# Shobhika 
## A Devanāgarī font for scholars

Shobhika is a free, open source, Unicode compliant, OpenType font with support for Devanāgarī, Latin, and Cyrillic scripts. It is available in two weights—regular and bold. The font is designed with over 1600 Devanāgarī glyphs, including support for over 1100 conjunct characters, as well as vedic accents. The Latin component of the font not only supports a wide range of characters required for Roman transliteration of Sanskrit, but also provides a subset of regularly used mathematical symbols for scholars working with scientific and technical documents. The project has been launched under the auspices of the Science and Heritage Initiative (SandHI) at [IIT Bombay](www.iitb.ac.in), and builds upon the following two fonts for its Devanāgarī and Latin components respectively: (i) [Yashomudra](https://github.com/RajyaMarathiVikasSanstha/Yashomudra) by [Rājya Marāṭhī Vikās Saṃsthā](https://rmvs.maharashtra.gov.in), and (ii) [PT Serif](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/PT+Serif) by [ParaType](http://www.paratype.com). We would like to thank both these organisations for releasing their fonts under the SIL Open Font Licence, which has enabled us to create Shobhika. 

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## Objectives

Shobhika has been developed with the following objectives. The font should:

1. Render most Devanāgarī conjunct characters accurately
2. Position vedic accents correctly
3. Ensure compatibility across operating systems and applications 
4. Be available in regular and bold weights
5. Provide a good quality companion Latin font with support for Devanāgarī transliteration 

## Highlights of the font

The following are the main features of the Shobhika font:

* **Outstanding support for Devanāgarī conjuncts:** Building upon the Yashomudra font, Shobhika ships with support for over 1100 Devanāgarī conjunct characters found in Sanskrit texts, and also includes support for some common conjuncts found in Marathi, Urdu, and English. The ि and ी *mātrās* have been designed in multiple widths to ensure that they sit properly on conjunct characters of various widths. Marks like the *repha*, *bindu*, and *chandrabindu* have been designed to render properly together with various *mātrās*.

* **Support for vedic accents:** Shobhika supports  and positions accurately a large number of vedic accents and nasalisation marks required for the proper typesetting of *ṛgveda* and *yajurveda*.

* **Availability in two weights:** Shobhika is available in regular and **bold** weights.

* **Good quality companion Latin font:** Building upon the PT Serif font, Shobhika ships with additional glyphs required for English transliteration of Devanāgarī, and also inherits the base font's support for the Cyrillic script. Additional mathematical symbols have been added to cater to a wider range of scholarly requirements. 

## License

Shobhika is licensed under the [SIL Open Font License v1.1](http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)

To view the copyright and specific terms and conditions please refer to [OFL.txt](OFL.txt)

## Downloading the font

The latest release of the font can be found on the [releases page](https://github.com/Sandhi-IITBombay/Shobhika/releases).

## Installing the font

Shobhika is compatible across different operating systems and has been tested on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu Linux. To install on any of these, double click the downloaded file and follow instructions.

## Typing special characters
The unicode implementation of Devanāgarī characters is found in three blocks: [*Devanagari*](https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0900.pdf), [*Devanagari Extended*](https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA8E0.pdf), and [*Vedic Extensions*](https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1CD0.pdf). To type special characters which may not be found on your keyboard, do the following:

1. Identify the hexadecimal code of the character you require from the above links.
2. To enter this character in
	* **Windows**: Follow the procedure given [here](https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/315684/how-to-use-special-characters-in-windows-documents). A simpler procedure for use in MS Word is given [here](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/insert-ascii-or-unicode-latin-based-symbols-and-characters-d13f58d3-7bcb-44a7-a4d5-972ee12e50e0).
	* **MacOS**: Activate the Unicode Hex Input keyboard, hold down the option key, and type the hexadecimal code.
	* **Ubuntu**: Follow the procedure describe [here](https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/tips-specialchars.html.en).

## Getting Involved

Would you like to contribute to the development of this font? Here is how **you** can help:

Report bugs and issues that you encounter, or enhancements that you would like in the github issues page.
 
## People & Organizations involved

The font was developed at IIT Bombay under the guidance and supervision of [Prof K. Ramasubramanian](http://www.iitb.ac.in/en/employee/prof-k-ramasubramanian) and [Prof. Girish Dalvi](http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~girish), belonging to the Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit (CISTS), and the [Industrial Design Centre (IDC)](http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in) respectively. The project was conceptualised and led by Aditya Kolachana at the CISTS. Design of the extensive set of Devanāgarī conjunct characters (based upon the characters of the original Yashomudra font), as well as additional Latin and mathematical characters (based upon the characters of PT Serif), was carried out by [Yashodeep Gholap](http://www.yashodeepgholap.com). The code to run the font was written by Vishvendra Singh Poonia and Abhishek Sharma, with help from Rohit Saluja. Faculty and friends from IIT Bombay and outside also contributed with advice and helped in testing the font. Rājya Marāṭhī Vikās Samsthā graciously re-released the Yashomudra font under the SIL Open Font License to enable the project to proceed and greatly encouraged us. ParaType designed the original PT Serif font.

