Meeting of Frontiers: Displaying Russian (Cyrillic) Text

Displaying Russian (Cyrillic) Text

This site is presented in both English and Russian. If you have a recent Web browser version (3.0 or above), the Cyrillic (Russian) text should automatically display correctly with no adjustment to your browser settings. You can check whether the Cyrillic is displaying correctly or not by comparing the texts below:

Graphic Version of Cyrillic Alphabet

Cyrillic Alphabet

Text Version of Cyrillic Alphabet

Above, at left, is a graphic image of the Cyrillic alphabet. It shows how Cyrillic writing should look. If your browser is displaying Cyrillic correctly, the text at right should display the same letters as the graphic image.

If the letters are not the same, then it will take some adjustment of your browser settings and possibly some additional software (fonts) for you to view correctly the Cyrillic text that is present throughout this site (see below).

If you do not want to adjust your browser, you can continue using the site by reading the English text and bypassing the Russian.

To view the Cyrillic in this site, your computer needs the following:

platform-specific Cyrillic fonts (Mac, Windows, or UNIX, depending on your machine);
a Web browser capable of supporting Cyrillic fonts (most 3.0 and above browsers); and
adjustment of Web browser preferences to find and use the Cyrillic fonts.

It may be helpful to understand that, at this time, Cyrillic characters are encoded according to a variety of standards around the world. Software support for each standard varies by platform and by version of each software product. Leading standards for encoding Cyrillic characters include: KOI8-R, Apple Standard Cyrillic, Windows-1251, CP866, and ISO-8859-5, and Unicode (see also: name alternatives).

This site uses the Windows-1251 standard because of its software support by Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browser software for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Note on PRINTING In order to print these bilingual Web pages correctly, you may need to alter your print settings. Most laser printers include several printer profiles for different printing environments. If your default setting does not print Cyrillic text properly, try using an "enhanced" setting.

12/15/99

The following list of sites is included in the hopes that they may have the fonts and guidance you need for your combination of hardware and software. The Library of Congress neither endorses nor maintains these Internet sites. Users should direct any problems with these sites to the particular administrator or Webmaster responsible. We encourage you to look for and follow any copyright and use instructions found.

Finding Fonts and Adjusting a WWW Browser

WWW browsers under Windows and Cyrillic (WIN)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/

Russification of Macintosh (MAC)
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/rusmac/

Russify Everything (Various Platforms)
http://www.siber.com/sib/russify/

Russian Fonts (MAC, WIN)
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/russian.html

Further Reference

Non-western Character sets, Languages, and Writing Systems (W3C Internationalization / Localization)
http://www.w3.org/International/

Commonly Used Name Alternatives for Leading Cyrillic Encoding Standards

ISO 8859-5
iso-ir-144

CP866
Microsoft codepage 866
866
DOS Cyrillic

Windows-1251
Microsoft codepage 1251
CP1251
1251
Windows Cyrillic

KOI8-R
KOI8-r
koi8-r
RFC 1489
CP878

Apple Standard Cyrillic
Macintosh Cyrillic
MacCyrillic

Unicode
ISO-10646
UTF-8