This TrueType font was created at the University of St Andrews using FontForge. It is released under the SIL OFL 1.1 license.
It includes:
- All 1071 hieroglyphic signs introduced in Unicode 5.2 (2009). This is also referred to as the basic list.
- One additional sign introduced in Unicode 12 (2019).
- Most of the 3995 signs introduced in Unicode 16 (2024). This is also referred to as the extended list.
- Default glyphs for the 38 control characters introduced in Unicode 12 (2019) and Unicode 15 (2022).
- Various ligatures and auxiliary signs for the implementation of HieroJax and hieropy.
From the extended list only the core signs are included in the font. The 568 non-core signs are unverified and undocumented, and were introduced in Unicode for all the wrong reasons (don't ask). It has also been confirmed recently that attempts to build OpenType fonts that can dynamically interpret control characters are severely hampered by having too many (useless) signs. See my comments on the NewGardinerOmni font as built with hieropy.
A handful of non-core signs that were drawn by mistake are kept in a separate font.
Do not ask me to add non-core signs. I cannot draw something if I don't know what that something is.
View the font in GitHub Pages.
- NewGardiner font as TTF (quadratic Bézier curves)
- NewGardiner font as OTF (cubic Bézier curves)
- Font with a handful of non-core signs as TTF
- Font with a handful of non-core signs as OTF
There are countless unresolved issues in the extended list, such as inconsistencies between code charts and descriptions, and inconsistencies between the new signs and the published encoding principles. This font inevitably suffers from these issues as well and should therefore be considered as no more than a preliminary attempt to create a font covering the core signs. Some of these issues may be corrected in Unicode 18, but many will probably not be.
There is now also an extension of NewGardiner that can dynamically interpret control characters as demonstrated here. A number of different versions can be downloaded.
- NewGardinerOmni2d4 font A simple stand-alone font that can handle groups up to depth 4, with 4 scaled copies per sign, and with a simplified representation of dimensions.
- NewGardinerOmni2d3 font The simplest stand-alone font, which can handle groups up to depth 3, with 4 scaled copies per sign, and with a simplified representation of dimensions.
- NewGardinerOmni4 font A powerful stand-alone font that can handle groups up to depth 4, with 5 scaled copies per sign.
- NewGardinerOmni3 font A powerful but more restricted stand-alone font that can handle groups up to depth 3, with 4 scaled copies per sign.
The first two of these seem to be handled well by the very latest versions of browsers and Word processors, but positioning can be coarse, and some complicated groups, such as nested enclosures, cannot be handled, due to the simplified representation of dimensions. The last two of the above fonts are more powerful, and give a more refined appearance, but many browsers and Word processors may struggle to apply them correctly.
A restriction to depth 3 (the second and fourth fonts above) means that many texts cannot be rendered.
For use in web pages, HieroJax may remain the better option for some time to come, as it offers more precise positioning of signs and has no restriction on the depth of groups.
Latest Unicode code charts:
Ancillary Unicode documentation:
Unicode 5.2 (2009):
- Basic list
- Document containing original Unikemet
- Sources (Gardiner's lists)
- Sources (Gardiner's lists plus additional material)
Critiques of Unicode 16:
- Side by side comparison Unicode 5.2 and Unicode 16
- Corruption of the basic list in Unicode 16
- Reply L2/26-060 regarding corruption of the basic list
- Issues with the extended list in Unicode 16
- Legacy characters
Drafts of Unicode 18:
- 3.09 (2026-08-28)
- Added provision to make modifiers visible.
- Distributed as OTF as well.
- First release of NewGardinerOmni.
- 3.08 (2026-03-31)
- Simplified several glyphs in basic list.
- 3.07 (2026-02-14)
- Several corrections.
- 3.06 (2025-12-21)
- Placeholder glyphs for non-core signs removed.
- 3.05 (2025-12-13)
- Added one ligature.
- A few minor revisions.
- 3.04 (2025-10-25)
- Checked basic list against Unicode 5.2.
- Some revisions of extended list.
- 3.03 (2025-06-17)
- Global overhaul of extended list.
- 3.02 (2025-06-01)
- Revised basic list to make all glyphs no wider or taller than 1 EM.
- Minor revisions to extended list.
- 3.01 (2025-05-19)
- Added the 3995 glyphs in the extended list (but with placeholders for non-core signs).
- 2.10 (2024-02-16)
- Changed philological brackets.
- 2.07 (2023-05-24)
- Added default glyphs for control characters and philological brackets.
- 2.05 (2020-11-09)
- First release under OFL 1.1 license.
- 2.00 (2009-12-30)
- Redesign of categories A, B, C.
- 1.00 (2009-01-07)
- Initial release of the 1071 signs in the basic list.