fonts for PC

[pfreund at mum.edu]

>Can anyone offer advice on Indic fonts (Devanagari primarily, but also
>Bangla) for PCs?  I have Fran Pritchett's comprehensive list but would
>like to hear from someone who's actually used one or more of them and can
>tell me how they are.
>
>Thanks -
>
>Rebecca Manring

        Ralph Bunker and I have been working to develop devanagari and
transliteration data entry systems that work on the Mac and on PC-Windows,
and are truly cross platform--they permit exchanging files between the two
platforms.  Typing devanagari on the PC should be as easy as typing
English.  Typing speeds of as high as 120 devanagari verses per hour can be
achieved by a fast typist.  To achieve this kind of speed on a PC it is
necessary to use a typing program.
        This blazing speed --does anyone know of any faster?-- has been
clocked with Vedatype.  The "Vedatype" typing program that was developed,
uses VedicFont, by VedicFontFoundry, a simple devanagari truetype font,
originally designed for the Mac.  Because in Windows (3.1 or higher), it is
laborious and tedious to access the upper 128 characters of a font, and
because devanagari fonts make use of all the characters in the upper 128, a
typing program is helpful, if reasonable typing speeds are to be attained.
Effortlessly accessing the full range of characters available in the font
is one purpose served by the Vedatype typing program.
        We know that the devanagari script itself is not strictly speaking
sequential, so it becomes necessary, for example, to type a leading r in a
conjunct at the very end of the syllable that it precedes:  This mental
juggling slows the typing process, causes errors and frustration, and great
difficulties for beginners, and can be more easily handled by a computer
program.  This is another area where Vedatype is useful:  The Vedatype
typing program allows entering simple transliteration in  natural phonetic
sequence, and assembles the proper conjunct characters, and vowel symbols
for you.  Refinements, such as placement of offset vowel markings for "ka"
and "pha" are automatically taken care of by the program.

The Vedatype program uses the same keystrokes for typing transliteration
and devanagari, and can therefore convert from one to the other.

Text that has been typed can be cut and pasted into any other Windows
application that uses truetype fonts. (Font name and font size is lost when
going from one application to another, but the text need only be selected,
and the Vedic font and desired size chosen, for it to reappear.)


The advantages of Vedatype are:
1. It is easy to learn, even a beginner can be typing after about five minutes.
2. It is possible to achieve typing speeds in devanagari that are on a par
with English typing speeds.

In principle, the algorithm for Vedatype could be customized for any font,
and text could even be converted effortlessly from any one devanagari font
(with its own unique key assignments) to any other, but this refinement
awaits further software development.

        The keystrokes on Vedatype are as follows:
1.  The letters a, i, u, e, o, k, g, c, j, t, d, n, p, b, m, y, r, l, v, s,
and h are in their respective home key positions.
2.  The vocalic r is in the q position.
    the guttural n is in the z position.
    The palatal n is in the x position.
    The palatal s is in the f position.
3.  The letters ai, au, kh, gh, ch, jh, .th, .dh, th, dh, ph and b h
require typing the two keystrokes shown, for "a" and "i" in order to get
"ai."
4.  The letters aa, ii, uu, and long vocalic r are in the shift position of
the corresponding short vowels.
5.  The retroflex letters .t, .d, .n, and .s, are in the shift position of
the corresponding dental letters.
6.  Anusvara (.m) is in the shift-m position; visarga (.h) is in the
shift-h position.
7.  In Vedatype, when a consonant is typed without the following short "a",
then a virama is added.  The virama disappears when you type "a" or any
other vowel.
8.  A signle danda is the comma keystroke; double danda is the period.
Avagraha is straight single quote.
9.  Anunasika is in the shift Z position.
10.  There are key assignments for anunasika, pranava, pada separation, and
for Vedic accents.

VedicFont is available from Yeoman Software, SU #152, Fairfield, IA 52557
for $34.95.  Vedatype is shareware, also available from Yeoman Software,
for $15, for a total of $49.95, shipping included.

Hope this is useful,

Peter Freund