Clip font
| Brahmic scripts |
|---|
| TheBrahmi scriptand its descendants |
Clipfontsorsplit fonts[citation needed]are non-Unicodefontsthat assignglyphs of Brahmic scripts,such asDevanagari,atcode positionsintended forglyphs of the Latin scriptor to produce glyphs not found in Unicode by using itsPrivate Use Area(PUA).
Comparison
[edit]
Bottom:A conjunctligatureis produced in Unicode by ‘घ’ and ‘य’ separated by thehalantandzero-width joinercharacters to form ‘घ्य’, whereas a clip font uses three parts (clips)
Brahmic scriptshave an inherent vowel without attacheddiacritics.Vowels(excluding the inherent vowel) that immediately follow a consonant are written as a diacritic. For example, a Devanagari consonant in ‘base form’ in Unicode is ‘घ’ /ɡʱə/ where the inherent vowel is ‘अ’ /ə/. If the vowel ‘आ’ /aː/ were to follow this Devanagari consonant, then the ‘ा’ diacritic is attached resulting in ‘घा’. Consonants that are a part ofconjunct clustersmay assume a conjunct form such as ‘घ् ‘ in Devanagari.[1]
Consonant–consonant clusters
[edit]Devanagari consonants that are a part ofconjunct clusters(except for the final consonant in a conjunct cluster, which is in its ‘base form’) are followed by thehalantandzero-with joinercharacters. For example, ‘घ्य’ /ɡʱjə/ is formed by ‘घ’, followed by the halant diacritic,
Clip fonts
[edit]Consonant–vowel clusters
[edit]In clip fonts the ‘base form’ of a character is the conjunct form such as ‘घ् ’ in Devanagari and diacritics are added to indicate that the consonant is immediately followed by a vowel (including the inherent vowel). For example, a Devanagari consonant in ‘base form’ in a clip font is ‘घ् ’ /ɡʱ/. If the inherent vowel ‘अ’/ə/ were to follow this Devanagari consonant, then the ‘ा’ diacritic would be attached to it resulting in ‘घ’. Vowels that are not the inherent ‘अ’ /ə/ such as ‘आ’ /aː/ that follow this Devanagari consonant, then the ‘ा’ diacritic attaches twice, resulting in ‘घा’ with a Latin script representation of ‘Gaa’.[2][3]
Consonant–consonant clusters
[edit]Devanagari consonants that are a part ofconjunct clustersare written consecutively in their ‘base forms’ (unless it is the last consonant in a conjunct cluster, which is in its ‘inherent vowel form’). For example, ‘घ्य’ /ɡʱjə/ is formed by ‘घ् ’, followed by ‘य् ’, and followed by the ‘ा’ diacritic with a Latin script representation of ‘Gya’.[2][3]
Tables comparing Unicode and clip fonts
[edit]The ‘घा’ ligature
[edit]| Consonant–Vowel Pairs | ‘base form’ | ‘inherent vowel form’ | ‘inherent vowel form’ + ‘vowel diacritic’ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brahmic script representation
of Unicode |
घ | घ | घ + ा = घा |
| Unicode Code Points[1] | U+0918 | U+0918 | U+0918 U+093E |
| Brahmic script representation | घ् | घ् + ा = घ | घ् + ा + ा = घा |
| Latin script representation | G | G + a = Ga | G + a + a = Gaa |
The ‘घ्य’ ligature
[edit]|
Consonant–Vowel Pairs |
‘base form of घ’ |
‘conjunct form of घ’ |
‘घ’ + ‘inherent vowel form of य’ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brahmic script representation of Unicode | घ | घ् | घ् + य = घ्य |
| Unicode Code Points[1] | U+0918 | U+0918 U+094D U+200D | U+0918 U+094D U+200D U+092F |
| Brahmic script representation | घ् | घ् | घ् + य् + ा = घ्य |
| Latin script representation | G | G | G + y + a = Gya |
Latin script characters
[edit]A computer assumes that text written with a clip font is in the Latin script. Thus, when the font is changed to another Latin script font that is not a clip font, the Latin script characters on the keys that were used to type the text are displayed instead of text in the original Brahmic script.[2][3]As a result, the clip font has to be available wherever text in Brahmic script is desired. Thus, clip fonts may not be uniformly compatible across computers and the Internet. This weakness is used as a kind ofencryption.[citation needed]
Purpose and availability
[edit]Clip fonts arose as a result of the perceived complexity ofkeyboard layoutswitching in commonoperating systemsetups, as well as defectiveinternationalizationcapabilities in older software. English computer keyboards are common in India. Clip font users can easily write Hindi and other Indic languages using those keyboards. In India, people switch quickly among multiple languages and scripts.
At least 40 commercial clip fonts are available.[4][5]WithASCII,they are used by custom keyboard drivers for Indic scripts, intended to limit keystrokes. Such helper software often broke following operating system updates.
One of the popular clip fonts for Devanagari isKiran fontsKF-Kiran,[6]because it does not require special software and can be used in older software.[3]Many users successfully ported thisTrue Typefont to operating systems such asMac OS,Linux,some flavours ofUnixandAndroid.
Clip fonts are sometimes used for scripts that are not yet encoded in Unicode. The "correct" way to handle these is to temporarily encode these in Unicode'sPrivate Use Area(PUA). Users in India find that only English language keyboards are available.
List of clip fonts
[edit]See also
[edit]- Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII)
- ISO/IEC 646 § Derivatives for other alphabets
- Pi font
- Tamil All Character Encoding
- TSCII
References
[edit]- ^abc"U0900.pdf"(PDF).unicode.org.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 1 September 2014.Retrieved2 December2014.
- ^abcdefg"Marathi Typing Keyboard | Kiran | Inscript | Phonetic Keyboard.html".Marathi Typing.Archived fromthe originalon 26 June 2014.Retrieved2 December2014.
- ^abcdefgh"Marathi Typing - free marathi fonts, free marathi typing software".Marathi Typing.1 December 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 30 June 2014.Retrieved2 December2014.
- ^"Marathi Typing - free marathi fonts, free marathi typing software".Marathi Typing.1 December 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 26 June 2014.Retrieved2 December2014.
- ^"Hindi Font - Download free Hindi Font Devlys, Kruti Dev, Mangal and many Hindi font.html".India Typing.Archived fromthe originalon 31 October 2014.Retrieved2 December2014.
- ^"Welcome to Kiranfont.com.html".Archived fromthe originalon 31 October 2014.Retrieved2 December2014.
External links
[edit]- Marathi and Hindi Calligraphy Fonts Freeare available under the section titled ‘2. Marathi Font, Hindi calligraphy fonts free for personal use’
- 10000+ Marathi Fonts Download Freeare available under the section titled ‘1. Legacy Hindi Font’
- Hindi
- Devanagari clip fontsare available under the section titled ‘2. Marathi Typing Font’
- Devanagari clip fontsare available under the section titled ‘1. Legacy Hindi Font’