ΙΕΡΟΓΛΥΦΩ

𓂀Getting started

Learn the basics of hieroglyphic writing and how to use the editor effectively — then dig into any feature with the task-by-task guides below.

Feature guides

Short, task-by-task guides to the ΙΕΡΟΓΛΥΦΩ editor — each with a written walkthrough and a quick looping demo. Search by what you want to do.

𓍶Make your first cartouche

Zero to a finished, royal-looking name ring — browser only, nothing to install.

The cartouche is the oval that wraps a royal name — the ancient world's verified badge. Here's the whole trip:

  1. Open the hieroglyph dialog (the highlighted 𓂀… button on the toolbar) and drop in a few signs.
  2. Click Cartouche on the toolbar — the ring frames your signs. Drag either end to hug the name snugly.
  3. Open the ≡ menu → Save as PNG (or PDF) and it's ready to share.
Note: the Cartouche tool is for royal-name rings. For a serekh, hwt-enclosure or plain frame, use the MdC enclosure codes (<S…>S, <H…>H, <F…>F) instead.

Type a royal name, then frame it with the Cartouche tool.

𓅃Build a serekh (Horus name)

Older than the cartouche — the palace-façade frame for a king's Horus name.

A serekh is a rectangle drawn as a stylised palace façade, with the niched-panel strip along the bottom and a Horus falcon perched on top. It's keyboard-only — type it as an MdC enclosure in the hieroglyph dialog:

  1. Wrap the king's name in the serekh codes: <S … >S (the S variant draws the façade panel).
  2. Perch the falcon on top with a stack: put G5 above the serekh using :.
Try the Serpent King. Type G5:<S I10 >S — a falcon over a serekh holding the cobra ḏ — and you've written the Horus name of Djet. Swap S for H or F to get the hwt-enclosure or a plain frame instead.

The Horus name of Djet — falcon, façade frame, and the cobra ḏ inside.

𓂋Three ways to enter signs

The feature most people never discover on their own.

One button — the highlighted 𓂀… — opens a dialog with three layouts:

  • Text run — signs flow in a single line, like a word.
  • Individual signs — each sign lands as its own movable object, laid out in 2D the way textbooks and JSesh do. Spatial (MdC) operators like * : - auto-switch to this engine.
  • Three-line block — signs stack into a tidy three-row column, perfect for labels.

Need proper transliteration letters (ꜣ ꜥ ḥ ḫ ẖ š ḳ ṯ ḏ) or Coptic? Click the ⌨ keyboard — it has the characters your regular keyboard pretends don't exist. Set the font size before inserting, or double-click text on the canvas to edit it later.

Individual signs — typing Manuel de Codage, no mouse.

𓏛Find any sign in the dictionary

Forgot the sign? Just ask.

Nobody memorizes a thousand signs — not even the scribes did. So just search:

  1. The dictionary is built in — it loads automatically, no upload or setup needed.
  2. Search by Gardiner codes separated by spaces (e.g. A1 Z2) or by transliteration (e.g. rHty, pr). Results populate live and are highlighted; non-ASCII text is enlarged for readability.
  3. Drag to canvas: highlight the glyphs in a result (e.g. 𓀀𓁐𓏥) and drag the selection onto the canvas — they're placed as a bottom-aligned row.
  4. Going the other way? Right-click a sign (or a selection of signs) on the canvas and choose 𓂀 What does this say? to find the dictionary words in them, ranked by closeness.

Drag the small handle just below the character list to grow or shrink the results panel; Clear resets the box instantly. It's a reference desk and a keyboard in one.

Type a meaning or transliteration — matches appear live.

𓊵Type the layout with Manuel de Codage

Hieroglyphs don't politely march in a line — so you type the arrangement too.

Open the hieroglyph dialog and type Gardiner codes joined by spatial operators. The layout engine arranges the signs in 2D the way textbooks and JSesh do — and it respects the order of operations, so you don't have to fight it:

  • * — side by side (juxtapose), e.g. M17*M17.
  • : — stack top over bottom, e.g. D21:N35.
  • - — separate into the next cadrat along the row.
  • ( ) — group, exactly like math: (M17*M17):X1 sets the two reeds side by side, then stacks that pair over the loaf.
  • ! — force a new line.

Binding runs tightest → loosest: ( ) > * > : > -. Any spatial operator auto-switches the dialog to the individual-signs engine.

Reads like a formula, lays out like a wall. Type the offering formula ḥtp-dỉ-nsw as M23-X1:R4-X8 and watch each cadrat fall into place.

The offering formula ḥtp-dỉ-nsw — stacked and separated into cadrats automatically.

𓁹The extended hieroglyph set

Way past A–Z — thousands of signs, in a browser tab.

Most people know the Gardiner list — a few hundred greatest hits. This goes thousands of signs deeper, into the extended set, with the spacing and stacking the script actually needs. Reach any of them the same way:

  1. Type its Gardiner code in the hieroglyph dialog (codes span every family — gods, mammals, birds, plants, sky, rope, and the Aa miscellany).
  2. Or look it up in the dictionary and drag the result onto the canvas.

If you've used JSesh, you know the routine — download, install, wrestle the interface. Here you open a tab and start typing: no install, no fuss. Same ancient script, fewer modern headaches.

A single run drawn from across the Gardiner families.

𓂀Trace from a photo

Got a photo of a real inscription? Stand on the shoulders of scribes.

Drop a reference image straight in as a background and compose over it — perfect for copying a stela, a wall, or a museum photo sign by sign:

  1. Click BG and pick your photo. Big images are auto-downscaled on import, so the browser doesn't break a sweat.
  2. Drag it into position behind the canvas.
  3. Pull the BG α opacity slider down until the photo is a faint ghost.
  4. Trace right over it — type or drop signs on top, matching the original.
  5. Dim or remove the background and you're left with a crisp, fully editable copy.
It's a guide, not a layer you export. Slide BG α back down to nothing when you're done and only your clean signs remain.

A faint reference dimmed to a ghost, with fresh signs traced on top.

𓋹Save, reopen, never lose work

Two kinds of saving, because losing work is a special kind of heartbreak.

Your project is a real, editable file — not a flattened picture:

  1. ≡ → Save as JSON writes your whole project to a file you can keep.
  2. Open JSON… later reopens it fully editable — every sign still movable, not baked into an image.

And behind the scenes, the editor quietly autosaves. So if your browser crashes — or the cat finds the keyboard — just reopen the page, click Restore on the "Recovered unsaved work" banner, and you're exactly where you left off.

Restore is non-destructive. A deliberate fresh start is never silently overwritten — recovery only happens if you click Restore.

Save to JSON, reload mid-work, and Restore brings it all back.