BHUBANESWAR : The Odia Virtual Academyunder the state Culture department has launched its own regional language typing tool - Odia Lipi - which promises to help users compose and edit Odia language text seamlessly. A first-of-its-kind Unicode typing tool, it is aimed at making Odia tech-friendly and typing error-free.
Officials of the academy said many people continue to use the 8-bit fonts which are not supported by many digital platforms and operating systems. “What happens is if you download a letter in Odia and the 8-bit font in which it has been typed is not present in your system, the font will not be compatible.
On the contrary, Odia Lipi uses Unicode fonts which will show up the same characters in every typeface. Since Unicode is supported by Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android, it makes information exchange in Odia language very easy,” said an official.
Despite Odia being the sixth regional language to get a classical language tag in 2014, the existing Odia typing software solutions lack Unicode support, making them difficult to learn and limiting their usability. These tools do not fully support the Odia alphabet, leading to incorrect characters and formatting errors.
Currently, there are Akruti and Shreelipi typing tools. In Microsoft’s Indic language input tool, which is currently used to translate Odia to English, there is only one font called ‘Kalinga’.
In Odia Lipi, the developers have created 10 Unicode fonts and a character map that includes all Odia characters available in Barnabodha besides, numerals, ‘matras’, ‘phalas’ and conjuncts. The typing tool has four different keyboards - phonetic, typewriter, in script and easy - for the convenience of the users. A predictive list of words also appears while typing words using the tool.
“The phonetic and easy keyboards have aligned the key layout with English phonetics. This user-friendly design enables users to type Odia accurately with minimal effort,” the official added. The Odia Lipi keyboard and fonts can be downloaded free of cost from the Odia Virtual Academy website. It has also developed a similar keyboard and fonts for Santali language, which is also free for download.