Tuhinanshu,
This is actually quite a real problem. As you have found, Indic script shaping is currently only widely available in Windows. The shaping in the programs you’ve named is dependent on OpenType scripting as part of the font programming and Uniscribe, a text processor that that interprets the OpenType information to provide script shaping for complex scripts such as Devanagari.
I think we can expect Adobe to provide Indic support for some of its applications in the near-ish future (maybe within the next couple years?). I say this because some of their recent public statements have indicated that they are currently devising means to implement support for Indic scripts. Perhaps Thomas Phinney could fill us in more on this?
Besides these two big players: Microsoft and Adobe, I’m not sure many other software developers will readily implement Indic support. Perhaps there are some design applications that utilize Uniscribe that I am not aware of. If so, I would like to hear of these.
The other option is to use “hack” fonts or proprietary typesetting systems, the first is not recommended for keeping the integrity of the text intact and the second option would be very pricey and may in fact rely on “hack” fonts to work correctly.
We can only hope that this condition improves in the near future. In the mean time, I’m afraid we’ll just have to muddle through...

Note that very simple things can also been done on Mac OS X. Bundled with Mac OS X is an AAT-formated version of Monotype Devanagari (I believe in regular and bold weights).

Mac OS X does not support OpenType features for Devanagari. But the system and Apple applications do support AAT Devanagari. So, if you limit yourself to the Monotype Devanagari fonts that come with the OS, you can copy text from the Internet and paste it into TextEdit or Pages, or open Word files up in Pages, provided that you switch the font after you open the document. Text integrity should normally be assured. But the Mac versions of non-Apple apps like the Adobe Creative suite don’t support AAT, so you still can’t do any real design work this way either.

As far as I know, Monotype Devanagari is the only AAT-formated Devanagari font available.

Also as far as I know, most Indian graphic designers who work on the Mac or with Adobe products make use of the work-arounds that Paul mentions above. Sorry to not have a better solution on hand for you!

Most of the publication houses in India uses Non-Unicode based typefaces for their Indic requirements. And the local applications like Shree-Lipi(From Modular Infotech), Indica(From Summit Infotech) and MaayBoli are quite popular in newspapers and other publication sectors. Also there are some converters like FontSuvidha, which can convert your one type of data into various other layouts.

Quark Express offers an Indian version called QuarkXPress Mudra which supports Devanagari as well.

But typographically you cant really do much with all these applications.
Adobe, please do something!

Dear Paul D,
I’m not sure if Corel products use Uniscribe, but since I have faced the exact same problem in CorelDRAW (X3 and X4), Paint Shop Pro Photo (X2) and Painter X, I’m afraid that they probably implement something helplessly similar to Adobe’s baneful approach.

Dear Dan,
Thanks for the Mac perspective. Even though I’ve never worked on one (for a Bachelor in Computer Science, I’ve never even seen one!), I am aware of its superiority in the design scene. Too bad that there’s no solution there either, although I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do something had there actually been one.

Dear Satya,
Quark Express has given me nightmares in its time (not its fault, but my weakness of course). I was aware of the non-unicode locally implemented typefaces, but I’m afraid none of them gives me the range of glyphs provided by Sanskrit 2003 (about 3000). And, being an international standard, I expected (in my naivity) that it would be better supported by international players.

Another reason for my choosing the medium I did was because the primary work of writing was done using word processors like MS Word and Open Office Writer, which use the Indic IME beautifully. In any case, I am stuck for now.

But I am also immenseley gladdened by your responses. Never have I been a member of such an astute and educated gentry. I thank you all for your helpful and well-informing comments.

Not much to add to the above. Adobe is very aware of the need for better support for the world’s languages, but I can’t comment on anything in specific future applications, except to say broadly that we will get there at some point.

I was curious to read more about Quark’s current Indic solution. Looks like QuarkXPress Mudra 4.1 is Windows-only, based on QuarkXPress 4.1, and supports Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit and Nepali. (There are at least seven other really major languages in India, and 22 official languages.)

Regards,

T

Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, and Nepali all use the same single script (Devanagari). Does it just cover that? Not even Devanagari’s close relatives, like Bengali or Gurmukhi or Gujarati?

