Mitesh M Mistry: FMP Closing the Gap

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Here is a guide to what my text might feature and how it could flow. I want to keep the written content quite brief because do describe in words such a complex subject area would require a lot of written text, and because this is aimed at generally visually interested and aware people, there will be stonger emphasis on image. 

intro

Gujarati script is native to the Indian state Gujarat. It originated from the ancient Brahmi script, along with its counterparts (Punjabi, Hindi, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Kannade, Malayalam and Tamil. Which is phonetic in nature.
There are around 46.1 million gujarati speakers world wide. Making it the 26^th most spoken langugae in the world. Gujarati comes in number of different dialects and subdivision. Standard Gujarati, aurashtra Standard Nagari Bombay Gujarati Patnuli. Gamadia, Gramya, Surti, Anavla, Bhathla, Meshani, Machi, Eastern Broach Gujarati, Charotari, Patidari Vadodari, Amdavadi, pathani, Patani. Kathiyawadi, Jhalawadi, Sorathi, Holadi, Gohilwadi, Bhavnagari, Mer Kharva, Khakari, Tarimukhi, Ghisadi.

Gujarati alphabets utilize 94 symbols altogether, Some of these characters are not as often used as others, and can only be found in some specific styles of writing such as manuscripts of pre-modern period. Thousands of such manuscripts which would need to be digitized in future. Some of the Gujarati characters that are in daily use are not found in the Unicode Chart for Gujarati. Some of the Gujarati characters that are in daily use are not found in the Unicode Chart for Gujarati. Some of these characters can be constructed by using other independent elements of the script. It is important to remember that the set of legitimate characters in Gujarati, exceed the number of characters available in the Unicode Chart on this date. Gujarati character set provides 1 tone mark. The ‘avagraha’ is used to indicate stress on the characters that precede follow it. Gujarati character set provides 34 (+2 compoundksha, gna) consonants. There are 34 consonants (2 others are compound characters) which represent 34 consonant sounds. Further the sound of any consonant is dependent on whether it comes at the start or the end of a syllable. In addition to the 34 consonants, there are ­2 special symbols representing compound characters comprised of the combination of 2 consonants. These two are not treated as consonants lexically, although they always function like consonants. Gujarati character set provides 14 vowels. Vowels are represented by a single symbol. Some vowels appear as the combination of one vowel and a dependent vowel sign. But that should not be mistaken as a complex / non-independent vowel Gujarati character set provides 10 numerals. Written Gujarati has no equivalent to capital letters as practised in English writing. The Shift / Caps Lock should be used to show / type the characters not available in the normal (un-capitalized) keyboard.

The basic direction of writing Gujarati is from left to right and top to bottom, the same as English. However, vowels may be written before, below, above, or after their related consonants. Even when used like this, they are pronounced after the consonant.
Importance of research

In the first instance of research it is important to collate and analyse hand written script. This will enable designers to familiarising themselves to how Gujarati script is actually written rather than relying on how someone else has already perceived the script.  You can visit this website view and upload images of written Gujarati script.

Preliminary research is very important when your setting out to design a typeface for a language that you are not completely familiar with.  Typeface design is systematic by definition, and it’s possible to draw abstract shapes based only on the interaction between foreground and background therefore creating balanced letterforms that connect to form words, sentences and text. It helps to know something about a language when you design typefaces for it — for one thing, it makes the design process faster. Knowing, for example, what letter combinations are used in the language keeps you from wasting time evaluating combinations that never occur.
It can be easy to pre concieve how a typeface should look with out any substancial research, it is common to duplicate mistakes that previous type designers have made by analysing what they have already produced.
 

‘Thorough research doesn’t restrict you; on the contrary it gives you the freedom to make intelligent choices.’
peter bilak

Vist (website of research) to view a database of written script that has been gathered. This has been put into place as a research device for type designers who want to get involved with Gujarati type design.

Glyph Layout
Here you can see a colour coded example of a grid structure of how the Gujarati glyph formation is constructed.


 

The problem

One of the main reasons why relatively few people work with type in India is the high rate of piracy. There’s also a limited knowledge of typography and type design, and a lack of education.
There is no such thing as type design in India. People barely know about fonts or typefaces — not even the designers.

There are a few big software companies whose core business is to design software for Indian languages, but in order to support their software they create fonts, too. Not having enough knowledge on the subject, they end up hiring people who have no clue about type design. As a result, they create fonts that are lacking in both standards and quality. Their intentions are good of course, and to a certain extent they solve a purpose, too, but the poorly designed fonts they ship with their software packages ruin the whole idea of good typography.

It’s not like these companies can’t afford to hire good designers, or don’t have enough good clients to buy their fonts. It’s just ignorance: who cares, after all? With the lack of a proper design education, most people can’t differentiate between a well-designed font and a poorly-designed font. The local newspaper industries, publishing houses and broadcasting media are their victims, since they are completely dependent on the locally available software. 

 Another concern is font piracy. Most of these poorly-made fonts are available on the internet and people can download them for free. These fonts have therefore spread like viruses all over India and people use them indiscriminately.

 Indic script has seemingly ignored by the west. This is simply down to the fact that there is no money involved for it and partly to the fact that such complex script development does take a lot of time and effort.

(Standardisation is one of the baselines to be followed in localisation. Standardisation means to follow certain universally accepted standards, so that the developers from any part of the globe could interact through the application. Standardisation becomes applicable in almost everything specific to the language – for instance, a standard font, a standard keyboard layout for input system, a standard collation sequence order for sorting