by Glenn Wooden

The placement of the characters in Silver Fonts closely adheres to the TLG-CCAT keyboard layout.

The typographic quality of the fonts varies. For example, the Hebrew font contains a single set of vowels for both wide and narrow letters. This places some of the vowels off to the left side of the wide letters. The vowels can also touch the tops of tall letters on the next line, and they can become crowded when a sequence of narrow letters is entered. Finally, there is uneven spacing when the vowels are used. Moreover, if there are vowels in the text, the cursor appears several characters before the end of the line, the alignment of right justified Hebrew text is compromised, and in the input box the right side of a line can disappear. This can be mitigated by using a non-breaking space (Ctrl-Shift-Space in Word for Windows) between words, which also eliminates incorrect word-wrap of the Hebrew. The Hebrew font has neither accents nor cantillations.

The Greek font is attractive. Diacritics are entered after a character has been typed by hitting the relevant accent key (e.g., the right parenthesis is the smooth breathing mark). Unfortunately, accents and breathings tend to sit too close to the tops of letters (except the circumflex, which sits high even without a breathing mark) and slightly off-center. Included in the Greek font are some older Greek characters (e.g., sampi and koppa, but the digamma is conspicuously absent!). These letters are not as bold as the others and therefore look out of place beside them. Many text-critical siglia are included.

One feature of this package that can be annoying is the Hebrew right-to-left utility. Ctrl-Shift-H invokes an input box in which the Hebrew is typed and from which one must "send" the Hebrew to the document. The Hebrew font is automatically selected within the box, but what is typed appears in the open document in the active font! This problem can be overcome by making a macro, but this should not be necessary.

The documentation is well organized, providing all one needs for installation and use.

System Requirements:
Windows 3.1, 95 or NT, hard disk. Distributed on floppy disks or CD-ROM.

Version:
Reviewed: 1.0

Availability:
Commercial software available from publisher.

Quick Summary:
The Silver Fonts package is available as shareware from most major FTP sites, from the developer, or as part of other Silver Mountain packages, such as Bible Windows. It includes three fonts (Hebrew, Greek and Coptic), a right-to-left utility and electronic documentation. Additional typeface packages are available for a nominal cost.