QuarkExpress Mudra doesnt support Unicode Devanagari. Its like using ShreeLipi or Indica within the Quark’s interface where you get access to more editing tools. It uses the same local mapping and you have very limited fonts to play with.

Tuhinanshu,

When it comes to development in Indic technologies, there are many competent solutions available, albeit not so many for unicode. This does not mean that the other solutions are not good enough, I would suggest you try the indigenously developed solutions, like Shreelipi, Indica etc. I am sure you would find them adequate for your needs.

Another trait that you should be aware of; is the fact that there is a quite lot of work done in the area of Indic type design and typesetting which has not been put online. So you would seldom find sites or information relating to it on the internet.

If you really are keen on type design and typesetting issues, and solutions. I’d suggest you contact organizations such as Modular and Summit Infotech. These are the more commercial organizations; if you are keen on academic use, development or research, the following people / organizations might be able to help you:

Mahendra Patel from NID. Now working with leaf design. (http://www.theleafdesign.com/)

There is some work being done in Indic typography in IDC at IIT Bombay (www.idc.iitb.ac.in). One of the students over there is doing his PhD in Devanagari typography (http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/students/phd.htm)

The C-DAC team (they also send a free CD of Devanagari fonts and related software, under the Ministry of Information Technology)(http://www.cdac.in/html/mlingual.asp) and (www.mit.gov.in)

Hope this helps your needs.

Thank you, dear Ashok, for your insightful inputs. The links you provided are very useful indeed, as is the awareness that most of Devanagari Typographical Research is not online.

While indigenous solutions do provide facilities that are good enough for the most complex tasks (after all, leading industries in India and abroad do make use of them), they lack compatibility with each other.

Most of you will be familiar with the frustrations that plague exporting/importing documents between products of a single company (between Adobe’s Illustrator and InDesign, for instance), let alone among products spanning a range of manufacturers (between Microsoft’s Word, Adobe’s InDesign and Corel’s Paint Shop Pro). These are apparent even to those who type in Roman scripted languages like English. But to one who depends on proprietary “hack” fonts, the nightmares are trebled.

Out of all the muck and confusion rose the shining star of hope that would set things right: Unicode. A standard, not ill-designed, that is redolent of Tolkien:
One Code to rule them all, One Code to find them;
One Code to bring them all, and in the Encoding bind them.

This promised to make life easier for a freelance, who knows not what sort of software will be encountered next. I am simply the designer, the layer-outer. I depend on people to print my creations. Some of them use Corel. Some use PageMaker (yes, that old one). Some use Quark. Even if my work is in the virtually-universal PDF, Unicode poses new problems.

My life has just begun, and hence I can afford to indulge in the luxury of free thought and principles. Once I am really dependent on designing for my bread and (if I’m lucky) butter, I will no longer be able to. Hence, I am using this chance to motivate those with power and ability to take this responsibility and achieve this goal. If they do not, than a powerless and unable man will try to do it, and that’ll just be too bad.

Unicode is the future. Please don’t fight it.

One non-Microsoft product that supports Indic Unicode (at least to the extent that it seems to render the image below correctly) is Inkscape. It certainly doesn’t replace InDesign, but you might find it useful. At the very least you can get beziers out of it, which is more than can be said for MS Paint or Word.

I hope that helps. BTW, I’m using Inkscape on Linux, but it seems to use the same text-handling library (Pango) on Windows.

Actually, you can get beziers out of Word. You just save your text as a PDF, and then open that up somewhere else.

Dear Dan,
I actually tried doing that, but to no avail. InDesign didn’t import any of the Hindi text at all, and while CorelDraw did present me with the option of either importing as text or shapes, neither worked. My text was converted into garbled roman (probably from reading the 2-byte unicode as 1-byte ascii or something like that.)

However, yours is an invaluable contribution, dear Max. I will try InkScape immediately. While not suited for DTP work (like a 500 page book (but then again, neither is CorelDraw or InDesign!)), it will probably enable me to create a vector cover for the publication. Thank you.

What I mean is, yo make a PDF from word, and then paste that into InDesign (or one of many other apps) as a graphic. At least it is a vector graphic, so you can resize it. But you can’t edit it at all.

I also think that InDesign is just fine for a 500-page book. Just not a 500-page book set in any Indic language :(