babel-greek
***********
Babel support for Greek
=======================

:Copyright: © 1997 Apostolos Syropoulos, Claudio Beccari, Johannes Brahms,
            © 2013 Günter Milde
:Licence:   This work may be distributed and/or modified under the
            conditions of the `LaTeX Project Public License`_, either
            version 1.3 of this license or any later version.

:Abstract: Babel-greek is a contributed package providing support for the
           Greek language and script via the Babel_ system.


In 1997, Apostolos Syropoulos added support for the Greek language to the
"babel" package.  The file ``greek.ldf`` provides options for monotonic
(single-diacritic) and polytonic (multiple-diacritic) modes of writing.

Currently, it only works with LaTeX and 8-bit TeX engines. Users of the
XeTeX and LuaTeX engines are advised to use the polyglossia_ package
instead.

News
----

:2013-05-17: * New maintainer.
             * The encoding definition file ``lgrenc.def`` moved to the
               greek-fontenc_ package.

Requirements
------------

The "babel-greek" package requires the babel_ base package, `Greek text
fonts`_ in the LGR encoding, and the encoding definition file ``lgrenc.def``
from the greek-fontenc_ package.


Installation
------------

If possible, get this package from your distribution using its installation
manager.
  
Otherwise, make sure LaTeX can find the required files:

* Download and unpack `babel-greek.zip`.

* Run ``tex`` or ``latex`` on the batch file ``greek.ins``.

* Move all files ending in ``.def``, ``.fd``, ``.ldf``, or ``.sty``
  into a directory searched by TeX.

* To produce the documentation run the files ``usage.tex`` and all files
  ending in ``.dtx`` through LaTeX.


Usage
-----

Pass the "greek" or "polutonikogreek" options to babel::

  \usepackage[greek]{babel}

For details see `<usage.pdf>`_, `<greek.pdf>`_ and the babel_ documentation.
Literal input of Greek characters is possible with the greek-inputenc_
package.


Greek text fonts
----------------

The LGR font encoding is the de-facto standard for typesetting Greek with
(8-bit) LaTeX. Fonts in this encoding include the `CB fonts`_ (matching CM),
grtimes_ (Greek Times), Kerkis_ (matching URW Bookman), and the `GFS font
collection`_. Setup of these fonts as Greek variant to matching Latin fonts
is facilitated by the substitutefont_ package.

The LGR font encoding generates Greek characters via an ASCII
transliteration. This enables simple input with a Latin keyboard.
Characters with diacritics are selected by ligature definitions in the
font (see `<usage.pdf>`_).

A major drawback of this transliteration is, that you cannot access Latin
letters if LGR is the active font encoding (e.g. in documents or parts of
documents given the `Babel` language ``greek`` or ``polutionikogreek``).
This means that for every Latin-written word or acronym an explicite
language-switch is required. This problem can only be solved via a
font-encoding comprising Latin and Greek like the hypothetic T7 or Unicode
(with XeTeX or LuaTeX).


.. References
   ----------
  
.. _LaTeX Project Public License: http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt
.. _babel: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/babel
.. _fontspec: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/fontspec
.. _CB Fonts: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/cbgreek-complete
.. _grtimes: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/grtimes
.. _greek-fontenc: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/greek-fontenc
.. _greek-inputenc: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/greek-inputenc
.. _GFS font collection: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/gfs
.. _Kerkis: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/kerkis
.. _lgrx: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/lgrx
.. _polyglossia: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/polyglossia
.. _substitutefont: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/substitutefont
