The problem of including phonetic symbols in popular computer applications such as word-processing, email, presentation graphics, and web pages has by now been largely, though not entirely, solved through the implementation of the Unicode standard. This paper traces the advances made in this field since the last ICPhS and assesses the current position. With the general availability of Unicode, the various unstandardized custom fonts that phoneticians previously used must now be treated as ‘legacy fonts’. A remaining issue is that of the input of special characters: but in this area, too, satisfactory solutions are now readily available.