Madhushree and Manjushree Fonts

[madhav.deshpande at EDU.UMICH.CC.UM]

Dear Dominic,
        In the latest phase of these fonts, they each come as a family
of four varieties, i.e. normal, italic, bold, and bold-italic.  Only
one name appears in the Mac font menu for each family, and one can switch
to the appropriate variety simply by clicking for bold, italic etc.  Both
the fonts, Madhushree (Devanagari) and Manjushree (TimesRoman, Diacritics)
are postscript fonts and have screen fonts down to 12 point for Madhushree
and 10 point for Manjushree.
        Dominic, I would like to explain why I have not followed the
CSX standard for the diacritic font.  Your CSX coding makes good sense
when used for extended characters of the IBM set.  However, when used in
Chi-Writer, it would not make sense, nor does it make sense for the Mac
keyboard.  Just to give one example, the CSX uses the ascii code 167 for
m with the underdot.  This ascii value is accessible on the Mac keyboard
by pressing Option-s.  It makes far more sense on the Mac to use this key
for palatal or retroflex s, than for m with underdot.  My keyboard layout
for Manjushree, as well as my diacritics keyboard on the Chi-Writer, makes
it visually easy to keep track of most frequently used diacritics by
correlating them with the normal layout of the keyboard.  I have done the
same for my devanagari font.
        If one must convert a file from Manjushree to CSX, I suppose one
can easily create a version of the CONVERT program.
        You are of course correct that the postscript font is not limited
to the Mac.  It can be transported to Windows either as a postscript
font or as a truetype font.  However, I have not found an easy way of
keyboarding on Windows.  At least as far as I know, there is nothing
to make it as simple as pressing the Option-key combination on the Mac.
        I will keep you posted on the development of these fonts.  I am
feverishly working on them, so that beginning September, I can use these
fonts to work on my new edition of Shaunakiiya Caturaadhyaayikaa.  I will
be in Pune working at the BORI from September to March.
        With all the best,
                                Madhav