Baltic Language Support

As technologies have rapidly penetrated our lives we wanted to ensure that the Baltic languages were not left behind.

For over 35 years DekSoft has been supporting the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuaniuan languages - from fonts, keyboard drivers, spellcheckers, grammar checkers, dictionaries and text utilities for Windows and Macintosh to a range of language, music and culture apps for iPhones, iPads and Android mobile devices.

In the beginning of the computer and Internet revolution we helped our Baltic users to navigate through the slew of de-facto computing standards and writing systems. With the inclusion of the Baltic languages in the Unicode standard back in the 1990s users today can purchase a computer or mobile device and begin to write in Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian without installing additional software.

But there is one last thing before we can close this chapter - speech recognition which will become even more important as we talk and interact with our devices in our daily lives. Today only the larger languages have speech recognition built-in - we look forward to the day when Apple, Google and Microsoft and other major technology players will add the Baltic languages as well.

Our journey

A timeline of our products, services and initiatives

 

- 1986

1986

Baltic fonts & keyboard drivers

Active participation in forums on terminology and Baltic computing standards. Popular BEMTools utility was created to convert texts between multiple code tables including the Microsoft cp1257 and Apple CE standards.

1986

Deklinātors & Konjugātors

First Latvian grammar software for IBM PC and Macintosh computers.

1986 -

 

 

- 1989

1989

Rīga Macintosh user club

Co-founder of the Rīga Macintosh user club in the University of Latvia

1991

Baltic Express Mail

The Baltic Express Mail service provided a cost effective, speedy and reliable mail delivery service from Australia and USA to the Baltics. The service delivered mail to more than 30 destinations in the Baltic States - all within 4-36 hours. 

1991 -

 

 

- 1992

1992

Apple CE

Apple publishes new Apple CE standard for the Baltic States. The code table includes English, Czech, Estonian, German, Hungarian, Latgalian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovakian and Slovenian languages.

1996

Baltic Utilities

Released Baltic fonts and keyboard driver software for Macintosh computers. Baltic Utilities supported the new Apple CE standard.

1996 -

 

 

- 1997

1997

LatBits

The first monthly electronic newsletter with a focus on the emerging Latvian Internet space. Over 30 issues were published and sent to over 20,000 users worldwide.

 

- 1997

1997

Svināmdienas

Utility to display namesdays and other important events (Windows & Macintosh)

1998

Baltic Netscape Navigator

Popular Web browser patch utility to enable Macintosh computers to display Latvian, Estonian & Lithuanian web pages

1998 -

 

 

- 1998

1998

LatHyphenator

Latvian hyphenation software used by major publishing houses.

2000

Latvians Online

A joint initiative between LatBits and Sveiks.com, Latvians Online (both English and Latvian) included commentary, news, book and music reviews, discussion forums, events and a marketplace and was the largest website bringing Latvians together worldwide. 

2000 -

 

 

- 2001

2001

PalmPilot Latvian

Latvian font and handwriting driver of PalmPilot devices.

2006

latviski.lv

Website showcasing products which included Latvian in their user interfaces, eg. software, navigation, home appliances, electronic devices, mobile phones, cameras

2006 -

 

 

- 2011

2011

Vārdenīte

A selection of less known Latvian words and expressions from the Vārdene book series published by Prof. Janīna Kursīte. Released for iPhones and iPads.

2012

Latvian school and the iPad

Setup Melbourne Latvian school with iPads and education Apps to supplement the Latvian learning  program

2012 -

 

 

- 2012

2012

Latvian Nouns & Verbs

Released Latvian Nouns & Latvian Verbs Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android

2014

Latvian library digitalisation

Digitalisation of the Melbourne Latvian library catalogue (19000 publications). iPad software solution was created to search and locate books & magazines.

2014 -

 

 

- 2014

2014

Latvian Cemetery digitalisation

Latvian Cemetery (Fawkner) digitalisation and management solution for iPad.

 

- 2014

2014

Lociņš

Latvian verb trainer for iPhone, iPad and Android. Developed in conjunction with LVA.

2015

Kas Kas Ko

Based on the same trivia quiz game created by a group of Melbourne Latvians in the 1980s. Became a hugely popular App in Latvia. Works with iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

2015 -

 

 

- 2016

2016

eLaipa

Develop prototype of Latvian online learning tool (age 13+) for presentation to the Parliamentary Committee for Education & the Foreign Ministry of Latvia.

2017

Tautasdziesmas

Latvian folksong lyrics and melodies App for iPhone, iPad and Android.

2017 -

 

 

- 2020

2020

Russian Verbs

Russian Verbs App released for iPhone & iPad.

2021

Estonian Verbs

Estonian Verbs App released for iPhone and iPad.

2021 -

 

 

- 2021

2021

Latvian Apps

Latvian Apps website provides a directory of all of our currently available Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.

2022

Deklinators

Open source algorithm for declensions in the Latvian language.

2022 -

 

 

- 2023

2023

Latgalian Verbs

Latgalian Verbs App released for iPhone, iPad and Android.