'Assyrian/Syriac' support for Mac OS X

[dawidh]

For anyone running Mac OS X and is interested in 'Assyrian/Syriac' support:

Fonts:

• XenoType Technologies [$59]
  Currently the only fully compatible Syriac fonts for Mac OS X.  For more details check out the help file, here.
• Beth Mardutho: Meltho [Free]
  The popular Meltho fonts are designed for Windows OS, although they can be used on Mac OS X.  The biggest drawback is that they are only compatible with Mellel, a word processor by RedleX.  Everywhere else these fonts will not display properly.

Keyboards:

• Warick [Free]
  An Arabic based layout.
• Keyboards by Michael Reißer [Free]
  Hebrew-QWERTY layout, original key layout, and the QWERTY layout are packaged in this bundle.
• Ukelele [Free]
  Don't like any of those keyboards?  You can make your own with this free Unicode Keyboard Layout Editor.

Installation:
Fonts:

• Drag the font files to the folder "Macintosh HD/Library/Fonts"
• Double click the files to add them to the Font Book application
• Log out and Log back in
• *The XenoType fonts come with an installer. So the steps above are unnecessary.

Keyboards:

• Drag the keyboard files to the folder "Macintosh HD/Library/Keyboard Layouts" OR "Macintosh HD/Users/<USER'S HOME FOLDER>/Library/Keyboard Layouts"
• Log out and Log back in
• Open Mac OS X's System Preferences
• Navigate to "Language & Text" >> Click the "Input Sources" tab >> Activate the keyboards you desire from the list
• I'd recommend turning on the "Keyboard & Character Viewer" if it is not already and also enable the "Show Input menu in menu bar" option.

I highly recommend the XenoType fonts over the Meltho fonts for Mac OS X. If you want the best 'Assyrian/Syriac' experience on the Mac then the purchase is worth the cost.

Looking for Windows support? Check here.

[Phenomenon]

I did follow the steps above. but I'm having troubles with the letter WAW. When typing it the output is turned to the arabic waw.

Ex. When writing my name (Johnny Lewis)
ܓܘܢܝ ܠܘܝܣ

[Phenomenon]

It's either a bug in the OSX, cuz the beth mardutho fonts works nice in windows i think.

[dawidh]

It depends on the operating system you are running. If you are running Leopard/Snow Leopard. Open the Font Book application and turn off the Geeza Pro font and the Arabic Waw will stop showing up. If you are running Lion turn off the Damascus font. It is best to log out then back in after. You might also have to restart the computer or refresh the font cache.

It is a Mac OS X bug. They assigned an Arabic Waw glyph to the Syriac Waw slot in those two fonts (they fixed Geeza Pro in Lion and added Damascus but it has the same bug Geeza Pro had) and because of the way the OS chooses what font to use, the fonts with the bug get used before the XenoType fonts.

[Phenomenon]

It is a little bit late. But here is the guide I threw up on how to add Assyrian fonts http://abulewis.com/blog/adding-the-assyrian-language-on-mac-os-x/