Google Books and Internet Archive: Indic script pdf books

Due to my horrible documentation practices, I had to search the online library catalogs to find the books I used for my flickr collection. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon .pdf excerpts (or even in some cases, entire books!) hosted by Google books and the Internet Archive!

I'm not sure how these were all scanned, if by man or machine, but hooray! (Yeesh, after working as a documenter/scanner in my college's media library for two years, I have an even deeper respect for the people who put the time and effort into projects like this! -- maybe I should honor them by making sure to properly cite things from now on. Sigh.)

So here you go, kiddos! A few fine examples!

A Kannada-English school dictionary, hosted by Internet Archive.
A Progressive Grammar of the Malayalam Language, at Google Books.
Sinhalese, self-taught, at Internet Archive.

I reccomend searching for other Indian languages and topics at Internet Archive - there is some good stuff!

Kannada and Malayalam images

Nothing too amazing to report today, but I'm going to try to get in the habit of more frequent posts, even if they are simple like this! Sound good, readers?

I've just added some dark, hastily taken photos of Kannada and Malayalam type and lettering from the few books I've been able to find on the subject during recent library visits. If you click on "all sizes", there are much larger - and hopefully slightly helpful - images. So there you go! :)

Chukki: Kannada typeface for the web updates!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the extreme lapse in posts! I know what will cheer you up... the wonderful update of Sanjay's Kannada typeface, Chukki! He was kind enough to contact me/us and share his amazing and beautiful process document pdf! It details his inspiration behind the project, his study in formal elements and technical restrictions, as well as type specimens using 9 and 7-pixel grids. He hopes we'll find it useful, and I'm sure we all will! Amazing!!!!

He also noted that he and his girlfriend are hoping to start an Indic type design studio! I sure hope they do - I'm sure they'll create many useful and beautiful works!

Creating a Kannada typeface for the web

Wow, today is a lucky day! Point your browsers toward Sanjay Basavaraju's blog, Chukki: Kannada typeface for the web. He is a post-grad student at the National Institute of Design in India, and his blog takes a peek at his process. Hopefully we can get him to update us on how his project is going!

2,700 Indian fonts - wow!

Wowzers, another great Indian type catalog, from Modular Infotech - that claims to be the largest one available - and can be downloaded via .pdf specimens. A great resource to begin comparing and contrasting letterforms and to see what's available in the world of fonts. Some Hindi display fonts are seen above.

Also, check out this previous post for more type.

Save Kannada

So in an effort to back-track through my posts and try to insert more contextual/credit information, I found that the Kannada newspaper article had been linked to by this site, savekannada.googlepages.com. Me having type on the brain, the first thing I noticed was that the Kannada font used on the site was incredibly legible, as opposed to most Indian-language websites I've browsed. I'm thinking "The creators really understand how to find/make the best Kannada font for the screen! They must really want to save Kannada!"

So, when I clicked on the English translation link, I was able to read the sad story on the page. It really was written by people hoping to save the integrity of their language in the digital age. It turns out that Microsoft has continually published software with numerous errors in its translation and usage of Kannada script and ignored programmers'/consumers' complaints about the product. But to make matters worse, Microsoft and the government of Karnataka have signed an agreement to "implement e-governance and paper-less government offices in the state." Which means that they'd be stuck using software that has butchered their native language with no remorse.

It has always confused and bothered me that the web has been SO incredibly dominated by English.. I'm only just beginning to read about the complexities of Unicode and the inputting of non-latin scripts on the internet, let alone using a complex script in Microsoft Word and other basic programs. This kind of 21st century cultural imperialism hopefully can be reduced and counter-acted with the brilliant programmers in the open source movement.. most of which are probably living in Bangalore, native speakers of Kannada. Ha, I'll stop now before I sound like a total idiot. I must read more!! Anyway, check out the site!

Hail Mary Handwriting

Love 'em or hate 'em, Christian missionaries and scholars have left us with a wealth of language documentation. This archive contains hundreds of language samples - and to my delight - most are handwritten!! I'd love to get my hands on as much everyday, handwritten bits as possible - if anyone could point me towards more, I'd be eternally grateful.

Kannada online newspaper article

So, while image-searching for Kannada type examples, I found this online newspaper image. It is a clipping from the prajavaniepaper.com "e-paper". What a great way to gain insight into typographic India! Also check out sanjevani.com for some nice Kannada type.

languages!

Marathi | Gujarati
Kannada | Tamil
Telugu | Malayam
Urdu | Bengali

from peta-india posters

jackpot!!!!!

YESSSSS
check it out!!!!!
TONS of the fonts I've seen on the book covers.
FINALLY I've found a significant collection of fonties!!!!
http://www.cdac.in/html/gist/down/typeface.asp

das rupaye

the many languages printed on Indian currency

Writing systems map

From UPenn