BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Unicode (greek) book title with Bibtex

[Yeats]

Hi I am trying to cite one title that is written on greek (it has greek accents too) but I keep getting this error:

Code: Select all

Latex Error: ./Kapitel3/ostkirche.tex:28 Package inputenc Error: Unicode char \u 8:\GenericError {(inputenc) }{Package inputenc Error: Unicode char \u8:Α not set up for use with LaTeX}{See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.}{Your command was ignored.

So basically Bibtex does not support unicode? How else can i write greek in my title? I use greek already in my text with Babel polutonikogreek package, so i tried putting it inside /grk{} but that does not work too.

I hope i explained this good, if not pls ask.

[localghost]

[...] I hope i explained this good, if not pls ask.

Not really. You have to present the problem as code in the sense of a minimal working example (MWE). Please get used to that for future requests.


Best regards
Thorsten

[Yeats]

MWE:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[paper=a4paper,left=33mm,right=28mm,top=30mm,bottom=30mm]{geometry}
\deffootnote{1em} {1em}{\textsuperscript{\thefootnotemark\ }}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{3}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{4}
%
\usepackage[polutonikogreek,ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pslatex}%Times New Roman
\newcommand{\grk}[1]{\foreignlanguage{polutonikogreek}{#1}}
%
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{jurabib}
\usepackage{multibib}
\usepackage{StyleFiles/brechtbib}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}
\newcites{sec}{Quellenverzeichnis}
%\renewcommand{"{#1}"}[1]{„{#1}“}
%
%
\begin{document}
%
\pagestyle{fancy}
%
%
\fancyfoot[CO,CE]{Confidential}
\fancyfoot[RO, LE] {\thepage}
\lhead{}
\rhead{\nouppercase{\leftmark}}
\lfoot{}
\cfoot{}
%
%
\pagenumbering{roman}
\tableofcontents%{\nouppercase}
\clearpage
%
%
\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{page}{1}

\pagebreak
% BIBLIOGRAFIJA
%
%
\cleardoublepage
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Quellenverzeichnis}
\bibliographysec{Bibliographie/bibliographie}
\bibliographystylesec{jurabib}
%\cleardoublepage
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Literaturverzeichnis}
\renewcommand{\refname}{Literaturverzeichnis}
\bibliography{Bibliographie/bibliographie}
\bibliographystyle{jurabib}
%
\end{document}

Here is how that bibliography entry looks like:

Code: Select all

@book{frank1964,
	Address = {M{\"u}nster Westfalen},
	Author = {Karl Suso Frank},
	Call-Number = {TH: Kl 2.23},
	Date-Added = {2009-04-29 10:52:28 +0200},
	Date-Modified = {2009-05-06 16:33:28 +0200},
	Number = {26},
	Publisher = {Aschendorffische Verlagsbuchhandlung},
	Series = {Beitr{\"a}ge zur Geschichte des alten M{\"o}nchtums und des Benediktinerordens},
	Title = {ΑΓΓΕΛΙΚΟΣ ΒΙΟΣ Begriffsanalytische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum ``Engelgleichen Leben'' im fr{\"u}hen M{\"o}nchtum},
	Year = {1964}}

The problem is that Bibtex does not seam to recognize ΑΓΓΕΛΙΚΟΣ ΒΙΟΣ part. He gives me message:

Code: Select all

Latex Error: ./Kapitel3/ostkirche.tex:28 Package inputenc Error: Unicode char \u 8:\GenericError {(inputenc) }{Package inputenc Error: Unicode char \u8:Α not set up for use with LaTeX}{See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.}{Your command was ignored.

I tried to use \grk{AGGELIKOS BIOS} which would normally in my main text make text greek, because i use package polutonikogreek, but that didnt work either.
So basically my question is: how to cite non-english (greek, cyrillic or hebrew for example) book titles with Bibtex?

[josephwright]

BibTeX doesn't understand Unicode. You can get away with things if BibTeX doesn't have to process things, such as part-way through a phrase. However, BibTeX will go horribly wrong if you ask it to do things like examine the case of a Unicode letter. You can perhaps get round this by wrapping stuff in extra braces. If that fails, then you've got to avoid BibTeX. Perhaps use amsrefs or look at biblatex + biber.

