Dear Madhav and Suresh,

I do work at Microsoft, and we take font bugs seriously! 😊

It turns out the problem in this case is with Firefox and Chrome on Windows 10. These browsers use a font rendering technology called Harfbuzz. In this case the Nirmala UI font renders this conjunct dyu with explicit halant. Nirmala UI renders most conjucts horizontally, often with explicit virama, as is commonplace when typesetting Hindi. Nirmala UI has been optimized for Hindi because most text in devanagari that renders on Windows is in Hindi. Now the problem comes in when Harbuzz tries to position the u-matra on the conjunct dy-. It seems to get this wrong and try to position the u-matra on the d component. If you paste this cluster into Notepad on Windows, you get the correct and expected rendering with the u positioned below the ya. This rendering is also correct ("dyu") in Microsoft's Edge browser - which is how I determined that the problem is with Harfbuzz - as I do see the problem you mentioned, "duya" on Chrome and Firefox. I will share this observation with the developer of Harfbuzz.

Here is the rendering of this pada in Word on Windows 10 using the Devanagari fonts that ship with Windows 10.

Best wishes,

Andrew Glass

---

From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of Suresh Kolichala via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2018 12:55 PM
To: Madhav Deshpande
Cc: Indology; Jayaram Sethuraman; e-shabda-charcha-peeth; Bharatiya Vidvat parishad; Manik Thakar; Ranjana Date
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] My Sanskrit verse today

 

Dear Madhavji,

There is nothing wrong with your dyutiṃ. It is the problem with the font. The default font on Microsoft windows was changed from Mangal font to Nirmala font, in Windows 10 (actually from Windows 8). The rendering of dyu is not correctly implemented in Nirmala font. So, unfortunately, everyone using Microsoft windows 10 would find your  muktādyutiṃ as  muktāduyatiṃ.

You can see how your text appears in various fonts as shown below:

 

I hope someone at Microsoft is working to rid their default font of all these bugs.

Regards,

Suresh.

On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 10:49 AM, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

I am told by a few friends that they see in the second line of my verse the word "muktāduyatiṃ".  The Devanagari on my MacBook clearly reads "muktādyutiṃ."  So there is some issue in how Devanagari Unicode typed on a MacBook gets displayed elsewhere.  I don't have a way of solving this dilemma.  I would appreciate if anyone has suggestions.  Best,

Madhav Deshpande

Campbell, California

2018-04-27 6:51 GMT-07:00 Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh@umich.edu>:

My Sanskrit verse today:

कालिन्दीपुलिनेषु खेलनवशाद् यद्भालदेशे सदा

सञ्जाता: श्रमवारिबिन्दुपुलका मुक्ताद्युतिं तन्वते ।

यस्यानन्तगुणप्रभाविकिरणाद् विद्योतते भूतलम्

सोऽयं गोकुलवत्सलो विलसतां मन्मानसे सन्ततम् ।।

Playing on the banks of Kālindī, the drops of sweat on his forehead produced by his exertion shine like pearls. The world itself shines by the scattering light of his infinite virtues. May this love of Gokula constantly shine in my mind.

Madhav Deshpande

Campbell, California

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)