Problems with Displaying Greek Text in Browsers

This exhibit includes a significant amount of Greek text, and this will inevitably cause problems with certain web browsers. For many years, classicists have struggled with the limitations of various methods for displaying Greek, especially the polytonic representation of ancient Greek, online. These web pages use the Unicode standard for encoding Greek, because this promises to be the long-term solution to the many problems that have existed in the past.

Unfortunately, at the time of creation of these web pages, not all browsers fully support Unicode. For Mac users, the Safari web browser works very well, Firefox works okay, and Internet Explorer cannot display the polytonic characters at all. For PC users, either Firefox or Internet Explorer should do the job. If you experience difficulty viewing the Greek text on this website, we apologize. The best solution is probably to make sure you are using a current version of one of the browsers mentioned above that supports unicode.

In addition to having a unicode-capable browser, you must also have a unicode font installed that supports polytonic Greek. More than likely, your computer already has one installed, such as New Athena Unicode, Arial Unicode MS, or Palatino Linotype.

If you can read the line of Greek below (and there are no funny-looking squares or question marks), then your browser supports unicode and you should have no problems:

Παῦλος ἀπόστολος οὐκ ἀπ’ ἀνθρώπων οὐδὲ δι’ ἀνθρώπου ἀλλὰ διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ πατρὸς

If the Greek above does not display properly, you may need to use another browser. You can download Firefox for free using the link below.

If you are interested in learning more about Unicode, check out the articles below:

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