Interscript
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Use cases

Where Interscript is used.

Real-world contexts where romanization correctness matters. Each case below is paired with the systems that commonly serve it and a live, runnable example.

  1. 01

    Library catalogs (MARC)

    Cataloging authorities use specific romanization standards. Interscript makes it easy to convert author names and titles consistently across collections.

    MARC 21 records encode the script of the work; catalogers romanize the access points using ALA-LC rules so readers can find materials across writing systems. Interscript gives libraries a single, versioned source of truth.

  2. 02

    Passports & ID documents

    ICAO 9303 defines the machine-readable zone. Issuing countries transliterate local-script names into the MRZ following strict character mappings.

    The MRZ of a passport must be unambiguously parseable. ICAO 9303 transliteration strips diacritics and maps source-script characters to a restricted ASCII set. Interscript's ICAO maps give you that exact mapping.

  3. 03

    Newsroom style guides

    AP, Reuters, and the BBC each romanize foreign names differently — readers expect consistency within a publication. Interscript lets a newsroom encode its house style.

    BGN/PCGN has long been the de-facto standard for English-language newsrooms covering geographic names. The same machinery can power byline consistency, search indexing, and archive deduplication.

  4. 04

    Academic citations

    Chicago, MLA, and APA each prescribe specific romanization systems for non-Latin source scripts. Get them right consistently with one tool.

    Indological journals typically require ISO 15919 or IAST. Slavistics journals use ISO 9 or ALA-LC. Scholars switching between fields spend real time re-romanizing the same names — Interscript lets them encode the chosen system once.

  5. 05

    Geographic names (geocoding)

    Map services need consistent handling of place names in different scripts. The UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) publishes romanization systems used by national mapping agencies.

    OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, and the US Board on Geographic Names all rely on UNGEGN systems. Interscript provides them as machine-readable maps so geocoders can normalize inputs consistently.

  6. 06

    Genealogy & family history

    Family records span multiple scripts across generations — a great-grandparent's name recorded in Cyrillic, their immigration papers in Latin, ship manifests in a third convention.

    Genealogy tools can offer multiple romanizations of the same source-script name so descendants searching across records can find matches under any convention.

Build on it

Your use case not listed?

Interscript covers 30+ systems across 6 domains. For novel integrations, the JSON IR + TypeScript runtime give you building blocks for any text-pipeline need. Open an issue on GitHub to discuss your scenario.

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