Help:Multilingual support (Indic)

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This page contains Indic text.
Without rendering support,
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Several pages on Wikipedia use Indic scripts to illustrate the native representation of names, places, quotes and literature. Unicode is the encoding used on Wikipedia and it contains support for a number of Indic scripts. However, before Indic scripts can be viewed or edited, support for complex text rendering must be enabled on your operating system. Some older operating systems do not support complex text rendering and you should not use such systems to edit Indic scripts.

This page lists the methods for enabling complex text rendering based on the operating environment or browser you are using. Many of the methods highlighted can be used for non-Indic complex scripts such as Arabic.

Contents

[edit] Check for existing support

The following table compares how a correctly enabled computer would render the following scripts with how your computer renders them:

Script Correct rendering Your computer
Bengali Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Bengali.png ক + ি → কি
Devanagari Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Devanagari.png क + ि → कि
Gujarati Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Gujarati.png ક + િ → કિ
Gurmukhi Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Gurmukhi.png ਕ + ਿ → ਕਿ
Kannada Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Kannada.png ಕ + ಿ → ಕಿ
Malayalam Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Malayalam.png ക + െ → കെ
Oriya Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Oriya.png କ + େ → କେ
Tibetan Image:Examples_of_complex_text_rendering_Tibetan.png ར + ྐ + ྱ → རྐྱ
Tamil Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Tamil.png க + ே → கே
Telugu Image:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Telugu.png య + ీ → యీ

If the rendering on your computer matches the rendering in the images for the scripts, then you have already enabled complex text support! You should be able to view text correctly in that script. However this does not mean you will be able to edit text in that script. To edit such text you need to have the appropriate text entry software on your operating system.

[edit] Windows 3.1x, 95, 98, ME and NT

These operating systems contain no support for Indic scripts. Downloading Internet Explorer 6.0 should enable you to view Indic scripts on these operating systems but you will not be able to edit any Indic text. If after downloading Internet Explorer, you still cannot view Indic scripts please install an appropriate font.

Mozilla Firefox does not support Indic scripts on these operating systems unless a modified version of the program is used, such as the one found here.

[edit] Windows 2000

Supports: Devanagari, Tamil

Complex text support needs to be manually enabled.

This is where we setup for Indic options for Windows 2000
Enlarge
This is where we setup for Indic options for Windows 2000

[edit] Viewing Indic text

  • Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Options > General [Tab].
  • In the "Language settings for this system" frame, check the box next to "Indic".
  • Copy the appropriate files from the Windows 2000 CD when prompted.
  • If prompted, reboot your computer once the files have been installed.

[edit] Inputting Indic text

You must follow the steps above before you perform the remaining steps.

  • Select "Input Locale" [Tab].
  • Click the "Add" button in the "Installed input locales" frame.
  • Select the desired language in the "Input Locale" drop-down box on the "Add Input Locale" dialogue box.
  • Now select the appropriate keyboard you wish to use.
  • For the people who are not able to use the above Inscript keyboard, They can use the phonetic keyboard from baraha. It supports both ANSI & Unicode and both Phonetic and Inscript keyboards.
  • For people who cannot download the above software, or for people on the move, dboard is a Indian language sandbox which provides an online virtual (visual) keyboard, you can use the following application, copy the text on the clipboard and then copy it back to the Wikipedia editing box.

[edit] Windows XP and Server 2003

This is where we install Complex Scripts in Windows XP & 2003
Enlarge
This is where we install Complex Scripts in Windows XP & 2003

Supports: Bengali (XP SP2), Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam (XP SP2), Tamil, Telugu

Complex text support needs to be manually enabled.

[edit] Viewing Indic text

  • Go to Start > Control Panel.
  • If you are in "Category View" select the icon that says "Date, Time, Language and Regional Options" and then select "Regional and Language Options".
  • If you are in Classic View select the icon that says "Regional and Language Options".
  • Select the "Languages" tab and make sure you select the option saying "Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages (including Thai)". A confirmation message should now appear - press "OK" on this confirmation message.
  • Allow the OS to install necessary files from the Windows XP CD and then reboot if prompted.

[edit] Inputting Indic text

You must follow the steps above before you perform the remaining steps.

  • In the "Regional and Language Options", click the "Languages" tab.
  • Click on the "Details" tab.
  • Click the "Add" button to add a keyboard for your particular language.
  • In the drop-down box, select your required Indian language.
  • Make sure the check box labelled "Keyboard layout/IME" is selected and ensure you select an appropriate keyboard.
  • Now select "OK" to save changes.

You can use the combination ALT + SHIFT to switch between different keyboard layouts (e.g. from a UK Keyboard to Gurmukhi and vice-versa). If you want a language bar, you can select it by pressing the "Language Bar..." button on the "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog and then selecting "Show the language bar on my desktop". The language bar enables you to visually select the keyboard layout you are using.

