Khmer Unicode Converter

[View Demo]

Convert Khmer text between legacy font encodings (Limon, ABC, Truth, Baidok, Khek, FK, Kaoh Kong, Rasmei, …) and Khmer Unicode — in both directions. Zero runtime dependencies; works in Node (≥18) and browsers.

The implementation is a faithful TypeScript port of the amazing olivierberten/KhmerConverter (Khmer Software Initiative, www.khmeros.info), validated against its original test suites. Font mappings are generated at build time from the original fontdata.xml.

Install

npm install khmer-unicode-converter

Usage

import { limon } from 'khmer-unicode-converter';

const result = limon("ភស្តុតាងអំពីពាក្យថា ខ្មែរ")

// => PsþútagGMBIBaküfa Exµr

All fonts, both directions

import {
  convertUnicodeToLegacy,
  convertLegacyToUnicode,
  convertUnicodeToLegacyBytes,
  listFontTypes,
} from 'khmer-unicode-converter';

// Unicode -> legacy (font may be a type, real font name, or alias)
convertUnicodeToLegacy('កខគ', 'abc')        // => 'kxK'
convertUnicodeToLegacy('ខ្មែរ', 'Limon S1')  // => 'Exµr'
convertUnicodeToLegacyBytes('កខគ', 'abc')   // => Uint8Array (cp1252 bytes for files)

// legacy -> Unicode
convertLegacyToUnicode('kxK', 'abc')        // => 'កខគ'
convertLegacyToUnicode(bytesFromLegacyFile, 'limon') // Uint8Array input

listFontTypes()
// => ['abc', 'abc-zwsp', 'abc2', 'abc3', 'baidok', 'fk',
//     'kaohkong', 'khek', 'limon', 'rasmei', 'truth']

Legacy text is byte-based (cp1252). String inputs/outputs on the legacy side are cp1252-decoded display text — what you paste into or copy from an application using a legacy font. Use the Bytes variants when reading or writing legacy files.

limon(text) is the same API as version 0.0.8 and keeps its exact behavior (including , passthrough and ឲ/៕ handling).

Development

npm test               # vitest; includes the translated original test suites
npm run build          # library -> dist/
npm run gen:fontdata   # regenerate src/generated/fontdata.ts from fontdata/fontdata.xml

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — this package is a derivative of the GPL-licensed KhmerConverter, copyright © 2006–2008 Khmer Software Initiative (www.khmeros.info), developed by Hok Kakada, Keo Sophon, San Titvirak, and Seth Chanratha.