ATF is an ASCII format for preparing transliteration of cuneiform texts; it also encompasses facilities for other kinds of editions commonly used in cuneiform studies.
ATF documentation is organized in several parts corresponding to different levels of complexity and degrees of relevancy to users in general.
If you are new to ATF, you should start with the Primer; this will give you just enough to start typing your first ATF texts. Then you will need to read the ATF tutorial which covers the most important aspects of block structure in ATF. Finally, there is a tutorial detailing the inline features of ATF which we call GDL; the reason for this separate name is that GDL, the Grapheme Description Language, is used in several places other than ATF (e.g., in ePSD).
When typing ATF texts it is a good idea to check them frequently using the web service; the ATF processor detects over 250 errors and is an essential aid to developing an ATF corpus.
There is an Emacs major mode for ATF which integrates the template-generator and the checker and provides an input method for accented and other special characters. For more information see the ATF and Emacs page.
All of the XML schemata (in Relax/NG) are available in the GDL and XTF2 manuals, along with a substantial amount of explanation of the implementation and notes on the relationship between the ATF format and its XML counterpart, XTF.
Questions about this document may be directed to Steve Tinney (stinney at sas dot upenn dot edu).