Re-encoding Coptic texts with iconv

GNU-libiconv is a library (including the command line iconv) which is distributed among the glibc package. It can convert between a lot of different encodings and UTF formats. The chances that you have the command line iconv on your Linux are almost 100%. Try: iconv -l, to see all encodings that iconv can deal with.

This is actually the perfect tool to use to re-encode your older Coptic texts into Unicode. I have already prepared a patch which extends the encodings of iconv by the Coptic Font Standard (CS Coptic) as established few years ago by CopticChurch.Net. You should apply the patch to libiconv-1.9.2 (you can download it here). After applying the patch, compiling and installing, you should now get the cs_coptic encoding when you type in: iconv -l
The good news are: patching iconv means, that many other applications that rely on it will now be able to understand the cs_coptic encoding. This applies for example to the font creation tool: fontforge.

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last updated: 8.12.2006
Moheb Mekhaiel