A method for encoding Egyptian quadrats in Unicode

The proposal to encode three control characters for Egyptian Hieroglyphs was accepted at the February 2016 UTC meeting. Following that acceptance some members of the Egyptological community raised concerns that the accepted controls were insufficient for their requirements. This led to a series of discussions and document submissions between specialists and implementers that explored the issues relating to encoding the quadrat structures that are an inherent feature of Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing. The present document combines expert input on Egyptian Hieroglyphs and a detailed exploration of possible solutions. It does not attempt to summarize or repeat arguments and details from earlier documents. Cross-references to earlier submissions are provided where appropriate. The result is a draft proposal for a system of controls that will enable plain text encoding of Egyptian Hieroglyphs in quadrats.