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This document points to resources for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Ethiopic script. The target audience includes developers of Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode, as well as implementers of web browsers, ebook readers, and other applications that need to render Ethiopic text.
This document points to resources for Ethiopic script layout and text support on the Web and in eBooks. These requirements provide information for Web technologies such as CSS, HTML and digital publications about how to support languages written using the Ethiopic script. The information here is developed in conjunction with a document that summarises gaps where the Web fails to adequately support the Ethiopic script.
The editor's draft of this document is being developed in the GitHub repository Ethiopic Language Enablement (elreq), with contributors from the W3C Internationalization Interest Group. It is published by the Internationalization Working Group. The end target for this document is a Working Group Note.
To make it easier to track comments, please raise separate issues or emails for each comment, and point to the section you are commenting on using a URL.
Some links on this page point to repositories or pages to which information will be added over time. Initially, the link may produce no results, but as issues, tests, etc. are created they will show up.
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Introduction
Contributors
This document was created by Richard Ishida.
See also the GitHub contributors list for the Ethiopic Language Enablement project, and the discussions related to the Ethiopic script.
About this document
This document points to resources for Ethiopic script layout and text support on the Web and in eBooks. These resources provide information for developers of Web technologies such as CSS, HTML and digital publications, and for application developers, about how to support languages written using the Ethiopic script. They include requirements, tests, GitHub discussions, type samples, and more,
The document focuses on typographic layout issues. For a deeper understanding of the Ethiopic script and how it works see Amharic (Ethiopic) Orthography Notes, which includes topics such as: Phonology, Syllables, and Numbers.
Gap analysis
This document should be used alongside a separate document, Ethiopic Gap Analysis, which describes gaps in language support for users of the Ethiopic script, and prioritises and describes the impact of those gaps on the user.
Gap reports are brought to the attention of spec and browser implementers, and are tracked via the Gap Analysis Pipeline. (Filter for Ethiopic script items)
Related resources
The document Language enablement index points to this document and others, and provides a central location for developers and implementers to find information related to various scripts.
The W3C also has a repository with discussion threads related to the Ethiopic script, including requests from developers to the user community for information about how scripts/languages work, and a notification system that tracks issues in W3C working groups related to the Ethiopic script. See a list of unresolved questions for Ethiopic experts. Each section below points to related discussions. See also the repository home page.
Ethiopic Script Overview
The Ethiopic script is a featural syllabary, ie. each symbol typically represents both a consonant and a vowel, but vowel components are indicated by largely standardised adaptations to the base consonant shape.
The Ethiopic script runs left to right in horizontal lines. There is no case distinction.
Modern Amharic generally uses spaces to separate words, but sometimes still uses the Ethiopic wordspace character, instead.
The Ethiopic script blocks in Unicode list over 453 characters. Amharic uses 282 syllable characters: comprising 15 standalone vowel syllables, and the remainder for CV syllables.
Gemination and consonant clusters are not indicated by the script (although some diacritics have been proposed for that, which are encoded in Unicode). Silent vowels are typically indicated using the 6th order -ə syllable, which creates some ambiguity.
The script has only the three just mentioned combining characters, which are rarely used. Characters don't interact, and the baseline is standard.
Ethiopic does have a range of native punctuation. In particular, although words in modern text are increasingly separated by spaces they may be separated by a wordspace character instead.Ethiopic also has its own numeric digits, which are used in an additive way, rather than in the way numbers are formed in Western text.
All topics
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
Text direction
Writing mode
Ethiopic is written in horizontal lines, progressing from top to bottom.
Bidirectional text
Not applicable.
Glyph shaping & positioning
Fonts & font styles
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Sebatbeit Glyph Preferences • Interlingual Documents with Ethiopic
- List of system fonts
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Context-based shaping & positioning
- Requirements
-
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Cursive text
Not applicable.
Letterform slopes, weights, & italics
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Case & other character transforms
Not applicable.
Typographic units
Characters & encoding
- Requirements
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
-
- W3C type samples
- r12a type samples: consonants • vowels
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Grapheme/word segmentation & selection
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Formatting of Ethiopic Wordspace
- Orthography Notes, Word boundaries: Ethiopic
- Orthography Notes, Graphemes: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tools
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Punctuation & inline features
Phrase & section boundaries
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Punctuation
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
-
- W3C type samples
- r12a type samples: phrases • bracketing
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Quotations & citations
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Quotation
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- Wikipedia: Quotation mark
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Emphasis & highlighting
- Requirements
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Abbreviation Formation
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Ellipsis
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Inline notes & annotations
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Other text decoration & inline features
- Requirements
-
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Data formats & numbers
- Requirements
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Line & paragraph layout
Line breaking & hyphenation
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Line Breaking • Hyphenation
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- Approaches to line-breaking
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Text alignment & justification
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Justification • First Paragraph Rule
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- Proposal to Reclassify Ethiopic Wordspace as a Space Separator (Zs) Symbol
- Approaches to full justification
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Text spacing
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Letter Spacing
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Baselines, line height, etc.
- Requirements
-
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Lists, counters, etc.
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Lists and Counters
- Orthography Notes: Ethiopic
- Ready-made Counter Styles: Ethiopic
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Styling initials
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Styling initials
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Page & book layout
General page layout & progression
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Page Margins • Document Structure • Section Headings
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Grids & tables
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Footnotes, endnotes, etc
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Footnotes & Superscript • Bibliographic Citation
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Page headers, footers, etc
- Requirements
-
- Ethiopic Layout Requirements: Page Numbering
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Forms & user interaction
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-