THL Toolbox > Tibetan Scripts, Fonts & Related Issues > Conversion-Reversion For Tibetan Fonts > Recommended Programs For Specific Conversions-reversions Involving Tibetan Fonts
Recommended Programs For Specific Conversions-reversions Involving Tibetan Fonts
Wylie Word and UDP are two of the main applications used for conversions involving Tibetan fonts. UDP is highly efficient for conversions to Tibetan Unicode from legacy Tibetan fonts like Sambhota and TMW, but sometimes falters with Wylie-related tasks. Wylie Word works well for documents already in Microsoft Word format, particularly for conversions involving EWTS, Unicode, and TMW. Consult the table below for information on specific types of conversions.
| From | To | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| ACIP Transcription | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| ALA-LC Transcription | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| Bandrida | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| Beida Founder | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| Jamyang | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| Huanguang | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| LTibetan | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| National Standard Extended Transcription | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| Sambhota | Tibetan Unicode | Use UDP |
| TCRC Bod-Yig | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
| THL Extended Wylie Transcription | Tibetan Unicode | Use THL's Online Tibetan Transliteration Converter and prep your text by reading Wylie to Tibetan Machine Unicode |
| Tibet Machine | Tibetan Unicode | Help us make a recommendation by contacting us! |
| Tibet Machine Web | Tibetan Unicode | Use UDP or Jskad |
| Tibetan Unicode | Tibet Machine | Help us make a recommendation by contacting us! |
| Tibetan Unicode | Tibet Machine Web | Help us make a recommendation by contacting us! |
| Tibetan Unicode | THL Extended Wylie | Use THL's Online Tibetan Transliteration Converter |
| Tibetan Unicode | THL Simplified Phonetics | Use THL's Online Tibetan Phonetics Converter |
| TB-Youtso | Tibetan Unicode | Use the TB Youtso Converter to Unicode |
| Tongyuan | Tibetan Unicode | Use Universal Tibetan Font Converter |
Other considerations
Jskad works on any platform running Java (including Mac, Windows, and Linux desktop systems). UDP works in Windows only, as well as in Linux using 
Wine.
Batch Processing
Legacy fonts to Unicode
UDP allows for batch conversions using a command line interface using the "x" flag, followed by the output type and filename. The following command, for example, would convert a file written in a legacy encoding to Tibetan Unicode and then would save the resulting Unicode document in the RTF (Rich Text Format):
udp -x rtf somefile.txt
In a DOS console, a batch conversion from plain text files to RTF format would look something like this:
for %w in (*.txt) do udp -x rtf %w
Wylie and Unicode to THL's simplified phonetics
The conversion utility from digitaltibetan.org allows for conversion from Wylie and Unicode to THL phonetics using a command line interface. This can be used for batch process using native commands in DOS, BASH, or a script in Perl, Python, Ruby, and so on. To use, make sure you have perl installed by typing "perl -v". If Perl is installed, you should get a response with version and copyright information. If it is not installed, download Perl at perl.org's website and install. Next, download the source code for the phonetic conversion tool and unzip the file. Change directories into "Lingua-BO-Wylie/bin" using the cd command (ex. "cd Lingua-BO-Wylie/bin"). Typing "./pronounce.pl -h" will give you the following instructions:
<pre>This is the command-line interface to the Tibetan Phonemic converter.
Use: pronounce.pl [options] inputfile outputfile
The input file can be in Wylie or Tibetan Unicode. If it is Unicode, it should be encoded in UTF-8.
Options are:
-s style-name - which phonemic system to use; the default is THL. The other available style is 'rigpa-en'.
-r '//' - also reprint the tibetan before the pronounciation, separated by '//' (or whatever)
-j '-' - use '-' (or whatever character) to mark syllables belonging to a single word
-sep ' ' - use ' ' (or whatever) to separate syllables belonging to different words
-a - auto-split words based on a small built-in dictionary
-c '*' - use '*' (or whatever) to mark words to be capitalized
-h - get this help
Only one of -j, -sep or -a can be given. Default is auto-split.</pre>
The auto-split option is presently very limited so it is best to specify word separations yourself using the "sep" option and then manually adding separations into the input file.
Wylie and Unicode to THL Extended Wylie
The open source Perl module for converting to THL phonetics also contains a command line tool for converting Tibetan Unicode to EWTS and vice versa. Instructions are the same as above except the command for the Wylie utility is ./wylie.pl. To convert from Wylie to Unicode, simply type (omitting the quotes) "./wylie.pl nameofinputfile nameofoutputfile. To do the reverse, add the "-u" option: "./wylie.pl -u nameofinputfile nameofoutputfile.".
Generally speaking, the wylie.pl utility is significantly faster than Wylie Word and somewhat more stable than Jskad. It is therefore recommended to use the wylie.pl utility when converting text that is not inextricably wed to a specific file format like Word or RTF. (wylie.pl and pronounce.pl expect their input files to be simple UTF-8 encoded text files).