Pali in PDF, Burmese script, etc.

Bhante,

> As this is the first time I have made a pdf file, I should appreciate
> it if
> someone would check whether the Normyn and Thai versions are readable on
> non-Macintosh systems.

I am glad to hear that you are using a Mac.  There is an extremely good
quality Burmese kit (for Mac OSX) at the following website:
http://www.xenotypetech.com/osxBurmese.html
The fellow made about three great fonts, and the _Language Kit_ includes all
the tricky bits of programming to make input completely fluid (e.g., you
type -p-e- and the computer knows to put the vowel marker on the left of the
p, unlike other systems where you have to type -e-p- for _pe_, etc., etc.).

As with all things Unicode, this language kit can produce .PDF files that
can be read on any computer without any special fonts or software (okay, any
computer made in the last 10 years...)

I had constant correspondence with the creator of this font over the past 10
months, and participated in the very thorough process testing, then making
minor adjustments and corrections to the working of the font over that time.
I cannot read modern Burmese, but I can vouch that it is pretty well perfect
for reading & writing Pali in the Burmese script.

The same guy (Kaonohi Kai) was kind enough to make an Ashokan-Brahmi font
that I could use for quotations from the inscriptions in my book (I am very
thankful, as you can imagine) --it is the first font of its kind to really
work (e.g., combine vowels properly, etc.)

http://www.xenotypetech.com/osxBrahmi.html

Needless to say, as I am currently living in Lao, and learning the Lao
language, I am also helping him test & develop his Lao language kit, and I
helped in the past with testing and error reporting for his classical
literary Sinhala (A very lengthy process!  A script with many exceptions to
the rules --http://www.xenotypetech.com/osxSinhala.html).  However, I am
glad to say that now the whole world can use these fonts --and because I
have done the testing myself, I can vouch that they are great for Pali!  The
Khmer font is not quite complete yet, if you want to reproduce Pali in
Khom...

E.M.



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Get your Dhamma Books from http://books.metta.lk/
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