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Hindi, Marathi, Nepali

Recommended Fonts | Keyboard Layouts | Apple vs. Windows vs. Linux Rendering Issues | Credits

Recommended Fonts

The SALRC recommends the following Devanagari fonts for use in Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali language pedagogy and Internet applications:

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

[ A - G ] | [ H - Q ] | [ R - Z ]

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Input Schemes and Keyboard Layouts

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

• Windows 2000/XP Keyboard Layouts: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP offer full support for typing with Devanagari keyboard layouts in its multilingual support. These may be accessed through Control Panel > System > Languages, and are an optional installation (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).
• Hindi Indic IME: Microsoft's BhashaIndia site provides a set of phonetic input method editors (IMEs), compatible with Windows 2000/XP, for Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil. The IME is a separate application that must be run alongside Microsoft Office software. Note: The IMEs are designed specifically for MS Office, and do not function with other software.
• OpenOffice.org: A free, open-source office suite project that is Unicode-savvy, OpenType enabled, and able to run on Linux/Sparc, Apple OS X (with X11), and all modern Windows platforms, including Windows 95.

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Rendering issues: Apple vs. PC vs. Linux

The fonts recommended on this page have been tested for functionality on PCs running Windows XP. They are, however, unsuitable for use with most programs under Apple OS X.

For Devanagari computing, Apple users (OS X 10.3 and above) are advised to install the optional Asian Languages Support package, found in the first OS X installation CD/DVD. This will install the "Devanagari MT" font as well as Devanagari keyboards.

Hindi Unicode webpages should then display correctly by default in Safari. Note that Firefox versions below 3.0 do not display Devanagari.

To enable Devanagari Unicode keyboard support on Apple OS 10.4+, do the following:

• Open "System Preferences..." (available under the Apple sign)
• Select "International" (under Personal)
• Select "Edit List..." (under Language)
• Click "Show" (next to the desired language(s) [such as Konkani, Marathi, Nepali, Hindi, or Sanskrit]
• Click "OK"
• Select "Input Menu" (under International)
• Click "ON" next to Devanagari (which is based on the Hindi typewriter) or Devanagari - QWERY (which is phonetic)
• Close the window (press red button)
• To input in Devanagari, click on the national flag menu (likely US flag) on the vertical bar at the top of the screen and select one of the keyboards. The font will by default be Devanagari MT.

Note that Microsoft Word 2004 cannot properly render Devanagari. However, OpenOffice can, and it is also able to display the fonts above.

THDL provides a download for a Nepali keyboard layout for Apple OS X and further discussion on this topic.

These fonts are compatible with most distributions of Linux running Gnome or KDE. Most major distributions also offer or include free Hindi-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, THDL's Nepali Fonts pages, and Andrew Glass's Fonts page for additonal Unicode support.

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