Nepali Font Standards

Nepali Font Standards

Introduction

This document describes a proposed standard for the encoding of all the languages of Nepal within the computer. This standard has arisen out of a need felt by a number of Nepali computing professionals and users. Similar initiatives have been taken in the past, but these came to nothing – the time was not yet right for them, but now it is.

To ensure that the right decisions have been made for Nepal, a number of experts from within Nepal have been drawn upon, serving within committees as follows:

Standardisation committee, to make sure that the standard fits the policies and practices of Nepal: representatives from Computer Association of Nepal, Kathmandu University, Ministry of information, Ministry of Science and Technology, National Computer Centre, Nepal Bureau standards, Nepal Press Institute, Nepal Telecommunications Corporation, Press Council, ROAST, Royal Nepal Academy, Tribhuvan University.

Language committee, to make sure that the proposal was correct for the languages of Nepal: BairagaKainla, Kamal Mani Dixit, Krishna Chandra Singh Pradhan, Madav Pokhrel, Yogendra Yadava.

Technical committee, to make sure that the proposal was technically feasible: Muni Shakya

The day to day development of the standard has been done by a working committee coordinated by Allen Tuladhar with secretary Gaurab Raj Upadhaya and members Bhanu Pathak, Jeff Rollins, KanakMani Dixit, Patrick Hall, Peter Malling, and Sunil Shrestha.

This white paper has been written so that implementers and computer users can prepare for the introduction of this standard, developing new fonts and software in conformance to it. At the same time, this white paper is being sent to key organizations external to Nepal, notably key computer manufacturers and standards bodies.

Letters of the alphabet have to be typed into the computer from the Nepali keyboard, must show on the screen with the correct shapes, must be saved on a disk in a file for future use, and must be printed on paper with printers in the correct shapefor other people to recognize and read.

Download Nepali Font Standards White Paper