Chanakya font in unicode

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उज्ज्वल राजपूत

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Mar 28, 2016, 10:56:45 AM3/28/16
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Dear friends,
Chanakya font has been used to typeset most of the Hindi and Sanskrit books for very long time. For example, all NCERT books have Chanakya font (or a similar, Walkman Chanakya) for देवनागरी. An year ago I made a Unicode font using the same glyphs. Although it does not have all characters of Unicode Devanagari, it can be used to type almost everything that could be done using the original Chanakya font, and some more conjuncts are rendered properly.

You can use it in PDFs or in printing. I don't suggest using it for any other purpose, like Web, because I am not sure it will render properly on all systems.

Legal issues: The original Chanakya font was a copyright of Macromedia, which is perhaps now taken over by Adobe but I don't think they sell it any more. I did not take any permission form anyone and modified the font for my own needs. I am giving it here so that you can use it, too, on your own risk.

उज्ज्वलः।
Chanakya.ttf

Nityanand Misra

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Mar 28, 2016, 11:42:23 PM3/28/16
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Dear Ujjwal Rajput Ji

You may have good intentions, but please, STOP! 

This is not only a violation of copyright laws and the user agreement of Chanakya fonts but also disrespectful towards the designers of Summit Infotech who have designed, maintained, and improved this beautiful font over years. Designing one single conjunct glyph requires the patience of a god, what to speak of hundreds of glyphs used in a Devanagari font.

For those who want to use this font in Unicode, Summit Infotech offers a product called Indica Unicode. It is reasonably priced at Rs. 5000 and comes with 40 odd Unicode fonts which can be used on a single machine. The forty fonts inluce ChanakyaPro and ChanakyaUni which are the Unicode versions of the legacy Chanakya font. The fonts come in four styles (normal, boldface, italic, bold italic) and work with most application software programs like Word, Excel, Pagemaker, Corel, InDesign. An exception is LaTeX, which requires open fonts (in TTF format, see here), while Indica Unicode comes with encrypted fonts. 

For Rs. 5000 you not only get 40 Unicode fonts in four styles (effectively 160 fonts), but if you detect any problem with a glyph, their design team promptly fixes it and sends you the updated encrypted font. This is from my personal experience.


http://summitindia.com/

उज्ज्वल राजपूत

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Mar 29, 2016, 8:56:39 AM3/29/16
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Thank you sir, that was quite an eye-opener.

उज्ज्वलः।

Nityanand Misra

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Apr 2, 2016, 12:00:36 AM4/2/16
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On Tuesday, 29 March 2016 09:12:23 UTC+5:30, Nityanand Misra wrote:

For those who want to use this font in Unicode, Summit Infotech offers a product called Indica Unicode. It is reasonably priced at Rs. 5000 and comes with 40 odd Unicode fonts which can be used on a single machine. The forty fonts inluce ChanakyaPro and ChanakyaUni which are the Unicode versions of the legacy Chanakya font. The fonts come in four styles (normal, boldface, italic, bold italic) and work with most application software programs like Word, Excel, Pagemaker, Corel, InDesign. An exception is LaTeX, which requires open fonts (in TTF format, see here), while Indica Unicode comes with encrypted fonts. 


Here are sample pages of a Hindi book typeset by me using two Unicode fonts: ChanakyaPro (and Charis SIL at some places). Three styles (normal, bold, and bold italic) are used on the front cover, and all four styles (normal, bold, italic, and bold italic) are used in the book. While ChanakyaPro does not have as many conjunct glyphs as Sanskrit 2003 or Siddhanta, the four styles make it a clear winner for print publications over the other two.

Book details:
Title: श्रीहनुमान्‌-चालीसा—महावीरी व्याख्या (Śrīhanumān-Cālīsā—Mahāvīrī Vyākhyā)
Language: Hindi
Edition: Third
Author: Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya Svāmī Rāmabhadrācārya
Editors: Dr. Ramadhar Sharma, Nityanand Misra
Publisher: Niraamaya Publishing, Mumbai
Type: Paperback 
Size: metric demy 8vo (216mm x 138mm)
ISBN: 978-81-931144-1-4
Pages: 102 (x + 92) + 1 plate
Publication date: January 14 2016
 
2016_SR_HCMV_sample.pdf

SriKanth!

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Apr 5, 2016, 1:24:24 PM4/5/16
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For Webpages, I use "Sanskrit 2003" font. It is available free in internet. 

http://salrc.uchicago.edu/resources/fonts/available/sanskrit/sanskrit2003.shtml

On Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 9:30:36 AM UTC+5:30, Nityanand Misra wrote:


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