NOTE: This web-page is updated on October 15, 2013 and all Unicode fonts are updated.

This web page provides information and downloading links about Unicode Gurmukhi fonts, related Language Keyboards (software that controls typing of Unicode font characters) and related files made by Kulbir Thind, MD.

What is Unicode: The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization founded to develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard, which specifies the representation of text in modern software products and standards. Unicode is the accepted international standard that includes support for all major scripts of the World and is adopted by all current major computer operating systems. This is a 16 bit standard that allows use of more than 65000 characters in one font. It has support for major Indic (Indian) scripts that include Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit), Bengali (Bengali, Assamese), Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Microsoft Windows XP/ Vista has full support for Indic scripts, including Gurmukhi. All future development regarding scripts will be based on Unicode.

Advantages of Unicode relating to Gurmukhi script: The purpose of this write-up is not to give any detailed information on this topic, but some points are worth mentioning. Migration to Unicode may not be painless as one has to adapt to new ways (but it is not a big deal) and for editing purposes, one has to have a software that has support for Unicode. For example, to edit Unicode text on Windows XP or later computers, MS Word 2003 or later becomes a necessity. However, there are many advantages in using Unicode text. Documents and web-pages made with Unicode text, when viewed with an appropriate web-browser on a computer with support for Unicode, will always be viewed in the right script even if the font in which web-pages are made is not installed into the system (just as English text is always English, even if the font in which it is made is missing). One can name files and folders in Gurmukhi, search web pages in Gurmukhi, sort text with ease, exchange Gurmukhi data without having to worry about fonts and avoid the hassles of upper-case lower-case and spacing problems that happen when many available non-Unicode Gurmukhi fonts are used. The implementation of Indic scripts by Unicode has been done as per recommendations by the Indian government and it is done in such a way that transliteration (phonetic) between Indic scripts will be easier (compared to if non-standard fonts are used) as code points for corresponding characters are well defined . You may read more on this topic.

Before you attempt to install and use Unicode Gurmukhi fonts and Language Keyboards, for which downloading links are at the bottom of this page, you must understand the following:

