Downloading and using phonetics fonts

Here are a few ways to type IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols on your Windows or Macintosh computer. (Unix users: consider LaTeX?)

Some of the characters in the IPA fonts described here are diacritics, which means that they are superimposed on top of the last character you typed. (Examples of common diacritics are those for dentalization, velarization, nasalization, and syllabic consonants.) First type the basic character, and then type the diacritic you want to put on that character.

I. Unicode fonts with IPA support

If your word-processing program supports Unicode fonts, you may wish to use a Unicode font for phonetic symbols. The advantage to using a Unicode font is that (in theory) it can be used on different computers or in different software applications without messing up the font encoding. The disadvantage is that it may require extra steps to input Unicode characters into your documents -- but see below on some relatively painless ways to do this.

Downloading free Unicode fonts with IPA support

• Your computer may already have Arial Unicode MS or Lucida Sans Unicode installed; these fonts include IPA support. Lucida Sans Unicode can be downloaded here, courtesy of John Wells, University College London.

• Unicode fonts from SIL International, formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics:
  • Doulos SIL
  • Charis SIL
  • Gentium

Typing Unicode IPA characters with your word processor

• One convenient way to use Unicode IPA characters with MS Word is to download and install a utility called Uniqoder. This adds a new pull-down menu in Word that allows you to quickly display all symbols similar to "a," all symbols similar to "b," etc. For information, instructions, and the download, see this web page, by Hans-Jörg Bibiko, Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology.

• Other options for MS Word users
  • Tips by John Wells, University College London
  • Tips by Bruce Hayes, UCLA

• The brute-force method: Set the desired Unicode font as your current font. Open the "Insert Symbol" dialogue box in your word processor. Click on the desired IPA symbols to insert them into your document.

• Unfortunately, WordPerfect does not (yet?) support Unicode fonts.

II. Non-Unicode fonts: the SIL IPA93 font packages

If your word-processing program does not support Unicode -- it may be a few years old, or it may be WordPerfect -- you will need to use non-Unicode fonts to type IPA symbols. Before the spread of Unicode fonts, the SIL IPA(93) IPA fonts were commonly used among linguists.

An advantage to using non-Unicode fonts is that many commonly used characters are easy to remember and type without using special utilities or the "Insert Symbol" box. For example, in the SIL IPA93 fonts described below, typing ? gives you the glottal stop. All the lowercase letters correspond to themselves. The uppercase letters give you what you would expect in most cases: A converts to "script a", D to "eth", E to "epsilon", T to "theta", etc.

A disadvantage to using non-Unicode fonts is that the exact same font must be installed on every computer that you plan to use for typing, displaying, or printing your phonetic symbols. Moreover, the Windows and Macintosh versions of the "same" non-Unicode phonetics font are often not mutually compatible, so documents can't be shared between Windows and Mac computers without retyping the phonetic symbols.

Downloading the SIL IPA93 fonts (from SIL International)

1. Set your Web browser to the SIL IPA fonts page (http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/encore-ipa.html).
2. As the web page explains, there are a number of fonts available to download. There are two "legacy" (=non-Unicode) font sets, called "SIL IPA Fonts 1.2" and "SIL IPA93 Fonts 2.0". You want IPA93, which is a more recent official version of the phonetic alphabet.

   Each font set contains three font "families" (a family includes regular, bold, and italic fonts). The three families are:

   • SIL Doulos (serif, similar to Times, like this)
   • SIL Sophia (sans-serif, similar to Arial/Helvetica, like this)
   • SIL Manuscript (monospace, similar to Courier/Prestige, like this)

3. Click on the link that says "Download the SIL IPA fonts here." This takes you to a text page with instructions about how to install the fonts on a Windows or Macintosh system. From this text page, you can click on links that allow you to download the fonts you want. Make sure to get the "SIL IPA93 Fonts," not the "SIL IPA Fonts."

4. Once you have downloaded the font files, you have to install them. How you do this depends on your operating system. Refer to the SIL font download page you have just been using for basic instructions.

Typing SIL IPA93 fonts with your word processor

• Simple keyboard input: Some characters are typed using uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols. See section I of this IPA93/Windows character conversion chart (PDF). I think section I of this chart also works for Macintosh (although section II does not).

• Additional characters in MS Word: Use the "Insert Symbol" dialogue box to display every character available in the font you have selected. You can also use the "Insert Symbol" box to define keyboard shortcuts for frequently used symbols, as explained on this web page by Bruce Hayes, UCLA.

• Using SIL IPA93 fonts in WordPerfect: Unfortunately, as far as I know, only the IPA symbols that appear on the IPA93/Windows character conversion chart (PDF) can be typed in WordPerfect.
  • Characters in section I of the chart have simple keyboard inputs.
  • Characters in section II can be typed as follows: Highlight your typing area and change the font to one of the IPA93 fonts. Then hold down the ALT key and type the three-digit code on the numeric keypad (the regular number keys at the top of the keyboard won't work).
  For characters not shown on this chart, the only option seems to be to use the WP Phonetic and WP Multinational fonts instead. Access these with the Insert > Character menu commands.

Page last updated: September 2007