tg@gt-cmmsr.GATECH.EDU (T. Govindaraj) (06/10/88)
I am looking for Tamil font(s) for the Macs. I am aware of Tamil (and
other "foreign" language) fonts from Ecological Linguistics. While the
sample text in Tamil that they (EL) sent me looks reasonable, I would
like to buy (or get public domain fonts, if any, for free) prettier
fonts. I would appreciate any information on Tamil fonts.
Another alternative is to do my own fonts using Fontographer from Altsys.
I was told by Altsys that Fontographer is being used by people for
foreign language fonts, including "seven or eight" Indian fonts. The mail
order price for Fontographer is about $240. While I don't mind the price,
I am not sure of the time I need to invest to make my own fonts.
I would like advice on the following:
1. Are their good Tamil fonts available? If there is a choice
between many, which do you prefer?
2. How long does it take to good fonts using Fontographer (both
for Tamil fonts and for making/modifying English fonts)? If
I spend so much money, I would like to have more uses for the
program :-). If already have good PostScript fonts, would I
still find good uses for Fontographer? (Does anybody use them
for any "academic" uses such as instruction and research, other
than making pretty overheads?)
3. If it does make sense to make my own fonts, is there a place
where I can get frequency tables for Tamil letters so that I
can design Dworak-like keyboard for Tamil? If not, where can
I find the "standard" keyboard arrangement?
I have a Mac II and the fonts I need are for occasional writing in Tamil.
I would like to be able to mix English letters, even though I try to
minimize that sort of thing.
I have read about TeX fonts in Tamil in comp.fonts. Unfortunately, TeX is
a bit too expensive for the Mac.
I would appreciate any help, via e-mail (since I tend to miss news due to
the volume and some network problems). I will summarize if there is interest.
I apologize if this subject has been discussed earlier.
Thank you!
govind
--
T. Govindaraj
(We are now Center for Human-Machine Systems Research)
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