The Estrangelo Edessa was developed by The Syriac Computing Institute and Microsoft to support the Syriac script. Syriac is written from right to left, like Arabic and Hebrew. You computer system must be properly enabled with keyboard layout and text input services (IME) to use this font. The Syriac letter forms in Estrangelo Edessa were designed by Paul Nelson and George Kiraz. The design is based on types from an Ohioan press, probably designed after a 1954 Estrangelo Monotype font. The Monotype font was designed with the assistance of R. Draguet, and in turn is based on an 1851 type used in Estrangelo Talada. Some symbols, including numerical symbols are based on the monospaced Courier type design. The Estrangengelo Edessa font first appeared in Windows XP.