Esperanto characters

Zamenhof decided to use some special characters in order to make Esperanto spelling absolutely phonetic. These characters have never been a problem when one writes; and writing was the usual method of communication in his era. However, they even then produced problems when a typewriter was used: although ingenious methods (dead keys, for example) were used to solve the problem. Printing Esperanto was never really a problem even for a middle-sized printer, as a wide range of type faces was always in stock.

The problem did not go away when the use of computers became widespread: although it must be added that any deviation from the basic Roman alphabet caused problems, and therefore many languages suffered,

With modern versions of Windows which make use of Unicode there is no fundamental problem: just some need for manipulation. However, a utility does help; and EK! is freeware which is well worth acquiring. It is suitable for all versions of Windows.