icukit

A comprehensive Python toolkit for Unicode and internationalization, built on ICU (International Components for Unicode).

icukit provides a Pythonic interface to ICU's powerful text processing, localization, and internationalization capabilities. It includes both a library API and a command-line interface.

Installation

pip install icukit

This pulls in icukit-pyicu, which bundles pre-built ICU libraries and PyICU. There are no system dependencies to install on either macOS or Linux — the wheels are self-contained.

See Installation Guide for details, including how to use a system PyICU instead.

Features

Text Processing

• Transliteration: Convert between scripts (Latin to Cyrillic, Hangul to Latin, etc.)
• Normalization: NFC, NFD, NFKC, NFKD Unicode normalization forms
• Text Segmentation: Break text into words, sentences, lines, or grapheme clusters
• Unicode Regex: Full Unicode-aware regular expressions with script and property support

Localization

• Number Formatting: Decimal, currency, percent, scientific, spelled-out numbers
• Date/Time Formatting: Locale-aware date and time formatting with multiple styles
• Duration Formatting: Human-readable time durations ("2 hours, 30 minutes")
• List Formatting: Locale-aware list formatting ("A, B, and C")
• Plural Rules: Determine plural categories (one, few, many, other) for any locale
• Message Formatting: ICU MessageFormat for complex localized strings

Internationalization Utilities

• Collation: Locale-aware string sorting and comparison
• Locale Information: Parse, validate, and query locale data
• Script Detection: Identify writing scripts in text
• Bidirectional Text: Detect and handle RTL/LTR text
• IDNA: Internationalized domain name encoding/decoding
• Spoof Detection: Detect confusable characters and homograph attacks

Reference Data

• Regions: Country and region codes with containment relationships
• Scripts: Writing system information and properties
• Timezones: Timezone data with offsets and equivalents
• Calendars: Calendar system information (Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic, etc.)

Quick Start

Library API

from icukit import (
    transliterate,
    sort_strings,
    format_number,
    format_datetime,
    get_plural_category,
    break_words,
)

# Transliterate text between scripts
transliterate("Привет мир", "Russian-Latin/BGN")  # "Privet mir"
transliterate("hello", "Latin-Cyrillic")  # "хелло"

# Sort strings with locale-aware collation
sort_strings(["cafe", "café", "CAFE"], "en_US")  # ['cafe', 'café', 'CAFE']
sort_strings(["Öl", "Ol", "öl"], "de_DE")  # ['Ol', 'Öl', 'öl']

# Format numbers for different locales
format_number(1234567.89, "en_US")  # "1,234,567.89"
format_number(1234567.89, "de_DE")  # "1.234.567,89"
format_number(1234567.89, "hi_IN")  # "12,34,567.89"

# Format dates
from datetime import datetime

now = datetime.now()
format_datetime(now, "en_US", style="LONG")  # "January 19, 2026 at 4:00:00 PM PST"
format_datetime(now, "ja_JP", style="LONG")  # "2026年1月19日 16:00:00 PST"

# Determine plural category
get_plural_category(1, "en")  # "one"
get_plural_category(2, "en")  # "other"
get_plural_category(2, "ru")  # "few"
get_plural_category(5, "ru")  # "many"

# Break text into words
break_words("Hello, world!")  # ["Hello", ",", " ", "world", "!"]

Command-Line Interface

icukit includes a full-featured CLI accessible via icukit or ik:

# Transliterate text
ik transliterate "Москва" Russian-Latin/BGN
# Output: Moskva

# Format numbers
ik number 1234567.89 --locale de_DE
# Output: 1.234.567,89

# Get locale information
ik locale info en_US

# List available transliterators
ik transliterate --list

# Sort lines with locale collation
cat names.txt | ik sort --locale sv_SE

# Detect scripts in text
ik script detect "Hello Мир 世界"

# Get Unicode character information
ik unicode info "A"

Run ik help or ik <command> --help for detailed usage information.

Supported Python Versions

• Python 3.9+
• Tested on Linux and macOS

Documentation

• API Reference
• CLI Reference

License

BSD 2-Clause License