XenoType system

[Erik Pema Kunsang]

received from Rick

For those interested, here is my experience with the XenoType system for setting Tibetan with a Unicode font on a Mac with OSX.

I'm most happy to report that I purchased the XenoType Tibetan language kit for Mac OSX and find it extremely easy to use. For a mere $49.00 I couldn't be happier. It does not use the Wylie or ACIP input method but rather uses a very logical keyboard layout so that typing Tibetan is rather natural and
easy if you're familiar with the standard English layout. Other keyboards can also be used. This kit has been in existence for about a year and a half and over 100 copies sold. They have not had requests for new stacks in some time. It apparently deals with all of the Sanskrit transliteration perfectly. It only has one font at this time, but I find it elegant and very easy to read. The only drawback that I could find is that many Mac OSX
programs don¹t support Unicode and therefore won¹t work. Word and Quark are among them. I¹m told that eventually Unicode will be the standard and it will work for all programs. For now Nisus Express for Panther (Mac OS 10.3) works great as does the simple TextEdit that comes with the Mac operating
system.

If anyone knows how to make this system work with the ACIP method, it might be useful for those with Macs.

Best wishes,

Rick


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[wangdu]

After seeing your post, I e-mailed them. They don't have such a thing. I was wondering if there is a java based converter out there, which should run in OSX. I did some searching around. No luck so far.

[Karma Yonten]

The document processing system Ragtime supports Unicode and works with Mac OSX. The solo version is FREE! There are extensive typesetting & page layout features.

I plan to get the Xenotype Tibetan Font shortly, I will follow up if I locate translators for Wylie to Unicode, ACIP to Unicode or ExtendedWylie to Unicode.

[Erik Pema Kunsang]

more from Rick

I'm forwarding this message to the group for 3 reasons:

1. in case anyone has Xenotype Tibetan for the Mac and missed this.

2. to inform anyone who didn't know, that there is an excellent Tibetan
typesetting program for the Mac running under system OSX

3. because Xenotype is looking for someone with experience reading or
writing the Tibetan typestyle known as sPungsChen (སྤུངས་ཆེན་).

Best wishes,

Rick


> Greetings!
>
> You are receiving this email because you are a registered user of the
> Tibetan Language Kit from XenoType Technologies.
>
> This email is to inform you that the awaited upgrade to version 2.0 is
> now available. We are notifying people in waves so if you know a
> registered user who hasn't received this email, they will be notified
> but they may also email us directly to gain access to the upgrade now.
>
> For detailed information about what's changed and how this version can
> best be utilized, please be sure to read the following link
> <http://www.xenotypetech.com/help/tibetan/whatsnew.html>. This page is
> part of the online version of the TLK Help files and provides a link to
> a PDF version of our Tibetan keyboard implementation.
>
> To download the version 2.0 installer, please login at the following
> link using your email address as the login name and your original order
> number as the password. If you no longer have your order number, you'll
> need to email us to obtain it.
>
> www.xenotypetech.com/ftp/tibetan/TibetanOSXv2.0.dmg
>
> If you need additional information about the installation procedure,
> please visit
> <http://www.xenotypetech.com/help/tibetan/installation.html>.
>
> IMPORTANT NOTE FOR OS X 10.2 USERS
> 10.2 users must be sure to log out and back in in order for the
> keyboard changes to take place properly. 10.3 users will automatically
> be required to log out. Failure to do this after installation can
> create problems, including system crashes.
>
> HELP US!
> We are looking for people who have experience reading or writing the
> Tibetan typestyle known as sPungsChen (སྤུངས་ཆེན་). If you are familiar
> with this typestyle or have access to documents written in it, please
> contact us. For additional information about this and other typefaces
> we're working on, please visit
> <http://www.xenotypetech.com/help/tibetan/tibetanfonts.html>.
>
> As usual, feel free to comment or offer suggestions for improvement.
> Many of the improvements incorporated in this fix are the result of
> user comments.
>
> Thank you for your continued support.
>
> XenoType Technologies
> PO BOX 1255
> Seattle, WA 98111-1255
>
> Web Site: www.xenotypetech.com
> Technical Support: [e-mail]

[wangdu]

the Jskad program can be used if you are running OSX.
iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/tools/jskad.html
It can convert to Unicode (although you can't depend on it for mantras. )
You probably should install the Unicode version of Tibetan Machine font which is also available from them.
There might be a better way, but I have converted in Jskad, then copy and paste to TextEdit, and then changed the font to Xenotype.