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Leslie

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The following fonts originate from the Romulan Institute Computer Interface website at http://www.rihannsu.org/. The website went down some time between July 7th and June 24th of 2021 for server maintenance, and has not since returned. Though the website is accessible through the Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205253/http://www.rihannsu.org/, the fonts were not saved on the Wayback Machine. Luckily, I downloaded the fonts before the website went under. I'll be posting them here in the name of preservation of online content. If you know anything about the Romulan Institute Computer Interface and why it went down, leave a comment here.


These fonts are not canon, but rather, are reconstructions of what these creators thought the Romulan alphabet could look like. I think they are very cool looking reconstructions, and I highly recommend downloading them and experimenting with them if you really enjoy constructed languages and the Rihan language. Further information on the fonts is included in their respective .zip files.



Rihan Extended

This is a font created by D'Galan tr'Rehu. Their contact information is listed as dgalan.rehu@gmail.com within the README.txt (which I highly recommend you read). This is a simple font that is easy to install. However, I ran into some issues when using it with Microsoft Word 2007 (yes, I know I'm over a decade behind), so it's possibly buggy (or Microsoft Word 2007 just personally disagrees with it). There's a .png file within that shows you what letters are mapped to which keys. I have not contacted the creator, though I may in time. Enjoy.



Rihanica

Rihanica is a very detailed and robust font created by Gwui i-ShiKahr t'Aieme at gwenn.dana@gmail.com that has many options and letters of the Rihan alphabet, even though it's in beta. According to the license, this font is free to circulate as long as it isn't sold. The .zip contains a .pdf that explains which keys are mapped to which letters, the Unicode for each letter, the IPA pronunciation, and the corresponding characters from Diane Duane's novels. However, with detail comes complexity. The usage of the font and its installation process are a bit obtuse. If you get confused, refer to my instructions detailed below. Unfortunately, I don't know how one would install this on Mac or Linux, so you'll have to do some searching on Google and whatnot.


Installation for Windows:

  1. Download the above .zip file to your desired location on your computer.
  2. Extract the .zip file to your desired location on your computer.
  3. Enter the folder and observe the files within. You will see: de-rihan (folder), license.txt, Rihanica Unicode Glyph List.pdf, and RihanicaUnicode.ttf.
  4. Let's install the RihanicaUnicode.tff font first. Double-click the RihanicaUnicode.ttf file.
  5. A window will open containing many words to demonstrate the way the font works. The font will NOT be in the Romulan alphabet. It will be the Latin alphabet (the alphabet used by English and many other languages).
  6. In the top-left corner of the screen, you will see the option "Install". Click this to install the .ttf.

Well done! We will now move to the next phase of our installation.


  1. In the folder containing RihanicaUnicode.ttf, you will see another folder labeled "de-rihan". Double-click it to enter it.
  2. You will see a lot of stuff in there, but don't get intimidated. Double-click setup.exe.
  3. Windows will ask you if you wish to install the program. Allow it, unless you've changed your mind and you don't want to install it anymore.
  4. After that, double-click DE-Rihan_amd64.msi to install the new keyboard if your computer is a 64-bit computer. Double-click DE-Rihan_i386.msi to install the new keyboard if your computer is a 32-bit computer. The majority of modern computers are 64-bit, since 32-bit is slowly but surely being phased out, so chances are you can just double click the 64-bit version. If Windows protests when trying to install DE-Rihan_amd64.msi, attempt to install DE-Rihan_i386.msi. Install DE-Rihan_ia64.msi if your computer is using an HP Itanium processor. I have no idea how to check if a computer has this kind of processor, but I do know it's not common at all. Try to use this one if the others don't work.
  5. A window will open and close quickly. Don't worry, it did this to me too so I'm pretty sure it's normal. Then, an installer will pop up. This may take a minute or two, so wait patiently.
  6. The Setup Wizard will say "Welcome to the Deutsch (Rihan) Setup Wizard". Deutsch means German, as in the language. This is normal. If you're in Germany and using a German keyboard, things are going to be quite easy for you. If you don't have a German keyboard, things will get a bit dicey, but we'll be okay. I'm here for you, and I will help you to the best of my ability.
  7. NOTE: If the Setup Wizard says "Remove the keyboard layout", and "Repair the keyboard layout", then that means the keyboard has already been installed. To be safe, remove the keyboard layout, return to the .msi you opened originally, and install it again.

