Making a new Font is a time-consuming yet rewarding task. Making a Devanagari Font with Indic Shaping features in Open Type Design is especially challenging. This book hopes to address this issue by going into the details of the process involved, by discussing the relevant Unicode Blocks and Shaping features threadbare.
Indic Shaping Features
There are two principal features in Open Type design, namely Glyph Positioning (GPOS) and Glyph Substitution (GSUB). Each feature has the shaping code layouts as below, which we can use during Font Design.
AboveBaseMarkPositioning (abvm)
MarkToBase-attaching anchor of mark glyph with base glyph
AboveBaseSubstitutions (abvs)
Ligature-replacing overlapping glyphs with new drawn smaller glyphs that do not overlap.
Akhands (akhn)
Ligature-replacing क +् + ष combination glyphs with new drawn ligature क्ष glyph
BelowBaseForms (blwf)
Ligature-replacing क्र ् → क्र्
BelowBaseMarkPositioning (blwm)
MarkToBase-attaching anchor of mark glyph with base glyph
MarkToMark-attaching anchor of mark glyph with mark glyph
BelowBaseSubstitutions (blws)
Ligature-replacing overlapping glyphs with new drawn smaller glyphs that do not overlap.
ConjunctForms (cjct)
Ligature-replacing consonant glyph combinations as seen in Sanskrit Literature.
HalantForms (haln)
Ligature-replacing glyphs where halant intersects, with new drawn glyph where halant is well positioned.
HalfForms (half)
Ligature-replacing consonant+halant glyphs with new drawn half-consonant glyph.
NuktaForms (nukt)
Ligature-replacing the combination of consonant+nukta glyphs with a new ligature.
PostBaseSubstitutions (psts)
Ligature-replacing the combination of consonant+halant glyphs with a new ligature.
PreBaseSubstitutions (pres)
Ligature-replacing the combination of consonant+halant+consonant glyphs with a new ligature.
RakarForms (rkrf)
Ligature-replacing consonant+halant+repha combination glyphs with new drawn Ligature conjunct having back slash for repha
RephForms (rphf)
Ligature-for replacing repha+halant glyphs with top curve glyph
VattuVariants (vatu)
Ligature-replacing consonant+halant+repha combination glyphs with new drawn Ligature conjunct having caret below for repha
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Lists all glyphs and characters needed for a Devanagari font to be used for Sanskrit Typesetting.
Contains Full Color Plates for legibility and clarity.
A proposed character class scheme for correct implementation of Sanskrit Typesetting is outlined here, so that
- Unicode Character Block team members
- Script Language coders
- Font designers
- Open Type Design Shaping Engine developers
can help users in writing "correct and beautiful Sanskrit" texts and books and documents as per the extant Ancient Sanskrit Literature in the modern world.
