Telugu software tools, fonts to be launched

• Telugu language true type fonts with keyboard driver
• Multi-font keyboard engine
• Telugu language Unicode compliant keyboard drivers
• Generic fonts code and storage code converter for Telugu
• Telugu version of Bharateeya OO.o (open source)
• Telugu optical character reader working on Linux

Free Telugu software tools

Hyderabad October 28, 2005

The department of information technology, Government of India, will now provide free software tools and fonts in Telugu to the general public. The department has so far brought out this initiative in Tamil and Hindi. After Telugu, tools and fonts in Punjabi and Urdu will be launched.

Addressing the media, Ajeer Vidya, joint secretary and financial adviser, ministry of communication and IT, said, “We aim to bring this technological revolution in all the 22 constitutionally recognised languages. While the Telugu software tools and fonts will be launched on Friday, those in Punjabi and Urdu will be released in November.”

The ministry has committed to cover all the 22 languages by April 2006.

On Friday, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy will launch the CD and the website for the Telugu software tools and fonts in the presence of Dayanidhi Maran, Union minister for communication and information technology. The software can be freely downloaded from the website.

The department of information technology, commenced its language computing initiative through the setting up of a committee in November 2004. One of its early decisions was to aggregate tools and fonts from public and private players and release them for free among the public.

C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), an autonomous scientific society under the administrative control of department of information technology, is a partner in this language computing initiative.

Courtesy: Business Standard

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YSR to launch tools, fonts in Telugu today

Users can download the product from the designated website

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IT Ministry to provide tools in local languages free of cost

Tools and fonts in Hindi and Tamil already in use

Move to provide software tools, fonts in all Indian languages

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HYDERABAD: In a realistic effort to bridge the digital divide, the Union Ministry of Information Technology and Communications in association with its IT arm, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, has embarked upon an ambitious plan of providing software tools and fonts in all Indian languages.

Network

It has begun building up the knowledge network in local languages using, what it calls, the technology of the future. And, what is more, the new versions of the language tools and fonts are being offered absolutely free of cost. All that the users have to do is to subscribe for their requirement to the Union Ministry for a CD-format or download the product from the designated website.

The Ministry has already launched the products in Hindi and Tamil languages. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy will formally release the products and tools designed for the Telugu language computing in the presence of Union IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran here on Friday.

The products include: Telugu language true type fonts with keyboard driver, multi-font keyboard engine, Telugu language Unicode compliant keyboard drivers, generic fonts code and storage code converter for Telugu, Telugu version of Bharateeya OO.o (open source) and Telugu optical character reader working on Linux.

Target set

The Union Ministry, which is launching similar products in Punjabi and Urdu at Chandigarh on November 9, has set a target of completing the tools and fonts in all the 22 Indian languages in the next on year, according to S. Ramakrishnan Director-General of the Department of Information Technology.

"A majority of the content offered on the Internet is in English while the English users of Internet constitute only five per cent of the population". Local language promotion tools would enable accessibility of the latest technologies to the local language users, he added.

Courtesy: The Hindu