Writing in indian languages

The whole stuff started when I wanted to write my name in Oriya(my mother tounge). But soon I found it is not that easy and got deeper into it. Writting in vernacular Indian languages is still difficult. Take a trip with me to see what i uncovered. You can use the right link when you come across to start your journey.

http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/user/iwi/charmap.html
This is where I started thanks to But could not really figure out how to put in my name which was much more complex than the individual charachters provided by the charachter map.

One of the first sites I visited was
http://www.uthfull.org/blog/2006/07/29/how-to-blog-in-your-mother-tongue/
will give you ideas as to how to move forward. You can consider using a phonetic tool and transliteration. The transliterators will actually use phonetics to render the entered english text into your vernacular language.

Then i found a government initiative for providing the language tools and fonts.
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/

http://tdil.mit.gov.in/uni.htmwill give you links to understanding the font and ways of formation of complex words in Unicode.. u can find links for bangle, malyalam, tamil, kannada, gurumukhi, gujrati, devnagri etc.

Especially you might want to see this page where the keyboard layouts have been given for different Indian languages.
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/keyoverlay.htm
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/isciichart.pdf


Using a Multilingual software
This is the link from where u can get the ileap software. I guess this is one of the best available for Indian languages.
http://www.cdacindia.com/download/gist/ileapori.exe
Just fill in the form and you will get the trial version. There are some limitations. But this would really help to generate your language with ease. There is a virtual keyboard, there is a phonetics based translator and a list of sample words which makes it easy to pick out some of the difficult word formations that we have in Indian languages.

But the problem is copying it into other applications or the web. The full version allows you to do that but the person reading should have that font installed to read it.

I tried out generating HTML output and opened them using IE6 and Firefox2.0.0.3 with different levels of succes. Once i changed the encoding to UTF8 (go to View->Encoding and select) the outputs were readable but not exactly what I had written (my name).

But i would say this is a good software and the ease of use means you can generate pages of text in your language, convert it to pdf or something else and circulate.

Some links:
http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/fonts.html

If you are looking for a Hindi writer you can get it here
http://devendraparakh.port5.com/

Check out some of the Indian lang free fonts from here http://zope.gnowledge.org/Gnoware/localization/font.htm

Well after this point, I started to focus on Oriya. So if u may skip this part if you are not interested.

Update (29th aprill 07)

Check this link from Microsoft. The project is called Bhasha and as of now they have released support for 7 languages. Check out the tools section also..especially the tool for creating Keyboard Layouts.http://bhashaindia.com/

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ଓଡିଆ re kemiti lekhiba

The things that are easiest are:
1- copy it out of a tranliterator
http://www.oriyamail.com/mail/trans.htmT
his is the one i use to generate the ଓଡିଆ word in the subject. But the limitation is it takes some time to understand the use and the juktaksharas are difficult to generate.

Some tips for those who are going to try this. The Shift button of your keyboard needs to be put to good use. Most keys have 2 values that can be toggled using the Shift key.

For the Matras: use the capital case. that is for aa kar use A (capital A)
Ex:mAtrA gives ମାତ୍ରା

You can also find transliterators athttp://www.oriyanet.com/

2- Unicode charachtermap
http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/user/iwi/charmap.html
This one gives buttons for each of the charachter. Just click on it to generate required charachter. But there seems to be a severe limitation on the matras and the juktaksharas.

You can also find the oriya charachter map at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/oriyachart.html.But there seem to be no key for Reph or ra phala. (which i need to write my name )
Please friends if u have something to share add on as a comment here.

Here are some of the specific links for getting details on Oriya fonts etc..

The indian government actually provides a CD with tools and fonts for Oriya language also.
This link gave me some info I had heard of earlierFree Software Tools And Fonts CD for govt of india…http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/06/free-software-tools-and-fonts-cd.htmland actually leads you to the tdil and cdacc

if you are going for the cdac stuff start here
http://www.cdac.in/html/gist/gistidx.asp

This is a big file but download it and go through so that you can understand how to make the complex words forms.
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/ori-guru-telu.pdf

http://ildc.gov.in/Oriya/oindex.aspx

This is where I downloaded the Oriya font TT-Sarala
http://www.orissainfoline.com/oriyafont.zip


Good page with lots of information and links
http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/oriya.html
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/oriya.html
http://www.oriyamail.com/mail/trans.htm



srbshrEShThA pNDA [this is what i have to type into iLEAP to get my correct name]