Modern native UTF-8 engines such as XeTeX and LuaTeX need hyphenation patterns in UTF-8 format, whereas older systems require hyphenation patterns in the 8-bit encoding of the font in use (such encodings are codified in the LaTeX scheme with names like OT1, T2A, TS1, OML, LY1, etc).

The present package offers a collection of conversions of existing patterns to UTF-8 format, together with converters for use with 8-bit fonts in older systems. Since hyphenation patterns for TeX are only read at iniTeX time, it is hoped that the UTF-8 patterns, with their converters, will completely supplant the older patterns.

See also dehyph-exptl.

The authors are Jonathan Kew, Mojca Miklavec and Arthur Reutenauer. The package is Copyright © 2008 TeX Users Group.