Universal Tibetan Font Converter

Universal Tibetan Font Converter

This text was in the zip file:

Universal Tibetan Font Converter

Universal Tibetan Font Converter Version 1.0 May 2004 Programmer: Tashi Tsering Research Assistant: Nyima Droma Copyright (C) 2003-2004 [[Trace Foundation ]]

1. General

Universal Tibetan Font Converter has been developed by Tashi Tsering under the full support by Trace Foundation. The copyright of the converter is belonged to Trace Foundation. The objective of the development is to provide the community a tool for converting files between different encoding schemes with different file formats. The converter is free software. However, before you start to use it, please read the license for the converter that is included in this package within a separate file.

The converter covers 13 encoding schemes, include three Tibetan transliteration schemes, Unicode, and nine legacy Tibetan fonts. The converter also covers four common file formats, include txt, Unicode txt, rich text file format (RTF) and HTML web page. You can convert file between arbitrary two encoding schemes with certain file format. The converter has Windows version and Java version. So you can run it not only on Windows operating system, but also on other operating systems.

2. Installation

1. Download the converter from the following web site: www.trace.org 2. Unzip the downloaded zip file utfc.zip 3. Create a directory C:\UTFC on your hard drive; (This is required.) 4. Put all the files from the zip file into the directory C:\UTFC

3. Run The Converter

For Windows users, simply click on the executable UTFC.exe in the directory C:\UTFC. You may also create a shortcut of the converter on your desktop. For Unix, Linux or Mac users, you can start the converter by active the Java class UTFC.class with command line JAVA UTFC.class

4. Using The Converter

Basically, the interface of the converter is consisting of two areas and one button. One of the areas is for specifying the attributes of source file, and the other one is for target file. These attributes are encoding, file format and file name include the path for the file. And the Convert! button is for to active the conversion operation.

You must select proper encoding and file format for both source file and target file. Source file name and target file name also must be specified. You are encouraged to use the Browse buttons to navigate the location of the files. As long as all encodings, file formats and file names have been set, you can use Convert! button to start the conversion. Usually, most of files will be converted in less than few seconds.

The converter can recognize the file format by itself. But the users are still expected to give the correct file formats for both source file and target files. Users are also responsible to give the correct encodings for both files. To select incorrect encoding for any file, you will not get correct result.

The converter can provide conversion between any two encodings of 13 encodings with certain file format. So there are many options for a certain conversion. For example, you can do the conversion from encoding A to encoding B by doing conversion from encoding A to encoding C, then from encoding C to encoding B. However, we encourage users to do a conversion by one step.

When you convert Microsoft Word Document file, you must save the file in Rich Text Format (RTF) first by MS Word. Then you can convert the RTF file by our converter. When you convert HTML file, the converter can read in external style sheet document. When you convert from files in those three transliteration schemes, the converter will try to separate Tibetan text from English text. English text will be remained, and only convert Tibetan text in transliteration schemes. This will work for most of case, but not for all case. For those incorrect parts, you have to correct them manually.

5. File Encodings and Their File Formats:

• File format for files with Beida Founder and Huaguang encodings can only be TXT file; • Unicode files can have Unicode TXT, RTF and HTML file formats; • Files by three transliteration schemes can have all four file formats; • For the rest of legacy encodings, files can only be RTF and HTML file.

6. Feedback and Contact Information

When you find any bug or if you have any feedback, please send message to the email address at TfcBugs@trace.org. Please include your source file, its encoding, file format and description of the problem when you are doing the conversion. We will fix the problem and get back to you as soon as possible.