English-Home - Fonts
Indispensable types of letters you need to download and install
Download and install the fonts
Important information
But before doing that, you should read the following FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) because it will prove very useful for you:
- How many fonts do I have to download and install?: Two. Their names are: "Andika" and "Sanskrit 2003".
- What kind of characters do they show?: Andika is used for showing transliterated Sanskrit, i.e. Sanskrit in Roman characters instead of the original signs. And the transliteration via Andika is in IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration). Sanskrit 2003 shows original Sanskrit, i.e. signs. As the text, whether in the transliteration or in the original Sanskrit, is fully Unicode, you will always see characters (I explain this later on in the present document). Anyway, I "strongly" recommend you download and install the two fonts to behold Sanskrit in "its full glory".
- Is the Andika font being used on all pages at present?: Yes. In fact, it is the font that shows all the text (including Sanskrit transliteration) which is not Sanskrit signs.
- What is a unicode font?: It is a font designed according to the Unicode standard. Visit Unicode.org for more information about unicode and non-unicode fonts, please.
- Are Andika and Sanskrit 2003 Unicode fonts?: Yes indeed!
-
What happens if I do not install any of the two abovementioned fonts?: It is not reasonable at all, but if you wish to do so because of a kind of font-phobia or who knows, it is up to you, hehe (just kidding!). Anyway, new visitors might experience this till they finally download and install the fonts. Well, as I am using UTF-8 as the character set (do not ask what UTF-8 is, please, or this FAQ will be so lengthy as the Bible, haha), if Gentium is not installed, you will see text transliterated in IAST for sure, but it will look somewhat little and difficult to read regarding the rest of the text.
Finally, if you do not install the Sanskrit 2003 font, the operating system you own will use the default one (if there is any) to show the signs in Devanāgarī script somehow. Windows uses the Mangal font to do so. Of course, the text will look "poor" as Mangal is poor in comparison with the Sanskrit 2003 font, but you will see Sanskrit signs though. Wrapping it up: you will see transliteration/signs even though you do not install the fonts, but in a poor way for the most part. Clear enough, I think. - Anything else?: Yes, when you go to the "Font download/installation page", firstly download the two fonts and afterward read carefully the detailed instructions according to your operating system, please. I have put plenty of helpful information there so that you have no problems at all. In any case, if you need personal help, just contact me via e-mail.
Now, go download and install the fonts, please
| Continue to read Download and installation |



