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<h1 class="title">Charis - Versions and Changes</h1>
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<h2 id="announcement-list">Announcement list</h2>
<p>If you would like stay informed of updates to Charis and other
SIL fonts, please subscribe to the <a
href="https://groups.google.com/a/groups.sil.org/forum/#!forum/sil-font-news">SIL
Font News Announcement List</a>. For more information see <a
href="about.html">About</a>.</p>
<p>Our font announcements are also available through X (formerly
Twitter) <a href="https://x.com/silfonts">@silfonts</a>.</p>
<h2 id="current-versions">Current versions</h2>
<p>The latest version of the fonts is always available from the <a
href="https://software.sil.org/charis/download/">Charis download
page</a> as a .zip archive for all major platforms.</p>
<p>Charis is also available through the <a
href="https://typetunerweb.languagetechnology.org/ttw/fonts2go.cgi">TypeTuner
Web</a> service, which allows you to choose among the smart font
features and download a font with those features preset. This
enables them to work in many applications that do not fully support
OpenType. <strong>Please note that the version 7 fonts available
through TypeTuner Web no longer offer line spacing alternatives
(Normal, Tight, Loose). If you need Tight or Loose variants the
version 6.200 fonts remain available and support line spacing
alternatives.</strong></p>
<h2 id="other-charis-sil-versions-and-variants">Other Charis SIL
versions and variants</h2>
<p>There are many font families based on the Charis SIL design, as
summarized in this table. Current versions are in
<strong>bold</strong>. Additional information is provided in later
sections.</p>
<table>
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 27%" />
<col style="width: 20%" />
<col style="width: 52%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Font Family</th>
<th>Versions</th>
<th>Status and use</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Charis</strong></td>
<td><strong>7.000</strong></td>
<td><strong>Current</strong>—recommended for all uses and users</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL</td>
<td>4.0006.200</td>
<td>No longer recommended—please use current version</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL Compact</td>
<td>4.1066.200</td>
<td>Fonts with reduced default line spacing—no longer
recommended</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL Literacy</td>
<td>4.0146.200</td>
<td>Literacy variants with alternate a and g forms—no longer
recommended</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL Literacy Comp</td>
<td>4.1066.200</td>
<td>Compact literacy variants—no longer recommended</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL Literacy AmArea</td>
<td>5.0006.200</td>
<td>Literacy variants with AmArea features—no longer
recommended</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL <em>special variant</em></td>
<td>5.0006.200</td>
<td>Modified versions for special purposes (AmArea, Mali, Tat)—no
longer recommended</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Charis SIL <em>region subset</em></td>
<td>5.000</td>
<td>Subsets for particular regions (Afr, Am, APac, Cyr, CyrE, Eur,
Phon, Viet)—no longer recommended</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Versions prior to Charis SIL v4.000 were named SIL Charis and are
no longer available.</p>
<p>There are also font families named Charis <em>something</em>
that were created using <a
href="https://scripts.sil.org/ttw/fonts2go.cgi">TypeTuner Web</a>.
We have no record or archive of most of these tuned fonts, but if
you are desperate to find them contact us. We may be able to point
you to the distributors of those that we know about.</p>
<h3 id="compact-versions"><em>Compact</em> versions</h3>
<p>The Charis version 7 fonts do not have <em>Compact</em> variants.
The default line spacing has been reduced to be closer, but not
identical, to the previous versions <em>Compact</em> line spacing.
Most users should use the version 7 fonts and adjust line spacing
explicitly within the application if necessary. If your application
does not allow control over line spacing, you can use the <a
href="https://software.sil.org/lcgfonts/download/">version 6.200
Charis SIL Compact fonts</a>, which remain available. <strong>If you
need any of the new version 7 features or characters, but also need
them supported in a compact version please <a
href="https://software.sil.org/charis/about/contact/">contact
us</a>.</strong></p>
<h3 id="special-purpose-modified-variants">Special-purpose modified
variants</h3>
<p><a href="https://software.sil.org/lcgfonts/download/">Modified
versions of the Charis SIL version 6.200 fonts</a> are available
that have been tuned to turn on certain features by default. These
are available for some regions and include <em>Literacy</em>
versions. <strong>These remain at version 6.200 and have not been
updated to Charis version 7. If you need any of the new features or
characters in this version, but also need them supported in the
special-purpose modified fonts please <a
href="https://software.sil.org/charis/about/contact/">contact
us</a>.</strong></p>
<h3 id="version-5-subsets">Version 5 subsets</h3>
<p>In the past, special <em>subset</em> versions of Charis SIL
version 5 were created for specific uses. Those fonts still work and
<a href="https://software.sil.org/lcgfonts/font-subsets/">remain
available</a>. These are limited versions of the fonts that support
only the characters needed for a particular area or use. Subsets are
available for Africa, Americas, Asia/Pacific, Europe/Eurasia,
Vietnam, Phonetic, Cyrillic (Basic) and Cyrillic Extended. With the
exception of the Phonetic font, the font subsets are intended for
orthographic use only. We have not put anything in the other subsets
for phonetic, transliteration, or transcription use. For those
purposes, use the Phonetic subset. We do not intend to update these
fonts, however they may still work. <strong>We do not, however,
recommend their use. In almost all cases the standard fonts are a
better choice. Font size is less of a concern than it was years ago,
particularly with improved compression technologies such as
woff2.</strong></p>
<h2 id="previous-versions-archive">Previous versions archive</h2>
<p>Previous versions remain available from our <a
href="https://software.sil.org/charis/download/previous-versions">Previous
versions archive</a>.</p>
<h2 id="change-history">Change history</h2>
<p>A detailed list of changes for each version of the fonts is on
the <a href="history.html">Version history page</a>.</p>
<footer class="footer">
<p>This guide is from the <a href="https://software.sil.org/charis/" title="" class="active">Charis project</a> version 7 and is copyright © 1997-2025 SIL Global.</p>
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