Computer question

[Robert Zydenbos]

Op Sat, 10 May 2008 00:38:17 +0200 schreef Frederick Smith  
<frederick-smith at UIOWA.EDU>:

> ... My
> University has decided to give me a new computer, and because I use Mac,  
> it
> MUST be a desktop model (IMac) with OS X.5 (Leopard). Does anyone out  
> there
> use this system with Indic fonts? In my limited understanding, this
> operating system is very different from the older ones, and I hope of  
> course
> that it supports what I do. What (once again) are the best Nagari fonts  
> for
> Mac, esp. that can be used on OS X.5 (Leopard)?

There's a snag here. A clear and pretty Nagari font, and two different  
keyboard layouts (QWERTY and Inscript) come along with Leopard, and they  
function quite well, but not with just any application. The issue is the  
font rendering engines: Apple has its own, which is not compatible with  
most fonts. OpenType and TrueType fonts do not render correctly with most  
applications. (On the other hand, if you use TeX in its miraculous XeTeX  
version, all such fonts seem to render correctly.)

> I will assume I can continue
> to use Gentium as default Roman font, right?

No problem. See my page  
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~zydenbos/unicodeosx.html for further details  
of my experiences.

RZ

-- 
Prof. Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos
Deputy Head, Department of Asian Studies
Head, Institute of Indology and Tibetology
Munich University
Germany
Tel. (+49-89-) 2180-5782
Fax  (+49-89-) 2180-5827
Web  http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~zydenbos