# Testing Unicode - can YOU see Hebrew here? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165 "2003-11-25T12:07:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/1 "2003-11-25T12:07:02Z")
Help from people who recognize Hebrew characters but **don’t** have Hebrew fonts/encodings installed would be appreciated: Does the following text look like Hebrew to you? (should be “aleph”, “bet”, “gimmel” running right-to-left) אבג Thanks! Dan Abarbanel ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/2 "2003-11-25T13:39:37Z")
Hmmm. I don’t know Hebrew from well, you know, but I see in order: an upside down “yJK”. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/3 "2003-11-25T13:40:48Z")
Actually, now that I look at it again, that last one is kind of a cross between an upside down K and an upside down X. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/4 "2003-11-25T13:47:07Z")
On my Mac with Safari running OS10.28, sure can! ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/5 "2003-11-25T13:47:22Z")
sig test ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/6 "2003-11-25T13:48:09Z")
On my PC running W2000 and IE6, I can too. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/7 "2003-11-25T13:49:06Z")
Opera 7.22 under Linux here, and I see them. (I only recognize aleph from mathematics, but the other letters look hebrew to me) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/8 "2003-11-25T13:50:35Z")
Mozilla on W2000, yup. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/9 "2003-11-25T13:51:36Z")
Yes, they do appear hebrew. If you choose “font” as “WP Hebrew David” you should be able to type more easily without all the hashes and numbers. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/10 "2003-11-25T13:52:56Z")
Netscape 4.76 on W2000, no - I get “???”. IE5 on Mac OSX, no - I get some weird ASCII that I can’t type in. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/11 "2003-11-25T14:55:12Z")
It works on Firebird in Win 2000… but given that, I still wouldn’t just post this kind of thing in your posts without explaining what it was in words. It’s just not going to work for someone, and they’re going to ask about it, and it’ll hijack your thread. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/12 "2003-11-25T15:59:46Z")
Opera 7.2 Win XP (Japanese) Looks fine, which is surprising because non-standard characters usually get mangled up as Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/13 "2003-11-25T16:37:25Z")
AOL 9.0 on 2K, no problems. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/14 "2003-11-25T16:50:10Z")
Works fine for Mozilla 1.5 and Firebird 0.7 under Linux. Also under Konqueror. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/15 "2003-11-25T18:31:22Z")
I get this: > [@](#): > > ‡·‚ (copied and pasted in BBEdit, then copied and pasted back here). In case that itself looks different to you than it does to me, it’s a double-cross sign (such as used in text after you’ve used up \* and †), a period-like dot floating along at mid-height, and a comma. MacOS X 10.2.8, iCab. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/16 "2003-11-25T18:59:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmackFu \* > \*\*It works on Firebird in Win 2000… but given that, I still wouldn’t just post this kind of thing in your posts without explaining what it was in words. It’s just not going to work for someone, and they’re going to ask about it, and it’ll hijack your thread. \*\* Yes, evidently (as can be seen since it **didn’t** work for some people… I guess it’s people who have “auto-detect encoding” disabled. So - I guess Unicode still can’t really be used universally yet ☹ Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to peek and respond! Dan Abarbanel ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/17 "2003-11-25T19:59:33Z")
Don’t be so quick to give up on unicode. It’s supposed to be the new standard for all future HTML applications. I’m suprised just how many different systems were able to see the Hebrew characters. More than if you used the symbol font. Those who can’t see the Hebrew characters should poke around their system and browser settings to see if they can get a unicode font up and running. The web support sites for their software and systems should (in a moral sense) have the patches needed to make unicode work. Peace. Þæ©ê ❤ ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/18 "2003-11-26T00:07:53Z")
I see it ;j ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/19 "2003-11-26T01:11:58Z")
PC w/ XP, IE6—yes. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165/20 "2003-11-26T08:41:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by moriah \* > \*\*Don’t be so quick to give up on unicode. It’s supposed to be the new standard for all future HTML applications. > > I’m suprised just how many different systems were able to see the Hebrew characters. More than if you used the symbol font. > > Those who can’t see the Hebrew characters should poke around their system and browser settings to see if they can get a unicode font up and running. The web support sites for their software and systems should (in a moral sense) have the patches needed to make unicode work. > > Peace. > > Þæ©ê ❤ \*\* Thanks, **moriah**! The problem, as I see it, is that a significant portion of browsers still **aren’t** configured to display Unicode by default. Sure, they can be tweaked - usually quite easily - but I can’t **count** on everyone seeing what I want them to see (whether it’s a quote from the OT, or maybe something in Arabic, Japanese, you name it…). Since it seems to work for most, I may actually try using Unicode in the future if really warrented, but I’ll always have to include a description and a caveat, instead of relying on everyon’s broweser to show them what I see. We’re getting there… שלום (Shalom) and תודה (_Toda_ = thanks!) again everybody! 🙂 Dan Abarbanel [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-unicode-can-you-see-hebrew-here/215165.md?page=2)