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Sanskrit

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

Notes

While all of the fonts found on the Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali) page technically support the display of Unicode Sanskrit documents, the SALRC has created this list of fonts and input methods especially recommended for Sanskrit. A few issues arise in Sanskrit typography that are not present in other Devanagari-based languages:

• Specialized ligatures: Sanskrit texts feature a much larger set of conjunct consonants or 'ligatures' than modern vernaculars. Moreover, while it is often acceptable in vernacular typesetting to use 'half-consonant' forms or 'halants' (called 'viramas' in Sanskrit) to create these ligatures, Sanskrit texts have traditionally used more complex representations. The fonts on this page provide a broader support of complex ligatures than other Devanagari Unicode fonts.
• Vedic Accents and Characters: While a number of proposals are currently in the works, the Devanagari tables of the Unicode Standard 4.1 does not provide code points for most Vedic accent marks and other characters. only Udatta (Ux0951) and Anudatta (Ux0952) accents are included. Among the Unicode fonts we recommend, the "Sanskrit 2003" font does include Vedic symbols and characters by making use of the "Private Use Area" of the Unicode Standard. Presuming that conversion utilities will be created for this font should the Unicode Consortium approve a Vedic Accents code point table, we recommend this font be used to represent Vedic accents. Visit Omkarananda Ashram, TDIL, or Everson Typography's repository for the latest updates regarding the status of Vedic Unicode proposals.
• Sanskrit in Other Scripts: Sanskrit may also be represented in archaic scripts. Kharoshthi has been included in the latest version of the Unicode Standard (4.1); Brahmi, Grantha, Siddham, and other scripts are not yet supported, but proposals are in the 'pipeline'.

Recommended Fonts

The SALRC recommends the following Devanagari fonts for use in Sanskrit language pedagogy and Internet applications:

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

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Input Software and Keyboard Layouts

For typing Unicode Sanskrit 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). 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.
• 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, Mac OS X (with X11), and all modern Windows platforms, including Windows 95.

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Rendering issues: Mac vs. PC

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); the above fonts are written for Microsoft's engine (called Uniscribe).

For Devanagari computing, Mac 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, and enable Devanagari and Devanagari-QWERTY keyboards. The user will now be able to view Devanagari-encoded websites using Safari and to produce Unicode documents using TextEdit. Unfortunately, most other third-party browsers and word processing software, especially MS Office and Adobe InDesign, do not currently recognize this font.

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 that can be used for Sanskrit.

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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 additional Unicode support.

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