Devanagari [new unicode font set possible]

[Richard MAHONEY]

On Thu, Nov 11, 2004 at 09:56:17PM -0600, Dean Anderson wrote:

> >From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
> >Stefan Baums

[snip]

> >Those who would like to try Unicode Devanagari fonts beyond those
> >that come with their operating system can have a look here:
> >
> >   http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/Fonts_Devanagari.html
> >
> >But note that most of the fonts described on that page, even if
> >downloadable free of charge, have somewhat onerous usage
> >restrictions.  The only truly free Unicode Devanagari font that I
> >am currently aware of is the Gargi font, also linked to from the
> >above page.
> >
> >If you would like more advice or references on how to set things up
> >(though I am no Mac specialist), then please feel free to contact
> >me offlist.
> >
> >Best regards,
> >Stefan Baums
> >

> I will contact you off-list and we can try to work out a truly free
> and, hopefully, widely acceptable solution based either on my older
> font or on other ones that I'm aware of.
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Dean Anderson

This discussion may be moving off-list but I am far from weary of
it. Especially as it holds the possibility of being so fruitful. A
correctly designed, cross platform, freely available, unicode
Devanagari font -- what a mouthful -- would I am sure be well received
and widely used.

While you are gathering details of what is currently available you
might like to assess the Devanagari fonts initially designed by Frans
Velthuis for Groningen and currently maintained by Anshuman Pandey
&c.:

 ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/language/devanagari/velthuis/

These fonts are available as METAFONTs and as PostScript Type 1 font
programs in binary format (PFBs). I'm not sure if I've still got a set
in ASCII format (PFAs) on my beast, but if needed they are simple to
generate from the PFBs using Hetherington and Kohler's `t1utils':

 http://www.lcdf.org/~eddietwo/type/

Test pages for all the glyphs -- to see them up close -- can be
generated from PFAs or Bs with `t1testpage' (bundled in the same). Of
special note are the various of families, shapes and weights now
available (esp. as of Version 2.11, 16 August 2004).


With kind regards,

 Richard Mahoney


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Richard MAHONEY | internet: homepages.comnet.net.nz/~r-mahoney
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