Localisation (L10n) Resources

This page brings together some information and links of general use to localisation efforts, and multilingual ICT, in and for Africa. Particular attention is given to what are sometimes called "tools" that assist in localising software or content. This information, together with specific language, country and script information from the profiles, are intended to be of use to localisers.

Be sure to consult also the relevant language, country, and if necessary writing system pages for resources specific to the work you are doing.

1. Overview & general information

1.1 Foundations

• Internationalisation (i18n)
• Standards

1.2 Understanding how the pieces work together

• L10n Layercake (a graphic by Daniel Yacob)

1.3 Guides for localisation

• "FOSS Localization Primer" by Anousak Souphavanh and Theppitak Karoonboonyanan http://www.iosn.net/l10n/foss-localization-primer/
  • PDF version: http://www.iosn.net/l10n/foss-localization-primer/foss-localization-primer.pdf (1.3 MB)
  • Wikibook version: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Localization
  • reformatted version: "Free/Open Source Software: Localization" KnowProSE Remix 1.0 http://www.knowprose.com/fosslocal
• "FOSS Guide to Localization" by Khairil Yusof http://www.iosn.net/l10n/localization-guide/
• "Guide to Localisation" http://www.iosn.net/l10n/l10n-howto-toolkit/guide.pdf/view
• "Localisation guide" http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/guide/start

1.4 Guides for underresourced languages

• "Comment assurer la présence d'une langue dans le cyberespace" par Marcel Diki-Kidiri http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001497/149786F.pdf
• "First Language First: Community-based Literacy Programmes for Minority Language Contexts in Asia" (includes discussion of orthography) http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/first_language/first_language.pdf

1.5 African language resources

• African Language Technology (AfLaT) http://aflat.org/

2. Resources by topic

2.1 Input hardware & software

• Keyboards & keyboard layouts (including character pickers)
• Graphics tablets (including handwriting recognition)

2.2 Fonts & rendering

• Fonts

2.3 Codes and tags

• Codes and Tags

2.4 Locales

• Locales

2.5 The work of localisation

• Localising software
• Localising web content

2.6 Other

• Advanced applications

3. Forums

See Communication

< Organisations | L10n Profiles | Major Languages >

< 12.4 Organisations | Survey Document | Notes >