Non-European languages present new challenges. In the past, different coding systems (codepages) were employed for different languages. The problem was that a particular text "code point" might represent one glyph in a particular language and a different glyph in another. What is needed is a text encoding scheme that is language-independent, with unique code values for all the glyphs in multiple languages. Unicode text encoding is emerging as the worldwide standard in this endeavor.

To take advantage of this capability, your operating system, browser, and available fonts (typefaces) must be able to correctly render Unicode values. Look at the line below:

ḋ ḥ Ḏ ṭ ṝ

You should see a lowercase d with a dot above, a lowercase h with a dot below, an uppercase D with a macron below, a lowercase t with a dot below, and a lowercase r with a dot below and a macron above. If this is the case, your browser and font choices are working to correctly render some of the extended Latin characters used in the HMML catalog for the transliteration and Romanization of Semitic words and titles. If not, your browser might place question marks in place of the unknown characters, insert blank rectangles where the special characters should be, or not display anything at all. Check out our recommendations for browsers and fonts.