Well done again! The installation process should be complete. Now I will instruct you on how to use the font. Here, things get a little strange for people without a German keyboard. If you do have a German keyboard, then congratulations! You're basically ready to go! If you have a non-German keyboard, however, you will have to do some messing around to get things to work. Let's begin.


  1. Open your preferred word processor. Examples: Wordpad, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc. You can use just about any program that's on your computer and lets you choose a font. It should even work on Microsoft Paint, art programs, and programs like PowerPoint and Excel.
  2. After opening your program of choice, change the font using the method unique to your program. Rihanica should be listed. Select it. Your font will now be the Rihanica font.
  3. We can't type quite yet, however. We must change the keyboard layout to the Rihanica one. On Windows 10, you can hold the Windows key (usually located near the space bar and left-control key), and while holding down the windows key, push the space bar. If the keyboard layout has been installed correctly, a box will appear on the right side of your screen listing your installed keyboard. The Rihanica layout will be labeled "German (Germany) Rihan04 keyboard". You should now be switched to this keyboard. To see your options for longer, hold down the windows key and the space bar to keep the box containing a list of your keyboards on the screen until you let go of the space bar. Alternatively, if you look in the bottom right corner of your screen, you will see "ENG" or an abbreviation assigned to your current keyboard layout. Clicking this will allow you to change the language without the shortcut.
  4. Return to the folder containing RihanicaUicode.ttf, Rihanica Unicode Glyph List.pdf, license.txt, and de-rihan.
  5. Open Rihanica Unicode Glyph List.pdf by double-clicking it. This file will be your guide to typing the many symbols of this font. It seems intimidating at first, but don't worry. We'll figure it out.
  6. Column explanations:
    Type: I don't know what this one is.
    Unicode: This is an alternate way of typing a letter. Search how to type Unicode characters for help on using this method.
    Key Sequence: Since there are so many characters in Rihanica, we must use combinations to type every single letter. This will list the sequence of keys you must push to type the corresponding letter.
    Alternative Keys: These are alternative combinations.
    Rihanica: These are the Rihanica letters.
    Common Transcript: These are the Latin alphabet letters equivalent to the Rihanica letters.
    IPA: This is how you are to pronounce each letter. Look up how to use IPA to learn how to pronounce the symbols listed in this column. I have no idea how to pronounce IPA stuff.
    Base: I don't know what this one is.
    Character Name: The official name of the characters.
    Characters D. Duane: This is the letter corresponding to the Rihan spelling used in Diane Duane's novels and work. If you are using the Romulan dictionary from the Imperial Romulan language Institute, you'll want to match the letters in those words with the ones in the Characters D. Duane column.
  7. Identify the letter and key combination you wish to use.
  8. Return to your document or your program of choice. Make sure the font is still set to Rihanica.
  9. If you have a German keyboard, congratulations! You can begin to type away to your heart's content. Make sure to follow the key sequences detailed by the .pdf. However, if you (like me) have an American keyboard, a Cyrillic keyboard, or other keyboard, things are going to get a little difficult.
  10. Go online, and using your search engine of choice, such as Google, Bing (for some reason), or DuckDuckGo, search up a picture of a German keyboard. This gives you an idea of what buttons Rihanica thinks you're pushing as opposed to what you're actually pushing on your non-German keyboard. Most of the letters on your keyboard (if it's an American or very similar keyboard) do match the key sequences. However, for the umlauts (the letters with two dots above them) and punctuation, you'll have to refer to the image of the German keyboard and start taking guesses. When I have the time and energy, I can make key sequences for the American keyboard, but I just don't have that right now.

Congratulations on your new font! Enjoy messing around with it! If you've found an error in my instructions, please leave a comment here.