  • For the people who are not able to use the above Inscript keyboard, they can use the phonetic keyboard from baraha. It supports both ANSI & Unicode and both Phonetic and Inscript keyboards.
  • Indic IME 1 (v5.0) is availible from Microsoft Bhasha India. This supports Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati and Hindi Scripts. Indic IME 1 gives the user a choice between a number of keyboards including Phonetic and Inscript.
  • For people who cannot download the above software, or for people on the move, dboard is a Indian language sandbox which provides an online virtual (visual) keyboard, you can use the following application, copy the text on the clipboard and then copy it back to the Wikipedia editing box.

[edit] Windows Vista

Supports: Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan

Complex text support is automatically enabled.

[edit] Viewing Indic text

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Indic text.

[edit] Inputting Indic text

[edit] Mac OS X 10.4

Supports: Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Tamil

[edit] Viewing Indic text

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Indic text. Safari, however, seems to render text better and more reliably than Firefox. Opera also provides poor support, although it isn't perfect.

[edit] Inputting Indic text

Specific keyboard layouts can be enabled in System Preferences, in the International pane. Switching among enabled keyboard layouts is done through the input menu in the upper right corner of the screen. The input menu appears as an icon indicating the current input method or keyboard layout — often a flag identified with the country, language, or script. Specific instructions are available from the "Help" menu (search for "Writing text in other languages").

Mac OS 10.4 system software comes two installable Keyboard input options: Murasu Anjal and Tamilnet 99. One needs to do the following steps to activate them:

i) Open "international" located within System Preferences and select "language". Select the "edit list", select "Tamil" from the list of languages shown and click OK.

ii) Select "input menu" to see a list of keyboard options available. Select "Anjal" and "Tamilnet99" keyboards under Murasu Anjal Tamil and Click OK.

iii) Restart the Mac to see Anjal and Tamilnet99 keyboard icons appear in the list of keyboards to select under the country flag in the top menu bar.

SIL distributes a freeware Ukelele that allows anyone to design their own input keyboard for Mac OS X.

[edit] GNOME

Supports: Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan

[edit] Viewing Indic text

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Indic text in GNOME 2.8 or later. Older versions may have support for some, but not all Indic scripts. Ensure you have appropriate Unicode fonts for each script you wish to view or edit.

When using Mozilla or Firefox, you must enable Pango rendering by opening xterm and typing MOZ_ENABLE_PANGO=1 mozilla or MOZ_ENABLE_PANGO=1 firefox. After this, all future sessions of Mozilla or Firefox will have Indic language support. This will work only on Firefox compiled with ctl support. Only the firefox binaries supplied by Fedora Core 4 and 5, Ubuntu Linux, and Kate OS are compiled with this ctl and set this option, by default.

For Ubuntu 6.06, this support has been turned off due to speed issues. To enable support, you must type MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=0 firefox. Future sessions do not remember this setting, so it must be repeated.

[edit] Inputting Indic text

  • Go to Applications > Preferences > Keyboard.
  • Select the "Layouts" tab.
  • Select the keyboard for the language or script you wish to use from the "Available Layouts" frame and then press "Add".
  • Press "Close" to discard the dialogue box.
  • Right click on the main menu on your desktop and select "Add to Panel...".
  • Select "Keyboard Indicator" and click "Add".
  • Position the keyboard indicator on your menu bar and click it to switch between keyboard layouts.

[edit] KDE

Supports: Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu.

[edit] Viewing Indic text

You do not need to do anything to enable viewing of Indic text. Ensure you have appropriate Unicode fonts for each script you wish to view or edit.

[edit] Inputting Indic text

  • In the Control Center, go to Regional & Accessibility, Keyboard Layout
  • In the tab Layout, click on Enable keyboard layouts
  • Choose the layout you want in Available layouts
  • Click on Apply
  • Now, you will have an icon for the KDE Keyboard Tool in your panel, in which you can choose the layout you want

[edit] Debian Based GNU/Linux Distributions

Supports: Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan, Punjabi.

[edit] Viewing Indic text

Simply enter as root:

apt-get install ttf-indic-fonts

and when the installation is complete restart the X server.


for Tibetan script:

apt-get install ttf-tmuni

[edit] Inputting Indic text

[edit] Unicode fonts

If you have followed the instructions for your computer system as mentioned above and you still cannot view Indic text properly, you may need to install a Unicode font:

Department of Information Technology, India has provided Unicode Indic fonts for most of the Indian languages.

David McCreedy's Gallery of Unicode Fonts is an excellent resource for all Indic scripts.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/u/l/Help%7EMultilingual_support_%28Indic%29_bc28.html"