Bengali, Assamese

Recommended Fonts | Keyboard Layouts | Mac vs. PC vs. Linux Rendering Issues | Credits

Recommended Fonts

The Bengali alphabet uses the same written characters as Assamese. Assamese, however, contains two characters that are not used to write Bengali. Unless otherwise indicated, the fonts below can be used to display all the characters in both languages.

The SALRC recommends the following fonts for Bengali and Assamese language pedagogy and Internet applications:

[Click on font names or samples for specific information and text samples for each font.]

Bangla (Bangla.ttf)

Free download from SALRC.

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BN BIDISHA Opentype (BNBDOT0N.ttf)

Free download from Deutsche Welle's Bengali page.

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Ekushey Durga (Durga.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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Ekushey Punarbhaba (Punarbhaba.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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Ekushey Saraswatii (Saraswatii.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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Ekushey Sharifa (Sharifa.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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Ekushey Sumit (Sumit.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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LIkhan (LikhanNormal.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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MuktiNarrow (muktinarrow.ttf)

Free download from the Free Bangla Fonts Project.

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Rupali (Rupali.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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SolaimanLipi (SOLAI_NO.ttf)

Free download from Ekushey. Compatible with Unicode 4.1.0.

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UniBangla (UniBangla V1.0.ttf)

Free download from BanglaLinux (follow uniBangla-font link).

Note: Missing Assamese-specific characters.

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Vrinda (Vrinda.ttf)

Commercial font included in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2. In order to use this font, "Supplemental Language Support" must be activated. See either Microsoft's support for XP, or click on "How to Install Fonts and Layouts" in the left navigation bar.

Note: An improved version of Vrinda, with glyphs designed by Agfa Monotype, is to be supplied with the Microsoft Vista operating system. See Information on Unicode and Bangla for a preview.

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Input Schemes and Keyboard Layouts

For typing in Bengali on Windows platforms, the SALRC recommends the following options:

  • Windows XP Service Pack 2 Keyboard Layout: The Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrade features Bengali Unicode support. After the upgrade, the keyboard layout may be selected by navigating to: Control Panel > System > Languages. (Click on "How to Install Fonts and Layouts" in the left navigation bar for more information). The keyboard may be viewed with the On-screen Keyboard Viewer (Start > Program Files > Utilities > Accessibility > On Screen Keyboard). See Microsoft's Keyboard Layouts page to view various layouts available for Windows XP/2000/Server 2003. Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator allows the user to create a new keyboard, if the default keyboard layout is undesirable. Note: If Windows XP Service Pack 2 is not installed, Bengali will not appear as an option in the language support menu.
  • Bengali Indic IME: Microsoft's BhashaIndia site provides a set of phonetic input method editors (IMEs) for Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil. The IME is a separate application that must be run alongside Microsoft Office software. Compatible with Windows 2000/XP.
  • Ekusheyr Shadinota: Free Bangla and Assamese keyboard interfaces for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003 developed by Ekushey.org, currently offering five different keyboard layouts: Bangla Unicode, Rupali, iNSCRIPT, Probhat, National, and Uni Joy (a modification of the popular Bijoy layout). Compatible with the new Unicode 4.1.0 implementation of Bengali.
  • OpenOffice.org: A free, open-source office suite project that is Unicode-savvy, OpenType enabled, and able to run on Linux/Sparc, Mac OS X (with X11), and all modern Windows platforms, including Windows 95.

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Rendering issues: Mac vs. PC vs. Linux

The fonts recommended on this page have been tested for functionality on PCs running Windows XP/2000/2003/NT. They are unsuitable for use with Macintosh computers, because they make use of OpenType technology, developed jointly by Microsoft and Adobe, for displaying vowel signs (matras) and ligatures appropriately. While OS X also recognizes OpenType layout tables, it uses a different rendering engine (ATSUI), and these fonts are written for Microsoft's engine (called Uniscribe).

There is currently no built-in Bengali support in OS X. However, Ekushey.org currently offers a free system-wide Unicode Bangla solution for OS X, which includes two keyboards and two fonts.

These fonts are compatible with most distributions of Linux running Gnome or KDE. Most major distributions also offer or include free Bengali language packages, which include keyboards and fonts.

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Additional Resources and Credits

The content and design of this page rely largely Alan Wood's Unicode Fonts and WAZU JAPAN's Gallery of Unicode Fonts; these sites are excellent and up-to-date resources to find fonts, text editors, browsers, and other Unicode resources. The statistics and other font details appearing on this page have been used with their permission. Visit Penn State's South Asian Computing Information pages for additonal Unicode support. Information on Unicode and Bangla, the Free Bangla Fonts Project, Ekushey.org, and the Ankur Archive Project offer excellent support for Bengali Unicode issues. Omi Azad, Susmita Das, and Jesse Knutson (University of Chicago) have provided invaluable assistance and guidance in the creation of this page.

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