[Yeats]

BibTeX doesn't understand Unicode. You can get away with things if BibTeX doesn't have to process things, such as part-way through a phrase. However, BibTeX will go horribly wrong if you ask it to do things like examine the case of a Unicode letter. You can perhaps get round this by wrapping stuff in extra braces. If that fails, then you've got to avoid BibTeX. Perhaps use amsrefs or look at biblatex + biber.

Yeah but that sucks if its true! I mean, that limits Bibtex users to the western literature only! It just cant be!

And I tried using extra braces, that doesn't work too.

[localghost]

Modify your database entry and see what happens.

Code: Select all

@book{frank1964,
   Address = {Münster Westfalen},
   Author = {Karl Suso Frank},
   Call-Number = {TH: Kl 2.23},
   Date-Added = {2009-04-29 10:52:28 +0200},
   Date-Modified = {2009-05-06 16:33:28 +0200},
   Number = {26},
   Publisher = {Aschendorffische Verlagsbuchhandlung},
   Series = {Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens},
   Title = {\greektext{AGGELIKOS BIOS} -- Begriffsanalytische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum "`Engelgleichen Leben"' im frühen Mönchtum},
   Year = {1964}
}

Finally an advice not related to the problem. Perhaps it's better to use the txfonts instead of pslatex for Times style.


Best regards
Thorsten

[Yeats]

Modify your database entry and see what happens.

Code: Select all

@book{frank1964,
   Address = {Münster Westfalen},
   Author = {Karl Suso Frank},
   Call-Number = {TH: Kl 2.23},
   Date-Added = {2009-04-29 10:52:28 +0200},
   Date-Modified = {2009-05-06 16:33:28 +0200},
   Number = {26},
   Publisher = {Aschendorffische Verlagsbuchhandlung},
   Series = {Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens},
   Title = {\greektext{AGGELIKOS BIOS} -- Begriffsanalytische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum "`Engelgleichen Leben"' im frühen Mönchtum},
   Year = {1964}
}

Finally an advice not related to the problem. Perhaps it's better to use the txfonts instead of pslatex for Times style.


Best regards
Thorsten

That worked partially. It produced ΑΓΓΕΛΙΚΟΣ ΒΙΟΣ – Βεγριφφσαναλψτισςηε υνδ βε-
γριφφσγεσςηιςητλιςηε Υντερσυςηυνγ ζυμ ”Ενγελγλειςηεν Λεβεν“ ιμ φρ ¨υηεν Μ ¨ ονςητυμ. Münster Westfalen:

so i changed it to:

Code: Select all

@book{frank1964,
   Address = {Münster Westfalen},
   Author = {Karl Suso Frank},
   Call-Number = {TH: Kl 2.23},
   Date-Added = {2009-04-29 10:52:28 +0200},
   Date-Modified = {2009-05-06 16:33:28 +0200},
   Number = {26},
   Publisher = {Aschendorffische Verlagsbuchhandlung},
   Series = {Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens},
   Title = {\greektext{AGGELIKOS BIOS} -- \ngermantext{Begriffsanalytische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum "`Engelgleichen Leben"' im frühen Mönchtum}},
   Year = {1964}
}

and that doesnt work too.

Anyway obviously Bibtex supports unicode cause at least now i have greek text in the title.

[Yeats]

OK this worked:

Code: Select all

@book{frank1964,
   Address = {Münster Westfalen},
   Author = {Karl Suso Frank},
   Call-Number = {TH: Kl 2.23},
   Date-Added = {2009-04-29 10:52:28 +0200},
   Date-Modified = {2009-05-06 16:33:28 +0200},
   Number = {26},
   Publisher = {Aschendorffische Verlagsbuchhandlung},
   Series = {Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens},
   Title = {{\greektext{AGGELIKOS BIOS}} Begriffsanalytische und begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum "`Engelgleichen Leben"' im frühen Mönchtum},
   Year = {1964}
}

Thank you for your help people.

[Yeats]

Finally an advice not related to the problem. Perhaps it's better to use the txfonts instead of pslatex for Times style.

I tried it and i cant see any difference. I know pslatex is an old package, but is there some other reason why txfonts is better?

[localghost]

The key is that you can use command sequences in the entries of your bibliography database. Finally the bibliography is typeset as usual text.

Though it rarely causes trouble, the pslatex package simply is considered obsolete. Moreover the txfonts make other font packages for sans serif or typewriter style superfluous because it's all in one package.