Dear Prof Krishnaprasad,
This evolution of your font is super to observe.
Madhav voted against the matra-gaps; I voted for them. It's a hard choice, but if you are really going for the look-and-feel of the NS fonts, then it has to be admitted that they had such matra-gaps and that it's a key feature of the NS fonts. When viewing a page of writing from a normal reading distance of 18" or so, these gaps are not really noticeable, but subliminally - for me - they aid rapid, accurate reading. I assume they go back to scribal practice, where gaps between aksaras are normal. I don't know when the continuous matra line came into fashion. Alessandro has made an implicit argument for such a matra-gap, which is a feature of the original font that he created for his 2015 Jayanta book:
Regarding the multiple forms of da etc., modern font technology can help. OpenType includes some "alternates" or "contextual alternates" features that allow the user (or auto-select) to select from multiple versions of a glyph. But I'm sure you know this. And it's only certain advanced text-setting programs like TeX that allow one to access such features easily (e.g., through fontspec, manual part IV).
Such questions make me wish to consult Naik's classic work Typography of Devanagari (3 vols, 1971 rev. ed.), but I've never had access to a copy of this rare publication.
Best,
Dominik
Best,
Dominik
--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
University of Alberta, Canada
,
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
,
University of Alberta, Canada
.
South Asia at the U of A: sas.ualberta.ca