Proto-Hebrew / Aramaic Font

[Danny S. Jones]

I'm looking for a font of Proto-Hebrew / Aramaic that would include variations of the glyphs that are found on ancient Judean coins. I've searched through other posts on this site and found lots of fonts, but none that have what I'm looking for. I got a font editor and made my own typeface that I am using now, but I wondered if anyone else has found a pre-existing font that would cover the various forms of proto-Hebrew and Aramaic characters. The list of characters found on Forvm's smileys is probably the closest thing I've seen to what I'm looking for in a true type font face.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've downloaded several Hebrew fonts over the years, but I've only seen the usual square characters, never palaeohebrew. For that matter I've never seen it used in a printed book either, just illustrated on a page showing the fonts.

[Brian L]

I went threw this when I started Judeans also.
May be this will help?



http://www.bibleplaces.com/paleohebrewfonts.htm

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Hebrew%20Alphabet

http://www.alphabetandletter.com/hebrew.html

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aramaic.htm

[Robert_Brenchley]

That first one looks useful, thanks.

[Danny S. Jones]

Looking at all those fonts (thanks for the links, BTW), the one thing that they're all missing is all the variant styles mainly found on Judean coinage.

For instance, the Hebrew letter He is usually found written as  on prutot, but found as  in most font faces.  Or the Kaf found as  or  , but with an extra leg jutting from the left side. In most fonts, it's found as a  :Aramaic_kaf:.

Others aren't so bad, such as the Yod. Here's some variants listed by Forvm:  .

I know a lot of people convert the letters to modern Hebrew, but it would be nice to record the actual characters as they appear on the coins.

Here's a thought... maybe if Joe doesn't mind, I could take the characters listed in the smiley list and convert them into true type fonts. Then have them available here on Forvm. Whatcha say, Joe?

[Brian L]

I wanted to do the same thing,keep my records with the original style letters.
I searched long and hard and never found a proper  aside from this Forvm.
I eventually gave up and used English letters and lined them up as on the coin.
I still don't really like it but its the best I can do.
 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Those fonts are all based on longer, more carefully executed, inscriptions and documents which probably contain every letter of the alphabet. There are letters not present in coin inscriptions, and the letters are carelessly executed, with wide variations in the style. I can see the problems in compiling a font!

[Danny S. Jones]

Well I've got a basic font that I've compiled with some variations of the commonly seen letters on Judean coins. With a little tweaking, I should have it ready to use soon. I just want to do a little more research and include as many of the variant glyphs as would be found on most Judean coinage. If you have any suggestions for additions to the font face characters, let me know.