1. Unicode is the accepted international standard for rendering fonts on computers with different operating systems. Computers with different operating systems have adopted this as the ultimate standard for the future. It is 16 bit standard and is a major step forward compared to other standards for use of fonts on the computers.
2. Regarding the PCs (personal computers) with MS Windows operating systems, Gurmukhi Unicode fonts can only be used on those with Windows XP or later operating system. And only the programs designed to make use of Unicode standard can make use of these fonts. Many older versions of MS (Microsoft) Office cannot make use of Unicode fonts. Although MS Office 2000, XP, 2002 may display and print documents containing Gurmukhi-Unicode fonts, only MS Office 2003 or later has a full support for Unicode standard. Thus anyone who wants to edit documents with Unicode fonts on a PC with Windows XP or later must also have MS Office 2003 or later. OpenOffice that is free and can be downloaded from http://www.OpenOffice.org , does not have the scope and breadth of feature as MS Word and seems not to handle large documents well, but is Unicode compliant.
3. Although all PCs with Windows XP operating system (with installed language components) have the support for Unicode standard; generally, such PCs do not come ready with Punjabi language support installed and this must be done by the user. MS Windows Vista or later computers come with complex scripts activated, but do require installation of specific Language Keyboard (software that controls typing of Unicode characters). One simple way to accomplish activation of complex scripts of Windows-XP, is to install one of the Gurmukhi/Punjabi keyboards provided on this web-page (near the bottom of this page). Otherwise, this is achieved through the “Control Panel”, by double clicking on the “Regional and Language Options” icon and then by making the appropriate selections. Please follow instructions provided through a link at the end of this page.
4. Once the Punjabi language (complex script) facility and an appropriate Punjabi Language Keyboard software (that controls typing of Unicode characters) is installed into your Windows XP or later computer; one has to switch/toggle to the Punjabi keyboard input to be able to type Gurmukhi characters. The switching between the Gurmukhi and English typing input can also be achieved by pressing the Alt+Shift keys on the keyboard or by selecting the input language through the task bar. The default Gurmukhi font that comes with Windows based computers is ‘Raavi’. An alternate font in these computers for typing Gurmukhi is Arial Unicode MS (Note: this font is a part of some software by Microsoft and may not be present on all systems). Tahoma is another font from Microsoft that has Gurmukhi characters. However, one can install other Gurmukhi Unicode fonts (such as made available here), which may then be used instead.
5. There are some peculiarities of typing Gurmukhi Unicode fonts, which must be understood. For example Sihaaree is always typed afterwards and you cannot type Eerhee followed by Sihaaree OR Bihaaree, instead you must type a compound "SihaareeErhee" (ਇ) OR "EerheeBihaaree" (ਈ). This also applies to "UrhaaAunkarh" (ਉ), UrhaaDulainkarh" (ਊ), "EerheeLaavaa" (ਏ), "AirhaaDulaavaan" (ਐ), "UrhaaHorha" (ਓ) and "AirhaaKanaurhaa" (ਔ). If you try to type the wrong way you will not get the desired output, but instead, at each wrong step you will get a letter followed by a dotted circle symbol followed by LagaaMatraa. (NOTE: Regarding these special situations, it is possible to achieve natural writing method thorough modifications of the keyboard/text input method and that has been achieved in the keyboards available for downloading through the links given at the bottom of this page).
6. The default keyboard input method (from Microsoft) is not very intuitive (at least not for me). The keyboards provided at the bottom of this page are more suitable to users already familiar with certain NON-Unicode fonts made by me. However, expert users can modify keyboards to one’s liking by using a freeware from Microsoft that can be downloaded from: http://microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx With this program one can design a Keyboard (input method) to one's liking that can then be installed onto any computer with Windows XP or later operating system.
7. The current version of the Gurmukhi Unicode standard does not have support for some special characters that are used in Gurbani/ old Gurmukhi. My Unicode fonts do provide support for most of such characters. However, it is important to understand what it means. Reading this, next two paragraphs should make that clear.
   
   As any one can imagine, it is not easy to make all the alphabet characters of the world with so many different requirements work smoothly in one computer system, and that is what the "Uniscribe" font engine of Windows XP and later versions do. Many fonts of the world including Indic fonts (of the languages of India) have complex requirements for typing Unicode mapped characters and related subrange characters. Uniscribe does all that. Thus as can be expected, Uniscibe engine is very particular about "Function". Regarding the Punjabi language, Uniscribe supports all the Gurmukhi characters mapped to Unicode standard and many others in the subrange (that are used in Gurmukhi but do not have allocated locations in Unicode range). However, so far, a number of special characters that are used in Gurbani/ old Gurmukhi are not supported. There is an added problem as some of the methods used in Gurbani for combining LagaMatra disobey the common rules of modern Punjabi that are incorporated into Uniscribe. For example in Gurbani we find Bihari after a Tippi or Bindi. These are the obvious violations of rules of modern Punjabi.
   
   To achieve the desired results in the fonts that provide support for Gurbani, I have used Uniscribes built-in support for typing Paireen characters (subjoined forms) with Virama+Consonant method of typing. Aditional support for characters that Uniscibe can not support in the Gurmukhi range is provided through the use of Private Use Area of Unicode.
8. How to type special characters in provided in my Unicode fonts: [NOTE: The first 4 situations are universal (generally present in all Gurmukhi Unicode fonts), but the remaining are specific to most of my Unicode Gurmukhi fonts.



9. Other Paireen characters (subjoined forms) are present in many of my fonts are shown below (Note: The Sasaa characters shown below are used to illustrate placement). These are typed by typing Virama (Halant) followed by the corresponding character.



10. These specialized characters that are presnet in most of my fonts are some times required for special situations.