ICTA Workshop on Unicode Publishing for Sinhala and Tamil

Shan

Agenda

Introduction (ICTA, Consultant)Session 1 (9am 10:30 11:00 12:30)Session 2 (1:30 03:00 3:30 04:30)

Over 17 years Experience in Local Language

• Keyboard Drivers (Mac, Windows )• Keyboard Apps (Android, iOS) • Fonts• Font Rules• Rendering Engine• Converters (Non-Unicode to unicode)• Spell Checker (Pagemaker, Word)• Unicode Sequence Checker• More than 14 languages

Session 1Font , Typeface Font Family, StyleUnicode Font Vs Non-Unicode FontKeyboard DriverKeyboard LayoutKeying-in SequenceFont RulesRendering EngineFont Tools - FontLab, Fontographer, RoboFont , FontForge MS-VoltSinhala/Tamil Unicode supportSinhala/Tamil publishing Publishing Software - Adobe, Quark XPressUnicode support in Publishing SoftwareIssuesSolution to Sinhala/Tamil Unicode PublishingDemo

EXCERCISE-1

1. Open Microsoft Word2. Select a Non-Unicode Sinhala Font (e.g .Abhaya Font)3. Press J - what do you see ?4. Type a sequence of Characters 5. Select the character and change the font to Arial6. You see all English characters

Issues1.Keyboard Layout2.Keyboard Driver3.Keying Sequence

EXCERCISE-21. Open Microsoft Word2. Select a Unicode Sinhala Font (e.g. IskolaPotha Font)3. Press J - what do you see ? ව4. Type sequence of Characters e.g. වයන්න

5. Select the character and change the font to Arial6. It will NOT change to English, or else you will see a box or question mark

Issues1.Keyboard Layout2.Keyboard Driver3.Keying Sequence

Typeface

Basic design of the character

Four different main categories

SerifSan SerifScriptDecorative / Ornamental

Serif

Have attributes or strokes at the tips of the letter

Used for body text in printed publications

San Serief

Have no attributes or strokes at the tips of the letter

Very large or very small text and for digital display

Decorative / Ornamental

Catch the eyes

Hard to readUsed for decoration

Headlines on flyers and advertisements

Script

Appears to have been written by hand

PoetryAnnouncement

Formal Invitation

Sinhala and Tamil Category

Font Style

• Regular• Bold• Italic• Bold Italic

Font

Is a file with a collection of characters with a specific typeface and style

Font FamilyIs a group of font files with a collection of characters with specific typeface and style

Non - Unicode Font

8 bit font 256 characters

How font is stored

Glyph

Non - Unicode Font

oQo + Q

Non - Unicode Font

o + Q = yenKeyboard driver

o Q

Every font has different layouts

Unicode Font 256 * 256 = 65536

Every base character is given a number called a Unicode code point

ක ු� - කු0d9A3482

0dd43540

SubstitutionFont Rule

තො��රතුර ��ක්‍ෂණයටි�ල පහසුකම්‍�ද අවස්ථා�වන්ද සලසන්න�වූ පරිසරයක්තො��ඩන�වීම, ICTA ම�නව සම්‍�පත් දියුණුකිරීම, ප�ලනය��පුරවසි�තොස්ව�වන්�යථා�වක්�බවට�පත්�කිරීම, සම�ජ�ආර්ථික�වර්ධනය�තො��රතුර���ක්ෂණය�ලීවරයක්�තොලස�තොය�ද��නීම�සහ�ල�ක�ව�තො��රතුර���ක්ෂණ�තො�4�න්නක්�බවට�අභිවර්ධනය�කිරීම�ආවරණය�කිරීම�ICTA මගින්�කරනු�ලතො8. තොමම�ජ�තික�ICT ම�ර්��සිතියම�අනු�මනය�කිරීතොම්‍දී�ස;ම�වඩසටහන්�වලම�හවුල්කරවන්�තොය�මු�කණ්ඩ�යම්‍�බිහිකර�තොය�ද���නීම��අප�විසින්�කරනු�ලතො8.

Unicode Keying-in Sequence

තොක4 �තොC ක �� �D

f l d a

කතො�4 කතො���� �Dl f d a

Unicode Fonts

GlyphsRules

You yet need a driver and Layout

To type in unicode Unicode font with rulesKeyboard LayoutKeyboard DriverOS Rendering Engine

Rendering Engine

Font Rules

Keyboard Driver

Keyboard Layout

�තොC ක���D කතො�4

තොක4

Files

OpenType Tables

Font Rules

AAT Tables

Mac

Windows, Linux

Font

තොක4

තොක4

තොක4

Supports Sinhala Unicode:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 to Windows 8 …… LinuxMac OS XAndroidiOS

Font ToolsFontlabFontographerFontForgeRoboFont

Create Rules you need MS Volt Tool

Publishing Software

Did not support UnicodeNot enough Unicode fonts

Therefore started using Non-Unicode font

Adobe Indesign , Quark Express, Corel Draw

Adobe

Adobe Suite has its rendering engine embedded

Rendering Engine

Font Rules

Keyboard Driver

Keyboard Layout

�තොC ක���D කතො�4

තොක4

Files

OpenType Tables

Windows, Linux

Font

Rakaransaya,Yanse,Rephaya

Tamil Ksha

க ்�� ்ஷ ் ்க்ஷ

க ்�� ்|ஷ ் ்க் ்ஷ

From CS 5.5 it supports OpenType for indic script

How about other Adobe Products ?

Photoshop, Illustrator etc…..

Solution

We created a font with rules which Adobe can read

DEMO

Question 1

තොක4

Application

කතො�4

නු තොක4

න�E

To type in Unicode

Rendering Engine

Font Rules

Keyboard Driver

Keyboard Layout

�තොC ක���D කතො�4

තොක4

Files

OpenType Tables

Font Rules

AAT Tables

Mac

Windows, Linux

Font

END