the GNU FreeFont which is an open source and free font:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_FreeFont

You may download it here:

http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/

P.S. I unfortunately couldn’t include the pictures in the post (I suppose that Google Albums links are not recognised).

8

I’m using Keyman Classical Greek for Windows but I’ve found no good way to make a macron with rough breathing mark and/or grave above the macron. At best, they can be made to overlap. Are there alternatives?

9

You could try contacting the author to add combinations with macron:
Manuel A. Lopez, lopez.post@gmail.com

10

Donald Mastronarde’s GreekKeys keyboard layout can do this.

If you’re on a Mac, the dead key combinations to use for macron and rough breathing together are shift+option+=, then option+5, then the vowel. For macron and grave, use shift+option+=, then option+2, then the vowel.

Bear in mind that you’ll need a font that has coverage of vowels with these combined diacritics. At least two of the fonts included with GreekKeys do (New Athena Unicode and BosporosU).

https://classicalstudies.org/publications-and-research/about-greekkeys-2015

11

Simplest way to type Ancient Greek with MacOS 13 and beyond after 4 hours of research:

settings > keyboard > (in input sources) edit > + in lower left corner > type ‘polytonic’, select ‘greek polytonic’ > exit

In ‘show keyboard viewer’ which should be in the top ribbon where it indicates the type of keyboard your using. That will show you were the keys are.