Are there plans to update Galatia SIL with the full range of characters supported by Gentium Plus? I find Galatia SIL more pleasing to my eye than Gentium Plus.
No, there are no plans to update Galatia SIL.
Why has Gentium Plus been prioritized over Galatia SIL?
The Gentium design quickly became popular with the Biblical studies and Ancient Greek scholarly communities after its release in 2003, and has always been more popular with SIL font users than Galatia SIL. It has won design awards, has been used in Biblical Greek textbooks, and remains the most commonly recommended font for ancient Greek. Because of limited resources we long ago chose to put our Greek support efforts into the font that was by far the most desired and used.
Galatia SIL hasn’t been updated in 15 years, and it would take considerable effort - essentially a complete redrawing and massive expansion - to bring it up to current standards. It’s also rarely used. There are so many Greek fonts out there, and Galatia SIL rarely makes it onto any lists of the best free Greek fonts.
If you don’t like the particular look of Gentium, I can highly recommend SBL Greek. It’s a porsonic design that is very different from Gentium but is wonderfully drawn, complete, and technically excellent. Brill is also very good but has severe use restrictions. This Reddit thread has some visual comparisons of the most common free and not-quite-free fonts.
I guess I’m in a minority then. Sigh.
Thanks for the link to the Reddit thread. I have looked at SBL Greek, and I do like it better than Gentium Plus.